U.S. President Speaks to Expedition 75 Crew after Awarding Artemis II Crew

President Donald J. Trump awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on Friday at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to the four-member Artemis II crew that flew around the Moon in April. During the event, the president also signed an executive order establishing the nation's first U.S. Space Academy, which will be led by NASA.

Following the ceremony, the president stopped by the Mission Control Center at Johnson and spoke with the Expedition 75 crew aboard the International Space Station as they took a short break from science and exercise research and preparations for next week's spacewalk.

Flight engineer Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) and station commander Jessica Meir of NASA organized the tools they will use during a spacewalk beginning at 7:30 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Adenot and Meir also inspected spacesuit components and tethers inside the Quest airlock. NASA flight engineers Anil Menon and Jack Hathaway cleaned the spacesuit cooling loops that keep the suits thermally conditioned and astronauts comfortable during a spacewalk.

Earlier, Adenot pedaled on an exercise cycle while wearing a sensor-packed packed vest and headband measuring her heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure. Menon and Hathaway relocated a sample processor and a science freezer as part of scientific maintenance. Meir reviewed her upcoming spacewalking tasks on a computer using 3D animation software.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina took turns pedaling on the station's exercise cycle while attached to electrodes and breathing gear for a routine physical fitness test. Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev synchronized station cameras to Greenwich Mean Time then photographed and videotaped his crewmates as they worked during their shift on Friday.

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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