All seven members of Expedition 67 are spending a peaceful Monday at the station as four astronauts and three cosmonauts prepare for a three-day break. However, science is always being conducted aboard the International Space Station as researchers continue to investigate how to become healthy and productive in microgravity.
On Tuesday, Septate will resume full-time work and spend the rest of the week repairing space station systems and conducting sophisticated space research such as robotics and botany. NASA Flight Engineer Bob Hines, on the other hand, spent an hour and a half on Monday caring for mizuna greens and radishes growing for XROOTS space horticulture research. Roscosmos commander Oleg Artemyev retrieves a set of nanosatellites from the Progress 81 resupply ship for assembly and future deployment.
Cargo craft operations will soon keep the crew busy as it plans the departure of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter to leave the station’s Unity module next week. Cygnus will complete a four-month stay in the orbital lab when the Canadarm 2 robotic arm releases a resupply ship from Unity for a furious but safe atmospheric reentry over the Pacific Ocean.
NASA and SpaceX officials met today to discuss initial findings from additional inspection and testing of the Dragon spacecraft after measuring elevated vapor readings of mono-methyl hydrazine (MMH) in an isolated area of the Dragon propulsion system. After unloading the propellant from that area, SpaceX was able to narrow down the source of the issue to the Draco thruster valve inlet joint. Teams will now remove specific hardware to replace it before flight. NASA and SpaceX are now targeting the launch of the CRS-25 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station before July 11.
News Summary:
- Monday is a quiet day for the crew as they prepare for the upcoming loading tasks.
- Check out all the news and articles from the latest space news updates.
