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Welcome to space to ground, your weekly look
at what’s happening on board ISS.

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I’m Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters.

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The space station crew has a new commander.

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NASA astronaut Steve Swanson took the reins
of the orbiting complex on Monday.

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Now on his third mission, Swanson will serve
as commander of the multinational crew until

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September.

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And, it’s a much smaller team onboard this
week.

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Astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Koichi Wakata
and Mikhail Tyurin returned to earth Tuesday

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night after more than 188 days on the station.

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The three touched down in Kazakhstan wrapping
up an exciting mission that included science

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research, flying the Olympic torch and three
unplanned spacewalks for Rick Mastracchio.

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Rick and Koichi arrived back in the United
States Wednesday night and will focus on medical

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evaluations and rehabilitation for the next
several weeks.

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Osteoporosis affects more than 200 million
people around the world.

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Bone loss also affects astronauts in space.

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But, by studying crew members researchers
are learning different ways to help tackle

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this widespread issue.

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One study discovered that high-intensity resistive
exercise combined with extra vitamin D and

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proper caloric intake helps astronauts maintain
their bone mass.

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Another study found if astronauts take an
osteoporosis medication once a week, combined

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with exercise, they reduced bone loss.

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Both of these are important medical developments
for keeping astronauts healthy, but they also

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provide promising research that will help
doctors treat aging populations on earth.

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And now a question from YouTube asks “how
long can Soyuz stay docked to the ISS?

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?”

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Soyuz spacecrafts are designed to shuttle
crew members back and forth to the ISS and

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each crew launches and lands in the same Soyuz,
so they generally are docked to the station

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for around six months.

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However, if needed, they could stay in space
up for about 200 days.

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Keep sending us your questions using hashtag
space to ground!