Ax-3 Go for Launch; Crew Continues Space Botany and Fluid Research – NASA Blogs

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon crew ship atop blasts off on April 9, 2022, from NASAs Kennedy Space Center carrying the first private astronauts to the space station during Axiom Mission-1. Credit: SpaceX

Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) is go for launch as four private astronauts gear up to head to the space station later this afternoon. Space botany and fluid research continue into Thursday for the Expedition 70 crew members as they await the arrival of Ax-3.

The third private astronaut mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:49 p.m. EST today, Jan. 18. Ax-3 crew members, Commander Michael Lpez-Alegra, Pilot Walter Villadei of Italy, Mission Specialist Alper Gezeravc of Turkey, and ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden, will launch aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Scheduled to arrive to the station at 5:15 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, the quartet will spend about two weeks conducting science and research in microgravity before returning to Earth.

After yesterdays initial harvest aboard the orbital lab, the second and third round of wild-type tomatoes were harvested from Plant Habitat-06 by NASA Flight Engineer Loral OHara. The investigation takes a look at the physiological and genetic responses to defense activation and immune function in tomatoes during spaceflight. OHara also spent part of her day checking hardware for the upcoming arrival of Ax-3.

Fluid research that began yesterday continued into Thursday as Flight Engineers Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA and Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) performed root tests for root zone, flow resistance, phase distribution, and stability in Plant Water Management 5. In the evening, the duo then conducted ultrasounds of their necks, clavicles, shoulders, and behind their knees.

ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen took over work with Plant Management 5, testing the performance of the separator and water trap before draining and stowing the facility.

Two Cosmonauts teamed up in the afternoonFlight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chubto remove and replace the heat exchanger unit in the air conditioning system. Kononenko later conducted a cargo audit in the Prichal module. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov ran a Pilot-T session in the morning, an ongoing experiment to practice piloting techniques, before performing a storage audit in the Nauka module.

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

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Ax-3 Go for Launch; Crew Continues Space Botany and Fluid Research - NASA Blogs