The Expedition 72 crew has completed final preparations for a scheduled science and maintenance spacewalk on Thursday. Meanwhile, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) spent the day conducting research on space agriculture, performing Earth observations, and carrying out lab maintenance.
NASA Astronauts Ready for Spacewalk
NASA astronauts Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore are set to begin their spacewalk at 8 a.m. EST on Thursday, January 30. In preparation, they completed their procedure reviews and spacesuit checks. They also trained alongside NASA Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Don Pettit, practicing Canadarm2 robotic arm maneuvers on a computer. This training is essential for their first major task: removing and replacing radio communications hardware.
The second key objective of the spacewalk involves collecting microbial samples from the station’s exterior. Williams and Wilmore will swab designated areas to gather potential microbial specimens, which will later be analyzed to better understand how microorganisms survive in space.
Testing Astrobee and Space Gardening
Hague began his day in the Kibo laboratory module making space and readying the Astrobee robotic free flyers for operations testing their ability to downlink video and imagery to mission controllers in real-time. Pettit was back on space gardening duty processing samples and installing research hardware for an investigation exploring how microgravity and ultraviolet radiation affect plant growth. Results may enable future crews to grow crops on spacecraft for sustainment during long-term space missions.
Cosmonauts Capture Stunning Earth Images
The three cosmonauts working in the Roscosmos segment of the orbiting lab focused on imaging Earth landmarks and installing new electronics hardware. Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov once again set up a camera with a spectrometer attached and photographed areas along the Mediterranean Sea in a variety of wavelengths, including Libya and Greece. Flight Engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner continued installing new command and telemetry gear in the Zvezda service module that can communicate with Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, ground stations, and orbiting satellites.
