In this photo from June 28, 2025, Expedition 73 flight engineer Jonny Kim and former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space Peggy Whitson work together inside the International Space Station’s Destiny laboratory module setting up hardware for cancer research.
The hardware is used to culture patient-derived cancer cells, model their growth in microgravity, and test a state-of-the-art fluorescence microscope. Results of this study may lead to earlier cancer detection methods, development of advanced cancer treatments, and promote future stem cell research in space.
Whitson returned to Earth on July 15, 2025, with fellow Axiom Mission 4 crew members ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) astronaut Tibor Kapu of Hungary. They completed about two and a half weeks in space.
Image credit: JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)/Takuya Onishi
这张摄于2025年6月28日的照片中，第73号远征队任务的飞行工程师金乔尼·金（Jonny Kim）与前NASA宇航员、现任公理航天人类航天主管佩吉·惠特森（Peggy Whitson）正共同在国际空间站的命运号实验舱内安装用于癌症研究的实验设备。
该设备用于培养来自患者体内的癌细胞，在微重力环境下模拟其生长过程，并测试一台先进的荧光显微镜。此项研究有望推动癌症早期检测方法的进步，促进新型治疗手段的研发，并为未来在太空中进行干细胞研究奠定基础。
2025年7月15日，惠特森与公理4号任务的其他成员一同返回地球，他们分别是印度空间研究组织（ISRO）宇航员舒巴什努·舒克拉（Shubhanshu Shukla）、欧洲航天局（ESA）波兰籍项目宇航员斯瓦沃什·乌兹南斯基-维希涅夫斯基（Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski）以及匈牙利HUNOR项目宇航员蒂博尔·卡普（Tibor Kapu）。他们在太空中共停留了约两周半。
图片来源: JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)/Takuya Onishi
