ISS - Expedition 67 Mission patch.
June 9, 2022
The Expedition 67 crew spent Thursday servicing a variety of advanced space biology and human research hardware to learn how different organisms adapt to long-term microgravity.
NASA Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren kicked off Thursday morning swapping centrifuges inside the Kibo laboratory module’s Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF). The CBEF is an incubator that can house cells and plants while generating artificial gravity between 0.1 and 2.0 G during gravity contrast experiments. The life science research device is part of the Saibo Experiment Rack that houses science, power, and data transmission facilities.
Image above: Expedition 67 astronauts (clockwise from bottom) Samantha Cristoforetti, Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins, smile for a portrait from inside the Boeing Starliner vehicle on May 24, 2022. Image Credit: NASA.
NASA Flight Engineers Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins worked throughout Thursday on cargo operations inside the Cygnus space freighter ahead of its departure targeted for the end of June. Lindgren finalized the day’s cargo work in the afternoon before cleaning and inspecting hatch mechanisms in the station’s U.S. segment. Watkins also wrapped up her test session with the AstroRad radiation protection vest and completed a survey to document the specialized vest’s comfort and mobility.
Astrobee. Animation Credit: NASA
ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti logged her food and beverage intake in a database in the morning for the NutrISS study that monitors an astronaut’s body composition in weightlessness. She later trained for Astrobee operations before joining Watkins to audit systems inside the Tranquility module. At the end of the day, she participated in the U.S. hatch inspections with Lindgren.
The orbiting lab’s three cosmonauts spent Thursday morning practicing an emergency evacuation drill on a computer. Commander Oleg Artemyev joined Flight Engineers Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov and simulated an unlikely emergency scenario that would require the threesome to quickly enter the Soyuz MS-21 crew ship, undock from the station, and descend toward Earth for a landing. The trio then split up in the afternoon and worked on an array of communications and life support systems.
Related links:
Expedition 67: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition67/index.html
Kibo laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/japan-kibo-laboratory
Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=333
Saibo Experiment Rack: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=335
AstroRad: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7803
NutrISS: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7875
Astrobee: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1891
Tranquility module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/tranquility/
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.
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