Crew Studies Medicine and Physics, Works on Spacesuits and Earth Photo Gear

Vein scans, ultra-hot physics, and Earth observations were the main research activities aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday. The Expedition 75 crew members rounded out their mid-week shift and swapped out spacesuit components and serviced life support gear.

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon joined Roscosmos cosmonauts Anna Kikina and Pyotr Dubrov in the Columbus laboratory module for regularly scheduled vein scans with the Ultrasound 3 biomedical device. Meir was responsible as crew medical officer and operated the Ultrasound 3 with real time assistance from doctors on the ground. Menon was first followed by Kikina then Dubrov as Meir scanned their veins while doctors remotely guided her to observe how weightlessness affects blood flow in crew members. Insights will help promote healthy crews on long-duration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Flight engineer Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) worked inside the Kibo laboratory module and cleaned the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF), a research facility that uses electric fields to float and heat materials in microgravity. She removed samples, cleaned sensitive components including windows and electrodes, then installed new samples inside the research furnace. ELF safely heats materials to over 2,000 degrees Celsius using lasers and measures their thermophysical properties unobtainable in Earth's gravity.

After the vein scans, Menon moved into the Quest airlock and swapped out a radio communications unit on a spacesuit. The unit will be returned to Earth for standard refurbishment with the SpaceX Crew-12 members aboard the Dragon spacecraft when they end their mission. NASA flight engineer Jack Hathaway worked throughout Wednesday inside Quest and the Unity and Tranquility modules continuing to replace filters that remove particles, gases, and odors from the station's atmosphere ensuring a safe, breathable environment for the crew.

Kikina and Dubrov joined Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev and worked together throughout Wednesday swapping, configuring, and activating a variety of Earth observation gear aboard the orbital outpost. The advanced photography hardware captures Earth landmarks and the effects of storms, wildfires, volcanos, and more in numerous wavelengths revealing phenomena invisible in the visual spectrum. Imaging sessions can take place manually when a crew member points a camera out a window or when a camera is programmed with coordinates and times to automatically photograph ground sites.

Kikina and Dubrov also inspected the custom-fitted seat-liners crews ride in when returning to Earth aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. Fedyaev worked on Roscosmos orbital plumbing components then took inventory of hardware stowed inside the Zvezda service module.

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

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