International Space Station Expedition 70 Is Underway

The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly-around of the orbiting lab that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on November 8, 2021. Credit: NASA

Expedition 70 is well underway aboard the International Space Station (ISS) after yesterday’s departure of three long-serving station residents, including NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who returned to Houston this morning. The seven crew members who are still living and working in microgravity completed an array of maintenance activities today.

NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli’s Activities

NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli, who arrived to the station a month ago, spent her morning in the Columbus Laboratory Module performing maintenance and testing the connectivity functions of power outlets. After lunch, she switched gears, working with the Cold Atom Lab. An ongoing activity for the first-time station resident this week, Moghbeli inspected cables and ports to gear up for tomorrow’s completion of replacing components of the payload. In the evening, she started training for upcoming spacewalks, reviewing spacesuit operations and procedures.

The patch for Expedition 70, designed by ESA graphic designers Hugo Simões and Hugo Dias, is based on ‘yin yang’, the well-known philosophical symbol of balance between two complementary forces— yin and yang —that make up all aspects and phenomena of life. In this depiction, the red and orange tones in the lower half of the patch represent science and the dark blue represents space exploration in the upper half. Credit: ESA

NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara’s Experiments and Training

NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara, who arrived to the station two weeks ago, started her day with ISAFE eye exams, as part of a new suite of experiments, called CIPHER. Eye exams of this kind examine changes in an astronaut’s eyes and brain due to fluid shifts in microgravity. CIPHER is an all-encompassing, full-body approach that investigates how multiple systems of the body react to spaceflight before, during, and after a mission. O’Hara is the first of up to 30 astronauts to participate.

Following eye exams, O’Hara trained for spacewalk emergencies in the unlikely event they would occur using SAFER, the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue. Before bed, she reconfigured the Microgravity Science Glovebox.

Animation of Astrobees on the space station. Credit: NASA

Activities of Other Expedition Members

Expedition 70 Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) spent his day completing some training with Astrobee, the station’s free-flying robots that help astronauts conduct daily duties. Afterward, he repaired the docking station the cube-shaped robots use for recharging.

Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) worked in the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, most of the day. In the station’s first expandable habitat, Furukawa stowed hardware and reconfigured sensors.

The three Roscosmos Flight Engineers—Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub—had a light-duty day, completing their required two hours of exercise that helps combat the effects of bone and muscle loss in microgravity.