ISS Status Report No. 51 - 2003

International Space Station Status Report #03-51
4 p.m. CDT, Friday, Oct. 17, 2003
Expedition 7 Crew

During their last week alone aboard the International Space Station,
Expedition 7 crewmembers focused on preparations to welcome their Expedition
8 successors and for their own return to Earth.

Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu worked to
prepare their ISS Soyuz 7 spacecraft for their voyage home, checking out its
systems and related station equipment, gathering their personal possessions
and beginning to pack the spacecraft. They also checked out instrumentation
that will be used to dock the ISS Soyuz 8 capsule bringing Expedition 8
Commander and Science Officer Michael Foale and Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri
to the station, along with European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque of
Spain.

Duque is flying to the Station under a commercial contract between the
European Space Agency and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. He will
return home with the Expedition 7 crew after about a week of conducting
science experiments.

The Expedition 8 crew and Duque are scheduled to launch at 12:38 a.m. CDT
Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their spacecraft will
dock to the Station at about 2:17 a.m. CDT on Monday. Hatches between the
two spacecraft should open about 5:14 a.m. CDT.

On Oct. 27 at about 5:20 p.m. CST, Malenchenko, Lu and Duque are to undock
Soyuz 7 and perform a burn to drop out of orbit at about 7:40 p.m. CST. A
landing in Kazakhstan will follow at about 8:35 p.m. CST (8:35 a.m. Oct. 28
Kazakhstan time).

Malenchenko and Lu continued to work with scientific experiments. On
Wednesday, Lu successfully removed and replaced a Remote Power Controller
Module (RPCM) in the U.S. laboratory Destiny. The device routes electricity
and data throughout the station. One of its circuits had failed. The
replacement RPCM is functioning well.

Another highlight of the week was the launch of China's first human space
mission. Lu took some time on Wednesday to welcome the single crewmember of
the Shenzhou V spacecraft into orbit. Lu, speaking in Chinese and English,
wished him a successful mission and a safe return home.

On Friday, Lu spent several hours taking a water sample from the cooling
system in the U.S. airlock Quest. The system provides cooling to spacesuits.
Officials want to confirm the quality of the water with the samples that
will be returned with the Expedition 7 crewmembers. Meanwhile, Malenchenko
was prepared a workspace for Duque and his scientific experiments.
Information on the crew's activities aboard the Space Station, future launch
dates, as well as Station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth,
is available on the Internet at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

Details on Station science operations can be found on an Internet site
administered by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., at:

http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/

The next ISS status report will be issued Saturday after the launch of the
Expedition 8 crew, or sooner if events warrant.

-end-



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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info