ISS - Expedition 62 Mission patch.
April 13, 2020
International Space Station (ISS). Image Credit: NASA
Three new crewmembers are getting used to life aboard the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the Expedition 62 trio is getting ready for its return Earth on Friday.
Three NASA astronauts and three Roscosmos cosmonauts have been working together on the orbiting lab since April 9 when the Expedition 63 crew docked to the station’s Poisk module. U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy is leading Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner during their 195-day mission.
Image above: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Cassidy pose in front of the state flag of Maine inside the Kibo laboratory module. Both astronauts’ home state is Maine. Image Credit: NASA.
They will be familiarizing themselves with station systems and getting up to speed with science work over the next several days. Cassidy put on virtual reality goggles this morning for an experiment monitoring how he visually interprets motion, orientation and distance in microgravity. Ivanishin and Vagner were researching space biology and technology studies today, as they get used to their new orbiting home 260 miles above Earth.
Expedition 62 Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan with Commander Oleg Skripochka will complete their station mission on Friday when they return to Earth. They are packing their Soyuz MS-15 crew ship and reviewing landing procedures this week. They are also familiarizing themselves with the conditions they will experience upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere and feeling gravity for the first time in months.
Image above: NASA Flight Engineers Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir flank Expedition 62 Commander Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos for a playful portrait in the weightless environment of the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA.
Skripochka will hand over station control to Cassidy on Wednesday at 5:55 p.m. EDT during the Change of Command Ceremony live on NASA TV. The Expedition 62 crew will undock in the Soyuz vehicle on Thursday at 9:53 p.m. They will shoot through the atmosphere in the Soyuz descent module and parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan at 1:17 a.m. (11:17 a.m. Kazakh time).
Related article:
NASA TV to Air Landing of NASA Astronauts Meir, Morgan, Crewmate Skripochka
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-tv-to-air-landing-of-nasa-astronauts-meir-morgan-crewmate-skripochka
Related links:
Expedition 62: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition62/index.html
Expedition 63: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition63/index.html
Virtual reality goggles: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7484
Space biology: https://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/biology/all.html
Technology studies: https://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/develop/all.html
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.
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