On the evening of October 25, the next cargo mission to resupply the Expedition 68 crew will be ready to launch from the International Space Station (ISS). The seven crew members of the orbital lab began the work week by maintaining two spacesuits and working on a variety of human research projects.

The ISS Progress 82 cargo spacecraft is perched atop its rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, counting down to its launch on Tuesday at 8:20 p.m. EDT (5:20 p.m. PDT). 

Tuesday at 8 p.m., NASA TV launches its live launch broadcast on the organization's app and website. It will also cover the docking procedures, starting on Thursday at 10:15 p.m. On Monday, Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin collaborated to exercise computer-based remote control of the Progress 82 cargo ship.

The two cosmonauts were practising using the TORU, or telerobotically operated rendezvous unit, inside the Zvezda service module. If the Progress 82 spacecraft is unable to automatically connect to the space station on its own, this will be required.

The four astronauts who live and work on the space station began their Monday with biomedical research activities. Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, two NASA flight engineers, started the day by taking blood samples, processing them, and putting them in a laboratory freezer for further study.

The two astronauts then participated in a vision exam utilising a common eye chart with Frank Rubio of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Next, Rubio helped Mann spin a stationary bike as part of a research project examining the effects of weightlessness on the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems. For the exercise session, Mann strapped on Bio-Monitor sensors and recorded physiological data that will be downloaded to medical professionals on Earth for processing.

In preparation for upcoming spacewalks, Rubio and Cassada installed helmet lights and resized a pair of spacesuits towards the end of the day. Mann collected rubbish to be loaded into the upcoming Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship, which is scheduled to launch in November. Before cleaning the inside of the Microgravity Science Glovebox, Wakata conducted research into the use of artificial intelligence to produce fibre optic cables in space.

Before loading information to allow use of the European robotic arm, cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who arrived in the station on the SpaceX Crew-5 mission, spent part of the day maintaining video and computer hardware. She finished her shift, seeing the near-ultraviolet glow of the Earth's atmosphere at night.