On Friday, the 11 crew members now living on the International Space Station (ISS) had a brief day after the SpaceX Crew-5 mission arrived on Thursday. Now, the four Crew-5 members are officially Expedition 68 flight engineers and will adapt to life in orbit over the next few days as they spend time familiarizing themselves with the space station systems.
NASA astronauts Nico Mann and Josh Casada, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronauts Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos astronaut Anna `Kikina’ now have a long to-do list , they will conduct space experiments during their stay in the orbiting laboratory.
Among various other types of research, the four-person team will study the effects of microgravity on the cardiopulmonary system, 3D bioprinting of human organs and tissues for implantation, and modeling cardiac tissue to improve spaceflight leads treatments for health problems.
As the new crew members adjust to their new home in space as quickly as possible, the other seven crew members on the International Space Station continued their normal space station science and laboratory maintenance activities for half a day on Friday.
NASA flight engineers Jessica Watkins and Frank Rubio spent the afternoon working on a different pair of studies exploring how to grow crops and make products in space. Watkins examines vegetable growth from the XROOTS space agriculture study, which uses hydroponic and aeroponic nourishing techniques, and Rubio investigates the use of weightlessness to improve the production and quality of fiber optic cables.
ESA commander Samantha Christopherty worked with NASA flight engineer Shel Lindgren to collect and process their blood samples. Afterwards, Lindgren worked with Mann to transfer emergency hardware from the space station to the newly arrived crew ship Endeavour.
Astronauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petrin are in the Russian part of the space station in the afternoon doing their space research and maintenance of life support equipment.