Space to Ground: Preboarding for Spaceflight: April 04, 2025

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

What is said in the film

Welcome to Space to Ground, I'm Nicholas Page. It's never a dull moment in space flight. Just as NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 has settled into low earth orbit a new crew will soon be joining them, followed by a cargo shipment that will be bringing the crew more of their favorite food delivery mechanism. What's that you ask? Stick around and find out.

On April 8th, the Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying three new crew members to station. Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky accompanied by NASA astronaut Jonny Kim will join Expedition 72 in low earth orbit. Kim, of Astronaut Class 2017, will serve as flight engineer and remain on station for an 8-month mission. The trip to space station will be a short one... just 3 hours and 16 minutes from launch to docking, and you can watch it all including the crew's first moment on Station live on NASA+.

This all sets the stage for the return of two cosmonauts and one of NASA's veteran astronauts, Don Pettit. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 1996, Pettit has had an illustrious career as NASA science officer on Expedition 6, crew member of STS-126 where he operated the robotic arm to expand the living quarters of the International Space Station, and served as flight engineer for Expeditions 30 and 31. As a member of Expedition 72, Pettit has conducted dozens of scientific investigations and experiments, performed space suit maintenance, and conducted the first Twitch live stream from space. "We hear you loud and clear. " If you had to guess what type of bread is the go-to for our crews on station, what would you say?

Tortillas! Delicious and versatile. They are the number one choice of bread on the International Space Station. However, this isn't simply because they're easy to eat, tortillas serve a practical purpose as they do not produce many crumbs, which mitigates the risk of disrupting proper functionality of equipment. They also take up less room and stay fresh much longer compared to loaves of bread.

But these aren't just any tortillas that you can purchase from the store. These spacebound tortillas are mold resistant and have a shelf life of roughly 18 months. In 2024, over 3,100 tortillas were consumed on station. For all things International Space Station, follow ISS on X @Space_Station or @ISS_Research for daily space operations and science updates. And as always, visit nasa.

gov for more stories blogs updates and media broadcasts. That's it for Space to Ground this week. Thank you so much for watching.

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