New Trio Adapts to Station Life, Crewmates Prep for Earth Return

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Cassidy
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Cassidy pose in front of the state flag of Maine inside the Kibo laboratory module. Both astronauts’ home state is Maine.

Three new crewmembers are getting used to life aboard the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the Expedition 62 trio is getting ready for its return Earth on Friday.

Three NASA astronauts and three Roscosmos cosmonauts have been working together on the orbiting lab since April 9 when the Expedition 63 crew docked to the station’s Poisk module. U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy is leading Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner during their 195-day mission.

They will be familiarizing themselves with station systems and getting up to speed with science work over the next several days. Cassidy put on virtual reality goggles this morning for an experiment monitoring how he visually interprets motion, orientation and distance in microgravity. Ivanishin and Vagner were researching space biology and technology studies today, as they get used to their new orbiting home 260 miles above Earth.

Expedition 62 Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan with Commander Oleg Skripochka will complete their station mission on Friday when they return to Earth. They are packing their Soyuz MS-15 crew ship and reviewing landing procedures this week. They are also familiarizing themselves with the conditions they will experience upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere and feeling gravity for the first time in months.

Skripochka will hand over station control to Cassidy on Wednesday at 5:55 p.m. EDT during the Change of Command Ceremony live on NASA TV. The Expedition 62 crew will undock in the Soyuz vehicle on Thursday at 9:53 p.m. They will shoot through the atmosphere in the Soyuz descent module and parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan at 1:17 a.m. (11:17 a.m. Kazakh time).

5 thoughts on “New Trio Adapts to Station Life, Crewmates Prep for Earth Return”

  1. Hello! We love watching for the ISS at campfires, and it’s a BIG thrill to know that there are 2 Mainers up there.

    Any chance the 16 Counties song will be sung while they are both there? Maine school students all have to learn the song, and I’m sure Mainers everywhere would love to see that.

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