This photo from the International Space Station orbiting 462 miles above cloudy Central Asia shows the jagged Moon waning just above Earth’s horizon. Credit: NASA The crew of Expedition 70 is picking up the pace as they load cargo onto a U.S. cargo ship for its upcoming departure.Seven people international space station (ISS) residents also continue to focus on a range of microgravity sciences to improve human health and commercialize low Earth orbit. The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is nearing the end of its docked stay at the forward port of the Harmony module. Over the next few days, the four astronauts will pack more than 3,500 pounds of scientific materials and hardware into Dragon for removal and analysis back on Earth. NASA ESA aeronautical engineer Jasmine Moghberg and Commander Andreas Mogensen (european space agency) removed the scientific cargo freezer containing the research samples from the station’s EXPRESS rack and stowed it inside the Dragon for return to Earth. Astronaut Loral O’Hara and astronaut Satoshi Furukawa transported a cargo bag filled with hardware and trash and strapped it inside Dragon in preparation for its descent into Earth’s gravity. Japan’s tallest mountain, Mount Fuji, was photographed as part of the International Space Station orbiting 420 miles above the sky. The active stratovolcano’s peak reaches more than 12,000 feet (approximately 3,700 meters) above sea level and is covered in snow for five months of the year. Credit: NASA Ongoing research and crew activities The crew continued to load hardware and science onto the ship. space x The Dragon cargo spacecraft’s managers and operations team today are assessing weather conditions at various possible landing sites for its return to Earth, in preparation for its scheduled undocking Thursday afternoon. Despite the hectic cargo traffic, microgravity research continued apace, as the crew continued to explore how weightlessness affects biology and physics. NASA’s O’Hara will process the cell samples for culture, which researchers will analyze to investigate the senescence-like properties of immune cells and the regenerative capacity of liver cells.of space age Health research may provide deeper insight into the biology of aging and its impact on disease mechanisms. A nighttime view of Mexico City, Mexico’s capital and largest city with a population of 9.2 million people, was captured from the International Space Station, which orbits 460 miles above Central America. On the far left is the bright Felipe Angeles International Airport, easily observed from low Earth orbit. The large, dark area in the upper center is the Lake Texcoco Ecological Park. The dark area directly below is the Guadalupe Mountains. Credit: NASA From Mr. Furukawa JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has replaced components in a microgravity science glovebox that supports physics experiments to produce optical fibers better than those produced on Earth.of Optical fiber manufacturing-2 This experiment has the potential to advance optical transmission capabilities that will benefit the Earth and space industries. Mogensen previously worked in the Harmony module, shaking mixing tubes containing different organisms for a variety of health-promoting biological and botany studies. These tubes are part of a NanoRacks-sponsored program that allows educational institutions and private organizations to conduct research on the space station. Contribution of Russian cosmonauts Today, cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chubb took turns wearing sensor-equipped hats and continuing to operate a computer. Roscosmos Research exploring future spacecraft and robot control technology. Researchers will use the data to train future crews and plan potential manned planetary missions. Cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov spent most of the day maintaining life support equipment, then synchronizing his camera with the station’s clock, which is set to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). (function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.6”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
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