The Expedition 74 trio aboard the International Space Station checked out ultrasound gear, inspected advanced sample processing hardware, and tested muscle-stimulating electrodes on Thursday.
NASA Flight Engineer Chris Williams spent the first half of his shift servicing medical gear throughout the orbital lab’s U.S. segment. Williams first worked in the Columbus laboratory module configuring a computer tablet then installing new software to operate the EchoFinder-2 device. EchoFinder-2 enables an astronaut to conduct ultrasound scans of the human body without support from doctors on the ground. Next, he moved to the Kibo laboratory module and inspected sample holding cassettes and removed some of the internal hardware for stowage and return to Earth for analysis. The cassettes contained protein crystals being examined for their potential to help develop pharmaceuticals in space superior to medicines manufactured on Earth.
Williams also continued packing a variety of cargo inside a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for retrieval and analysis back on Earth in the spring. Some science experiments returning to the ground include material samples exposed to the external space environment, liquid crystal films developed in microgravity, and stem cells programmed to turn into brain and cardiac cells. Dragon, while docked to the Harmony module’s forward port, will also fire its engines one more time on Friday boosting the station’s orbit.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, station Commander and Flight Engineer respectively, joined each other and tested muscle-stimulating electrodes for operability. The duo first gathered and examined the electrodes then attached them to their legs and back for testing. Next, they sent electrical signals to the electrodes to stimulate the muscles and ensure the devices provide balanced muscle contractions. The devices complement space workouts reducing exercise times and enhancing muscle activation in weightlessness.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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Mark A. GarciaJanuary 22, 2026
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