Crew Studies Exercise, Veins, and Plants Before Quartet’s Farewell

The four SpaceX Crew-8 members are pictured aboard the space station. From top to bottom are, NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps, Mike Barratt, and Matthew Dominick, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.

Space biology topped the research schedule aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday as the Expedition 72 crew explored how weightlessness affects exercising, veins, and plants. Meanwhile, four SpaceX Crew-8 members continue targeting Sunday, Oct. 13, for their departure, weather pending.

Scientists are studying how to work out effectively in microgravity to prevent space-caused accelerated bone and muscle loss. NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit, with assistance from NASA Flight Engineer Matthew Dominick, set up high-definition video cameras and a motion capture system that monitored him while working out on the advanced resistive exercise device (ARED) in the Tranquility module. The ARED mimics the inertial forces of lifting free weights on Earth to maintain muscle health during long-term space missions. Pettit's exercise session was for the ARED Kinematics study that compares the results of both Earth and space workouts to improve space exercise programs and counter musculoskeletal deconditioning.

Commander Suni Williams took charge as the crew medical officer on Wednesday and scanned the neck, shoulder, and leg veins of NASA Flight Engineer Nick Hague using the Ultrasound 2 device examining his circulatory health. Williams also configured radio frequency hardware and serviced samples for the Gaucho Lung drug treatment study. Hague installed biology imaging hardware in the Kibo laboratory module that can detect space-caused inflammatory changes in organisms.

NASA Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps spent her day replacing components that remove carbon dioxide and ethylene from inside Kibo's Plant Habitat to support an upcoming space botany study. NASA Flight Engineers Mike Barratt and Butch Wilmore spent their day on maintenance as Barratt charged spacewalking tool batteries and Wilmore swapped out experimental hardware for an advanced life support system study.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin continued packing for his return to Earth targeted for no earlier than Sunday. He will return with fellow Crew-8 members Dominick, Barratt, and Epps aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. The Commercial Crew quartet will call down to Mission Control at 3 p.m. EDT on Thursday for farewell remarks live on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

The orbiting lab's three other cosmonaut flight engineers Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and Aleksandr Gorbunov focused on their complement of Roscosmos science and maintenance. Ovchinin replaced a fire extinguisher in the Nauka science module and jogged on a treadmill for a regularly scheduled fitness evaluation. Vagner installed a hyper spectrometer to obtain Earth imagery in a variety of wavelengths. Finally, Gorbunov set up carbon dioxide monitoring gear, tested Roscosmos laptop computers, and conducted a space physics experiment. Gorbunov also joined Hague at the end of the day and discussed with mission controllers their experience riding to space aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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