Space Station Photos: Expedition 50 Astronauts in Action

Expedition 50 official crew portrait with (from left) Andrei Borisenko, Shane Kimbrough, Sergey Ryzhikov, Thomas Pesquet, Peggy Whitson and Oleg Novitsky.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko arrived at the International Space Station Oct. 21, 2016 after a two-day journey on the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft. Here, they pose with their Sokol launch and entry suits Sept. 9, 2016.

Astronauts Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency), Oleg Novitskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Peggy Whitson of NASA pose for a group photo at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia during qualification exams for their Expedition 50/51 mission to the International Space Station.

The Expedition 50 crewmembers wave farewell as they board the Soyuz spacecraft before liftoff on Nov. 17, 2016.

A Russian Soyuz MS-02 rocket carrying NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko (of Roscosmos) launches toward the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on Oct. 19, 2016.

The failure of Russia’s robotic Progress 65 cargo mission on Dec. 1, 2016 shouldn’t endanger the six crewmembers of the International Space Station’s Expedition 50 (seen here celebrating Thanksgiving on Nov. 24, 2016), NASA officials said.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, the first French astronaut to live on the International Space Station, arrived at the orbiting laboratory last Saturday in a Soyuz spacecraft with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. This photo of Pesquet in front of the Cupola window is the first photo he has shared from space on social media. He commented, “The International Space Station is amazing: better than in my best dreams. I wish everybody could get the chance to come up here!”

During their 2016 Christmas Dinner, Expedition 50 crewmembers don the ISS with some festive decorations as well.

ESA’s Thomas Pesquet and Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos have a cookie decorating contest during the 2016 ISS Holiday Party.

The Expedition 50 crewmembers where hats from NASA’s Peggy Whitson during their 2016 Holiday Party.

Expedition 50 crewmembers Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency and Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough of NASA take a selfie during robotics training inside the Cupola of the International Space Station.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 50 Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA sent holiday greetings and festive imagery from the cupola window on Dec. 18, 2016.

The ISS continues to expand with the addition of the HTV in mid-December 2016. The Expedition 50 crew is checking out the new digs.

Aboard the ISS with a globe suspended beside him, ESA’s Thomas Pesquet reads to kids on Earth.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson dons a Santa hat and Christmas socks in weightlessness to celebrate the holidays on the International Space Station on Dec. 22, 2016.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station show off their Christmas dinner. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson sends a package of dehydrated mashed potatoes floating in microgravity while holding packets of cider and hot cocoa. NASA astronaut and ISS commander Shane Kimbrough holds packages with turkey, fruit salad, green beans and potatoes. French astronaut Thomas Pesquet looks on in a weightless Santa hat.

NASA astronaut and current commander of the International Space Station Shane Kimbrough floats weightlessly next to two spacesuits. Kimbrough and the Expedition 50 crew performed routine maintenance on the spacesuits throughout December to prepare for spacewalks coming up in January 2017.

NASA’s Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough and ESA’s Thomas Pesquet celebrate Christmas together.

ESA’s Thomas Pesquet attempts to juggle cameras aboard the ISS, a more challenging feat than most realize!

Roscosmos’ Oleg Novitskiy demonstrates the best position to perform a cardiac massage. The crew often conducts drills to practice medical emergency procedures.

ESA’s Thomas Pesquet let’s an AirFrance Airbus A380 blow-up model float on the ISS, wishing the crews a happy holidays!

Every Friday evening, the Expedition 50 crew meet in the Russian segment of the ISS and share favorite foods. Alongside the station’s own lettuce, NASA’s Peggy Whitson provided lobtser in wasabi mayonnaise. TGIF!

Often on the ISS, multinational crewmembers gather during meals. Expedition 50 crewmembers, Andrey Borisenko and Oleg Novitskiy or Roscosmos and NASA’s Shane Kimbrough enjoy a snack.

Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos, a Flight Engineer for Expedition 50, works inside the Zvezda Service Module.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquest and a roll of data and power cable float aboard the Space Station.

Impaired vision sometimes afflicts visitors to the Space Station. NASA’s Peggy Whitson uses the Fundoscope to collect images of the back of her eye during a routine check.

