Science Activation and Training Top Friday’s Orbital Schedule

NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Suni Williams, Expedition 72 Flight Engineer and Commander respectively, discuss orbital lab maintenance procedures aboard the International Space Station.

A host of activities topped Friday's schedule aboard the orbital outpost as the Expedition 72 crew penned in time for experiment activation, spacesuit work, training, and more.

International Space Station Commander Suni Williams spent the first half of her day on spacesuit duty, removing the impact shields and inspecting the gear for any leaks. In the afternoon, she serviced biotechnology hardware and installed new cassettes for crystallization research.

Later on, Williams was joined by her three of her crewmates, NASA Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, to review medical emergency procedures and hardware.

Both Hague and Wilmore separately assisted NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit throughout the day to illuminate space-induced inflammation changes in organisms. Hague also set up new experiment containers for an investigation that will test how to transplant and grow micro-algae in space.

Meanwhile, Wilmore continued work that Williams began yesterday and activated additional mixing tubes that contain protein and bacteria for the NanoRacks Module-9 investigation, which is a student-led experiment that examines how microgravity affects protein synthesis.

The orbiting lab's three cosmonauts completed an array of upkeep tasks throughout the day. Gorbunov and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner conducted some orbital plumbing, while Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin worked some life support systems and electronics tasks before photographing various landmarks on Earth. At the end of the day, the trio was joined by their four NASA crewmates to review Dragon cargo emergency training materials and response.

On Earth, the four crew members of NASA's SpaceX Crew-8, who splashed down off the coast of Florida on Oct. 25, will discuss their microgravity science mission during a post-flight news conference this afternoon, Nov. 8, at 3:15 p.m. EST. Watch the quartet live on NASA+ and the agency's website.

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.

Get weekly updates from NASA Johnson Space Center at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/

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