A Russian cargo craft is getting ready to roll out to its launch pad for a Sunday morning lift-off to resupply the International Space Station and the Expedition 54 crew. The astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the station are also preparing for the new space shipment and continuing a variety of life science studies.
Russia’s Progress 69 (69P) resupply ship is in its processing facility preparing to roll out to the launch pad Friday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The 69P is due to lift-off Sunday at 3:58 a.m. EST (2:58 p.m. Baikonur time) reaching the International Space Station in record time just three and half hours later.
Cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Anton Shkaplerov trained today for Sunday’s Progress’ automated rendezvous and docking set for 7:24 a.m. The duo practiced using the station’s telerobotically operated rendezvous unit in the unlikely event the Progress would need to be manually docked to the Zvezda service module.
Mice and plant studies are still under way this week to help researchers understand how organisms respond to living in space. Data collected from the space biology and botany studies may improve health treatments, benefit a wide variety of industry sectors and help NASA plan journeys farther into space.
Astronauts Scott Tingle and Norishige Kanai continued partnering together researching how a muscle maintenance drug affects muscle growth in mice living on the orbital lab. Results of the drug study may help combat muscle weakening in space and on Earth. Two-time station resident Joe Acaba processed and stowed samples for the Plant Gravity Processing experiment. The botany study is exploring how plants grow and how their roots orient themselves in outer space.