From the Cupola on the ISS, ESA’s Thomas Pesquet and NASA’s Shane Kimbrough robotically capture the Japanese HTV-6 cargo craft. The craft brought over 4.5 tons of supplies to the ISS.

The recent HTV-6 cargo vehicle brought fresh fruit to the Expedition crewmembers on the ISS. NASA’s Shane Kimbrough and ESA’s Thomas Pesquet share some of the apples.

NASA’s Peggy Whitson and Robert Kimbrough enjoy the new arrival of fruit from the HTV-6 cargo craft in early December 2016.

Expedition 50 crewmembers Thomas Pesquet and Shane Kimbrough work in the Cupola module, docking the HTV-6 robotically.

NASA’s Shane Kimbrough prepares for planned spacewalks with a virtual reality headset.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson floats among tangled cables inside the Columbus module on the International Space Station.

NASA’s Shane Kimbrough holds the ISS Robotic External Ammonia Leak Locator which was created to find external leaks on the ISS. This technology will reduce time and risk for crewmembers associated with these repairs.

ESA’s Thomas Pesquet hovers inside the Japanese Experiment Module near the airlock used to pass items into space.

Three Expedition 50 crewmembers at task for robotics training inside the Cupoloa. The trio reviews grappling procedures for the Japancese HTV-6 cargo craft.

NASA’s Shane Kimbrough works at the Veggie system, a deployable plant growth unit aboard the ISS. The unit not only provides fresh salad-type crops but also gives the crew opportunity for relaxation and recreation.

Inside the Japanese Experiment Module, Expedition 50 crewmembers Thomas Pesquet and Shane Kimbrough conduct SPHERES Tether experiments designed to study how tether-captured objects behave.

NASA’s Shane Kimbrough preps for another round of SPHERES Tether experiments aboard the ISS.

The Microgravity Science Glovebox is where astronauts test how gases and liquids behave inside a column of fixed porous material. NASA’s Peggy Whitson adds more hardware to the PBRE for further study.

Cycling looks a bit different aboard the ISS. NASA’s Shane Kimbrough rides the Cycle Ergometer with CEVIS. Crewmembers usually exercise about two hours a day to maintain physical health aboard the International Space Station.

Part of the ongoing MARES experiment, ESA’s Thomas Pesquet and Roscosmos’s Sergey Ryzhikov run an experiment into the effects of microgravity on the human musculatory system

ESA’s Thomas Pesquet is a flight engineer for Expedition 50 on his first flight to space. Here he’s making adjustments inside the Harmony module on the ISS.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough gives Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy a haircut aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 17, 2016. The trimmers are connected to a vacuum that prevents the severed hairs from floating around the station.

NASA’s Peggy Whitson garnered the title of oldest woman in space, ad first woman to command the station twice with her third trip to the Space Station. Here she floats in the Unity module.

Peggy Whitson measures the pressure in Thomas Pesquet’s eyes for the Fluid Shift experiment

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy works on an international experiment involving Russian hardware, European, US and Russian astronauts to study fluid shifts in astronauts’ bodies.

After a long spacewalk, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is seen entering the International Space Station’s Quest airlock in this photo by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet inside the station on Jan. 6, 2017.

NASA astronaut and current commander of the International Space Station Shane Kimbrough floats weightlessly next to two spacesuits. Kimbrough and the Expedition 50 crew performed routine maintenance on the spacesuits throughout December to prepare for spacewalks coming up in January 2017.

Expedition 50 crewmembers pose as superheroes at the International Space Station on Jan. 21, 2017.

Expedition 50 crewmembers pose as superheroes at the International Space Station on Jan. 21, 2017.

There is no upside-down in space! Expedition 50 crewmembers demonstrate this concept at the International Space Station on Jan. 21, 2017.

Thomas Pesquet poses with a photo of several of his astronaut predecessors taken aboard the International Space Station.

Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA floats next to a collection of lettuce grown aboard the International Space Station. The ongoing Veggie experiment is investigating the ability to grow fresh vegetables in microgravity to supplement crew diets, something that will be an important addition on the journey to Mars.

