Post-Spacewalk Cleanup, Physics and Biology Research Wrap Up Week

Astronaut Suni Williams is pictured during a spacewalk outside the space station where she replaced a rate gyro assembly that helps maintain the orientation of the orbital outpost on Jan. 16, 2025.

Two NASA astronauts took a half-a-day off on Friday following a spacewalk the previous day then cleaned up spacesuit gear and held a conference with specialists on the ground. Meanwhile, science continued aboard the International Space Station as the Expedition 72 crew studied space physics and biology.

Flight Engineer Nick Hague and Commander Suni Williams worked six hours in the vacuum of space on Thursday servicing astrophysics hardware and replacing orientation and navigation components. The duo relaxed a few hours on Friday before packing gear removed from the outside of the station and recharging spacesuit water tanks and lithium-ion batteries.

Williams also worked with NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit in the Quest airlock stowing a rate gyro assembly and planar reflector that she had removed and replaced the day before on the outside of the orbital outpost. The rate gyro assembly, which provides data on the space station's orientation, and the planar reflector, which provides navigational data, will both be returned to Earth for examination.

NASA Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore assisted Williams and recharged water tanks and the lithium-ion batteries that power the spacesuits during spacewalks. The day before, Wilmore photographed the spacesuit gloves following the completion of the spacewalk for inspection by engineers in Mission Control. At the end of his shift on Friday, Wilmore joined Pettit, Williams, and Hague and held a standard debriefing session with mission controllers and discussed their experiences before, during, and after Thursday's spacewalk.

Hague and Wilmore also had time for science as they swapped physics hardware inside the Destiny laboratory module. The advanced research gear supports a physics furnace that operates in Destiny's Microgravity Science Glovebox for an experiment that is exploring semiconductor crystal manufacturing in space.

Roscosmos Flight Engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner once again joined each other and explored how microgravity affects blood flow to the human circulatory system's tiniest vessels. The pair attached sensors to their forehead, fingers, and toes providing data researchers studying how blood circulates to crew member's limbs in space. Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov inventoried hardware in the Zarya and Zvezda modules then activated Earth observation gear that monitors man-made and natural disaster in a variety of wavelengths.

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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