Expedition 73 Crew Photos: April 18-22, 2025 | International Space Station

Expedition 73 Photos: April 18-22, 2025 | International Space Station

NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers prepares mixture tubes containing research samples for the Nanoracks Module-9 series of student-designed space experiments. Ayers was working at the Harmony module's maintenance work area aboard the International Space Station.

Anne McClain tests a wearable dosimeter called IRIS. This technology consists of lightweight hardware that track real-time radiation exposure on the International Space Station, keeping astronauts safe. 

NASA astronauts Anne McClain (bottom) and Nichole Ayers (top), both Expedition 73 Flight Engineers, checkout spacesuit hardware in the Quest airlock and review procedures for a May 1 spacewalk. The spacewalkers will install a modification kit on the International Space Station’s port side truss structure preparing it for a new rollout solar array and relocate an antenna that communicates with commercial spacecraft.

Expedition 73 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers: "Lots of EVA (spacewalk) prep this week!

We resized the spacesuits to fit Anne McClain

 and me (pic 1), cleared out the suits and gear we won’t need in the airlock for this EVA, and spent some time getting familiar with the modification kit we’ll be installing."

"We also packed all the parts into a bag that I’ll carry with us out to the work site . . . We’re affectionately calling it EV3 because it’s about 8 feet long and weighs around 300 lbs! It’ll be slow and steady for me as I carry it out to the base of the solar arrays."

Expedition 73 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim: "Our first resupply mission for Expedition 73. Tak and I were the visiting vehicle officers for NASA’s CRS-32 mission, meaning we monitored the rendezvous, approach, and docking from the Cupola as the 

SpaceX Cargo Dragon autonomously docked to the International Space Station carrying science, equipment, and resources like food."

"We can’t do our job as astronauts without regular resupply missions like this, and the success of CRS-32 is a testament to NASA’s partnership and collaboration with the commercial industry."

NASA's SpaceX CRS-32 Dragon cargo spacecraft approaches the International Space Station on April 22, 2025.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut and Expedition 73 Commander Takuya Onishi inspects science hardware inside the Kibo laboratory module's Solid Combustion Experiment Module, a space fire safety research facility, aboard the International Space Station.

Expedition 73 flight engineers and NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers are getting ready for a spacewalk scheduled for May 1, 2025. The duo will exit the Quest airlock into the vacuum of space and spend six-and-a-half hours preparing the station’s port side truss structure for a new rollout solar array and relocating an antenna that communicates with visiting vehicles.

Expedition 73 Crew

Station Commander: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Flight Engineer Takuya Onishi

Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritskiy

NASA Flight Engineers: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Jonny Kim

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

For more information about STEM on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center 
Capture Dates: April 18-22, 2025

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