November 23, 2005

J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
Phone: (202) 358-5241

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
Phone: (281) 483-5111

STATUS REPORT: SS05-055

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS05-055

International Space Station Commander Bill McArthur and Flight
Engineer Valery Tokarev will enjoy a day off Thursday to celebrate
Thanksgiving. The holiday highlights a week of robotics operations,
routine maintenance and early preparations for a Christmas-time
shipment of supplies.

McArthur and Tokarev make up the 12th crew on the space laboratory and
the sixth to observe Thanksgiving on the orbiting complex. They sent
holiday greetings to Earth this week and described their plans to
feast on irradiated smoked turkey, dehydrated green beans, powdered
drinks and a thermo-stabilized cranberry-apple dessert.

On Monday, McArthur powered up the station's 60-foot robotic arm, the
Canadarm2, and maneuvered it for training and engineering tests.
Working at a control panel inside the station's Destiny laboratory,
he used the arm to grip and release a fixture on the exterior of the
Lab. Following that, he positioned the Canadarm2 to allow its cameras
to monitor the next planned spacewalk.

That spacewalk, using Russian spacesuits, was initially scheduled for
December but was rescheduled for Feb. 2, 2006, to ease the crew's
workload. Managers also cancelled a third spacewalk planned for the
Expedition 12 crew. That spacewalk would have used U.S. spacesuits as
did a first venture earlier this month. McArthur and Tokarev
accomplished several get-ahead tasks during the Nov. 7 spacewalk,
enabling managers to delete the final excursion.

Also Tuesday, McArthur and Tokarev performed routine medical checkups.
Today, they completed a regular audit of food supplies to update
inventory lists.

The crew's attention now turns to the departure of the Progress cargo
spacecraft, which is docked to the station, Dec. 20. After the craft
leaves the station, it will burn up in the atmosphere. The next
Progress is scheduled to launch Dec. 21 and dock to the complex on
Dec. 23. It will be the 20th Progress to go to the station. Its cargo
is expected to include Christmas gifts from the crew's families.

For information on the crew's activities, future launch dates, and
station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station/


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info