Russian cosmonaut Andrei Borisenko gathers equipment inside the Russian segment aboard the International Space Station. A Russian Orlan spacesuit, used by crewmembers when spacewalking outside of the Russian segment, can be seen floating at the top of the frame.

Thomas Pesquet takes a selfie in the Cupola with the HTV-6 cargo craft visible in the background.

“In microgravity, you can tilt a 200-kg rack with just one finger,” Thomas Pesquet wrote when he shared this photo on social media.

Walls inside the ISS are more like racks, Pesquet wrote. “They can be dedicated to ventilation, cooling, navigation computers, science, or many other things, but are always full of technology. Sometimes we need to get behind them for maintenance or upgrades, and only then do we get to touch the thin metal layer that isolates us form the vacuum of space.”

Running the Haptics-2 experiment, Thomas Pesquet tests telerobotics equipment that was linked to Earth. “I could ‘feel’ things on Earth through the joystick,” Pesquet wrote on social media. The experiment tests ways for future astronauts to control rovers on another planet from orbit.

Thomas Pesquet watches a rugby game from the International Space Station.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy (middle) floats inside the Quest airlock along with Thomas Pesquet (left) and Shane Kimbrough (right) prior to the start of their spacewalk.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough (right) and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet (left) inside the Quest airlock during their pre-breathe session prior to a spacewalk. Astronauts breathe 100% oxygen prior to a spacewalk to help purge excess nitrogen from their blood stream and avoid decompression sickness.

Thomas Pesquet floats outside the International Space Station during his second spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

During EVA-40 on March 24, 2017, Peggy Whitson operated the space station’s arm while Thomas Pesquet worked outside the station to add lubricant to the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre.

Peggy Whitson snapped this photo of Shane Kimbrough in the Quest airlock as he returned from a spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

Peggy Whitson snapped this photo of Shane Kimbrough in the Quest airlock as he returned from a spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy poses with Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet prior to their spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

Peggy Whitson poses with Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet before the spacewalking duo set out for EVA-40 on March 24, 2017.

Thomas Pesquet is seen performing maintenance on the Dextre robot, also known as the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, during his second spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy celebrate Pesquet’s birthday aboard the International Space Station on Feb. 27, 2017.

Shane Kimbrough, Thomas Pesquet and Peggy Whitson juggle some fresh fruit that arrived at the International Space Station with SpaceX’s Dragon cargo resupply mission, CRS-10.

Peggy Whitson signs a bulkhead on the International Space Station next to the Expedition 50 crew patch.

Shane Kimbrough signs a bulkhead on the Russian segment of the International Space station next to the crew patch for his Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft.

Cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Oleg Novitskiy participate in joint medical research at the International Space Station. Thomas Pesquet took this photo of his “patient” on March 9, 2017 as he measured Ryzhikov’s blood pressure, heart rate and pulse oxymetry while doing ultrasounds.

Peggy Whitson poses next to a locker in the Dragon cargo craft that is covered in signatures from participants of NASA’s HUNCH (High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware) educational initiative on March 9, 2017.

Expedition 50 crewmembers enjoy a meal together at the International Space Station.

Thomas Pesquet holds one of the cameras Kimbrough would replace on the Japanese robotic arm during a spacewalk on March 24.

Thomas Pesquet holds bags filled with 1.2 million tomato seeds for the Tomatosphere project run by the Canadian Space Agency. Students in 20,000 classrooms across Canada and the U.S. will receive the seeds when they return to Earth. The students will grow the tomato plants and compare them to tomato plants grown from seeds that didn’t fly to space.

Thomas Pesquet’s inflatable Air France airplane floats in the Cupola at the International Space Station. A docked Soyuz spacecraft is visible through the window.

Thomas Pesquet and Peggy Whitson eat home-grown lettuce at the International Space Station.

Peggy works with the Microgravity Science Glovebox at the space station.

Thomas Pesquet and Peggy Whitson work with the European Microgravity Science Glovebox.

