The Expedition 72 crew is preparing to depart the International Space Station on a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, which is scheduled to dock at 11:05 a.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 5. The astronauts and cosmonauts are wrapping up various space biology and lab maintenance tasks before departure.
Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Don Pettit loaded the Dragon with return cargo on Monday morning, while Pettit later worked with Flight Engineer Nick Hague to strapping down hardware inside the spacecraft. The trio will also be responsible for stowing critical research samples during the week.
The four NASA astronauts conducted regularly scheduled research objectives, studying space biology and servicing science equipment. Williams activated mixing tubes supporting student-designed experiments, processed bacteria and yeast samples, and spun her blood sample in a centrifuge. Pettit installed the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform into the Kibo laboratory module’s airlock.
Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov unloaded cargo from the Progress 90 resupply ship in the Roscosmos segment of the orbital outpost. He also set up imaging hardware to view natural and human-caused conditions on Earth using different wavelengths. Flight Engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner partnered together to service communications, computer, and electronics hardware in Zvezda.
NASA’s live coverage of the undocking and departure will begin at 10:50 a.m. EST on NASA+, and can be watched through various platforms, including social media. Follow @space_station and @ISS_Research for more information about station activities and research efforts.
Source: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2024/12/02/crew-packs-dragon-for-departure-this-week