Space Station Photos: Expedition 50 Astronauts in Action

Sort and Group

ESA/NASA

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

Face-off

ESA/NASA

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

Space Gardener

ESA/NASA

Peggy Whitson grows lettuce for the VEGGIE experiment.

SPHERES

ESA/NASA

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

SPHERES-Halo

ESA/NASA

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.

Floating in the Activity Module

ESA/NASA

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.

Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform

ESA/NASA

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.

Haptics-2

ESA/NASA

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.

Kibo Load

ESA/NASA

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

Frozen Organics

ESA/NASA

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.

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Christine Lunsford
Producer and Contributing Writer

Christine Lunsford joined the Space.com team in 2010 as a freelance producer and later became a contributing writer, covering astrophotography images, astronomy photos and amazing space galleries and more. During her more than 10 years with Space.com, oversaw the site's monthly skywatching updates and produced overnight features and stories on the latest space discoveries. She enjoys learning about subjects of all kinds.