Pesquet watches a soccer game between France and Scotland on Feb. 12, 2017 at the International Space Station.

Thomas Pesquet wears a Skinsuit while working with the Spheres autonomous droids, which can fly on their own using compressed gas. Here Pesquet is doing an experiment called VERTIGO in which the droids attempt to dock on their own to test computer software for difficult automated docking in space.

Thomas Pesquet calibrates the pistol-grip tool that the astronauts use during spacewalks to drive and release fasteners.

To keep microbes from proliferating at the ISS, Pesquet and the other astronauts not only clean everything very thoroughly, but they also test surfaces and the water for microbial growth on a regular basis.

Commander Shane Kimbrough and flight engineer Thomas Pesquet pose in the inflatable Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM).

For the ENERGY study, astronauts are investigating human metabolism on the space station. This involves constant monitoring of food and oxygen intake, urine samples and tracking of physical activity.

Thomas Pesquet, who practices Judo, kicked off the Judo Grand Slam Paris tournament with a special video message from space to his fellow Judokas.

“Trying to keep up my Judo on the Space Station is not easy in weightlessness,” Pesquet wrote on his Flickr page.

Thomas Pesquet, Oleg Navitskiy and Peggy Whitson celebrated the 100th day of their expedition to the International Space Station on Feb. 25, 2017.

Thomas Pesquet runs on a treadmill at the International Space Station. Astronauts have to wear shoulder straps while running to keep from floating off the treadmill.

Thomas Pesquet helps to fix a faulty valve on the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly that provides the astronauts with breathable, recycled air.

Shane Kimbrough works on the carbon scrubber.

Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough work to replace filters inside the space station’s Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly.

For some reason, Thomas Pesquet has cardboard cutouts of the faces of his colleagues from the astronaut class of 2009.

Peggy Whitson, a biochemist, uses a new microscope shipped to the space station for stem cell research.

Shane Kimbrough scans and sorts the Cargo Transfer Bags that arrived with the SpaceX Dragon cargo delivery.

Thomas Pesquet comes face-to-face with Robonaut 3, a droid-like robot at the International Space Station.

Shane Kimbrough works with a pair of bowling-ball sized satellites known as SPHERES, or Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites.

Shane Kimbrough performs the SPHERES-Halo experiment, which uses two small satellites (SPHERES) fitted with donut-like rings to test wireless power transfer and formation flight using electromagnetic fields.

Shane Kimbrough performs the SPHERES-Halo experiment, which uses two small satellites (SPHERES) fitted with donut-like rings to test wireless power transfer and formation flight using electromagnetic fields.

Peggy Whitson removes the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform from inside the Japanese Kibo airlock, which is used to deploy scientific payloads from inside the station.

Thomas Pesquet works on the European Haptics-2 experiment, a technology demonstration experiment aimed at validating control interactions to take place between space and ground, allowing a person in space to control robots on Earth.

Thomas Pesquet works to load gear inside the Kibo laboratory module’s airlock.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough loads organic samples into the Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer before sending them back to Earth on the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft.

International Space Station crew members prepare to work on their mechanical crewmate, Robonaut.

Thomas Pesquet takes a selfie with Shane Kimbrough in the Cupola at the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon cargo ship can be seen through the window.

Astronaut Shane Kimbrough takes an out-of-this-world selfie during a spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

In this photo taken on March 17, Pesquet preps a camera for Kimbrough to replace during their spacewalk together on March 24.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson pops out of a cargo bag during a prank on the International Space Station on Feb. 13, 2017.

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who celebrated his 39th birthday at the International Space Station on Feb. 27, chows down on some French macarons that arrived on SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft on Feb. 23.

Thomas Pesquet is pictured getting ready to head outside for his second spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

Shane Kimbrough performs the SPHERES-Halo experiment, which uses two small satellites (SPHERES) fitted with donut-like rings to test wireless power transfer and formation flight using electromagnetic fields.

Space station astronaut Thomas Pesquet received a saxophone surprise for his birthday. It arrived on the SpaceX Dragon on Feb. 23 and was hidden by Pesquet’s crewmates until his birthday on Feb. 27.