Wednesday was a busy day aboard the International Space Station (ISS), as the crew tackled cutting-edge microgravity research focused on fire safety, the effects of exercise in weightlessness, and advanced piloting techniques. The Expedition 72 team also prepared for an upcoming spacewalk to repair and enhance scientific hardware on the station.
Daily Activities and Safety Enhancements
NASA Flight Engineers Don Pettit and Nick Hague were deeply engaged in both scientific experiments and spacesuit preparations. Pettit started his day by collecting urine samples for later analysis, storing them in the station’s science freezer. He then worked with the Combustion Integrated Rack, replacing experiment samples to study how flames behave in microgravity. This research aims to improve fire safety protocols for future space missions.
Spacewalk Planning and Astronaut Training
Hague spent the first half of his shift wearing the Bio-Monitor vest and headband that recorded his heart and breathing rate while he worked out on the advanced resistive exercise device and jogged on the COLBERT treadmill. Afterward, he joined NASA Commander Suni Williams organizing the Quest airlock and readying a pair of spacesuits for a January 16 spacewalk.
NASA managers will talk about that spacewalk and a second one planned for January 23 during a spacewalk preview briefing that will be broadcast on NASA+ beginning at 2 p.m. EST on Friday. During the first spacewalk, Hague and Williams will exit Quest to repair a “light leak” on the NICER X-ray telescope and prepare the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer for future upgrades. The second spacewalk will see two yet-to-be-announced astronauts remove radio communications gear and collect samples for analysis of potential microbes living outside the space station. Both spacewalks will begin around 7 a.m. with NASA+ coverage starting at 5:30 a.m.
International Collaborations and Future Missions
NASA Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore started his shift inside the Kibo laboratory module stowing and photographing space biology gear. Afterward, he ended his day conducting cargo operations inside the Cygnus resupply ship and inventorying medical kits inside the orbital outpost’s two Human Research Facilities.
Roscosmos Flight Engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Aleksandr Gorbunov started their day by taking turns wearing a sensor-packed cap that measured their reactions as they practiced on a computer futuristic planetary and robotic piloting techniques. Future crews may use the data gained from these tests to plan missions farther away from Earth. Ovchinin later joined Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner and checked out audio hardware in the Zvezda service module.
