Space physics, eye checks, and workout gear maintenance filled Thursday’s schedule for the Expedition 74 crew members aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. Three cosmonauts are also cleaning up and relaxing following a spacewalk on Wednesday.

NASA flight engineer Chris Williams had a busy shift with a variety of research and medical duties on Thursday. Williams began his day replacing sample hardware inside the Destiny laboratory module’s Microgravity Science Glovebox to support semiconductor crystal research helping advance the commercial space economy and promoting Earth-based industries. Afterward, he took charge of eye exams and operated medical imaging gear to observe the retina, lens, and cornea of NASA flight engineers Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir while doctors on the ground monitored. The biomedical data helps researchers detect space-caused vision issues and provide treatments to protect eye health in space.

Hathway began his shift inside the Tranquility module and inspected the advanced resistive exercise device that mimics free weights on Earth to maintain muscle and bone health in microgravity. Meir worked in the Columbus laboratory module and removed temporary hardware installed on the new European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device (E4D) that is informing future exercise programs for long term missions farther away from Earth. Hathaway and Meir also partnered together throughout the day swapping cargo in and out of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that arrived at the orbital outpost on May 17.

ESA (European Space Agency) flight engineer Sophie Adenot’s first task of the day was swapping combustion research samples inside the Kibo laboratory module’s Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF). The ELF enables the safe observation of materials exposed to extreme temperatures in microgravity for insights into thermophysical properties unobtainable on Earth. Next, Adenot participated in the E4D maintenance job and replaced cables that power the workout device then photographed the cable work for analysis by engineers on Earth.

Two cosmonauts who participated in a six-hour and five-minute spacewalk on Wednesday slept in on Thursday following their work outside the orbiting lab. After waking up mid-morning, station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev cleaned their Orlan spacesuits, reconfigured the Poisk airlock for normal operations, and called down to Roscosmos mission controllers to recap their spacewalk activities from the previous day.

Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev, who monitored the spacewalkers and maneuvered the duo using the European robotic arm, also slept in Thursday. Following his long sleep shift, Fedyaev activated air purification units in the Zvezda and Nauka modules. Next, he returned Roscosmos space station systems and equipment back to their pre-spacewalk configurations.

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

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