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VO: Houston, station on space to ground.

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Josh Byerly: Welcome to space to ground, your
weekly look at what's happening on board

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the ISS.

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I'm Josh Byerly.

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Orbital Sciences' Cygnus completed its mission
this week.

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The cargo craft was detached from the station
on Tuesday and sent into a destructive re-entry

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into the atmosphere on Wednesday.

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This brings to a close the first official
cargo flight to the station by Orbital Sciences.

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So the United States now has two commercial
companies -- Orbital and SpaceX -- flying

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up to the ISS, along with international partner
vehicles.

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It may not be one of the most glorious parts
of living on station, but the crew did some

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cleaning this week.

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Mike Hopkins took some microbial samples
from the station's surfaces.

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This is done to make sure there's nothing
gross growing inside.

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They also change the air filters from time
to time to make sure the air stays clean,

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because they can't exactly open a window
and let some fresh air inside.

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Did you know that if you were to fly up to
the space station, you'd actually get a

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little taller?

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Sounds good, but it can actually cause some
lower back pain.

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The crew used an ultrasound this week to take
a look at their spines.

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The data will help flight surgeons better
understand how the spine expands in space

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and to help prevent some of the discomfort
that comes with that.

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The crew members took some time this week
to talk with the media and a group of students

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in Los Angeles.

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They spoke about what they've been up to
lately and life onboard the station.

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Mike Hopkins: We also take a lot of pictures.
The cupola is actually a fantastic view of

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the Earth and so you want to try and capture
that and share as much of that as you can.

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Byerly: If you're not following along with
the crew on social media, we encourage you

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to do so.

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They've been sending down some pretty cool
photos of our planet in recent weeks.

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This week's social media question is, "How
long can one stay on board ISS?"

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Crews typically stay onboard ISS for about
six months, although astronaut Scott Kelly

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and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are currently
training for a one year mission that will

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kick off in march of 2015.

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The goal of this mission is to learn how the
human body reacts to being in space that long

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and to use that information as we look at
going to an asteroid or Mars.

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And here's some trivia for you.

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Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov holds the record
for longest single spaceflight.

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He spent 438 days on board Mir, and the longest
trip to the ISS was by Mike Lopez-Alegria

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and Mikhail Tyurin.

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They spent 215 days up there.