ISS - Expedition 69 Mission patch.
March 29, 2023
Image above: The official insignia of the Expedition 69 mission aboard the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA.
The Expedition 69 mission is officially under way following the undocking of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft on Tuesday. The seven-member International Space Station crew split its day on Wednesday as the four astronauts conducted space research while the three cosmonauts had the day off.
The uncrewed Soyuz MS-22 space ship completed a six-month stay at the orbiting lab when it undocked from the Rassvet module at 5:57 a.m. EDT on Tuesday. The undocking marked the moment Expedition 69 began and Expedition 68 ended with Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev continuing his command aboard the space station. The passengerless MS-22 parachuted to a safe landing in Kazakhstan less than two hours later.
Image above: UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut and Expedition 68-69 Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi is pictured inside the seven-window cupola, the International Space Station's "window to the world." The orbiting lab was flying 260 milers above the Philippine Sea at the time of this photograph. Image Credit: NASA.
Meanwhile, science and health checks filled the day for the astronauts belonging to the Expedition 69 crew. Flight Engineers Frank Rubio of NASA and Sultan Alneyadi of UAE (United Arab Emirates) worked on the BioFabrication Facility testing its ability to print knee cartilage tissue for treating injuries in space and remote environments on Earth. The pair also participated in neck, shoulder, and leg vein scans using the Ultrasound 2 medical device.
The station’s three cosmonauts, including Prokopyev and Flight Engineers Dmitri Petelin and Andrey Fedyaev, relaxed on Wednesday taking time out for their daily exercise sessions. The trio from Roscosmos having prepared the MS-22 vehicle for its departure the day before.
Uncrewed Soyuz Spacecraft Undocks from Station and Lands in Kazakhstan
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2023/03/uncrewed-soyuz-spacecraft-undocks-from.html
Related links:
Expedition 68: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition68/index.html
Expedition 69: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition69/index.html
BioFabrication Facility: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8743
Ultrasound 2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=736
Rassvet module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/rassvet
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
Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/NASA TV/ROSCOSMOS/SciNews.
