2 Apr 2025
The International Space Station is orbiting higher today after the Progress 91 cargo craft fired its thrusters for over 17 minutes while docked to the Zvezda service module. The reboost places the orbital outpost at the correct altitude for the arrival of the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft and its three crew members next week.
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexander Zubritsky will lift off aboard the Soyuz MS-27 at 1:47 a.m. on April 8 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They will orbit Earth twice before docking to the Pirs docking compartment just over three hours later. The trio will stay in space for an eight-month research mission.
Less than two weeks after the new crew’s arrival, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit will return to Earth with Expedition 72 Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner, both Roscosmos cosmonauts. The veteran crewmates will board the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship, undock from the Rassvet module, and parachute to a landing in the steppe of Kazakhstan less than three-and-a-half hours later ending a seven-month mission.
JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi will take over command of the space station from Ovchinin the day before he leaves with Pettit and Vagner. Expedition 72 will end and Expedition 73 will officially begin the moment the Soyuz MS-26 undocks from Rassvet.
Onishi stayed focused on lab upkeep on Wednesday first installing an air quality monitor in the Zarya module, with assistance from Pettit, then organizing food packs stowed in the station’s U.S. segment. Pettit cleaned crew quarters and installed airflow sensors in the Harmony module.
Ovchinin worked throughout Wednesday gathering items for return to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-26 that he will command during the ride back to Earth. Vagner spent his day with fellow cosmonaut Kirill Peskov checking electronic systems in the Nauka science module. Peskov also conducted a hearing test then installed hardware to image Earth’s nighttime atmosphere in ultraviolet wavelengths.
NASA Flight Engineer Anne McClain spent part of her day servicing life support gear and collecting water samples from an oxygen generator in the Unity and Destiny modules. She also tested streaming and downlinking ultra-high-definition video from a camera aboard the Kibo laboratory module.
NASA Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers also spent her day on lab maintenance first inspecting and cleaning the ventilation system in the Destiny lab module. Next, she recorded the acoustic environment and measured the temperature and humidity of life support equipment in the Destiny and Harmony modules.
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Soyuz MS-27 crew members (frm left) NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy pose for a portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia.