International Space Station Status Report #33 - 2003

Report #33
4 p.m. CDT, Friday, July 11, 2003
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

The International Space Station's Expedition 7 crewmembers concentrated on
Station upgrades and routine maintenance during their 11th week on orbit.
Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu also advanced
the research in several laboratory experiments during the week and shared
their experiences in both formal and informal settings.

In the Russian segment of the Station, Malenchenko installed a refurbished
component of the Satellite Navigation System and new pipe conduits in the
condensate separation and pumping unit; all of that hardware was delivered
to the ISS last month on a Russian resupply craft. The crewmembers upgraded
a relay unit in the Russian audio system which enables module-to-module
"telephone" calls; completed inspections of life support systems, smoke
detectors and microbe filters throughout the Station; rebuilt and restored
laptop computer hard disk drives; and audited supplies to help mission
managers decide what to launch on upcoming Progress resupply ships.

The presence of a crew on orbit supplies test subjects for human life
sciences research into how people respond to long periods in the absence of
gravity, and this week Malenchenko and Lu gathered data for U.S. and Russian
experiments gauging their health in microgravity. They also completed two
hours or more of exercise each day to maintain their muscle tone and
cardiovascular fitness.

Last weekend Lu set up an electronic still camera in the Earth-facing window
of the Destiny Laboratory for another session of the EarthKAM experiment
(Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle Schools). In this experiment, students
in grades six through eight study Earth geography and orbital mechanics to
understand when Station will be over a particular spot on Earth, and then
submit requests that are uplinked to the on-board computer that controls the
camera. The students later study the photos "they took" of the Earth from an
altitude of more than 240 miles; more than 300 such photos were taken during
this week's operations.

Malenchenko and Lu took time throughout the week to share the experience of
ISS. On Monday they used the Station's amateur radio system to answer
questions from participants in the Euro Space Center Space Camp in Belgium,
and sent a message of greeting and encouragement for a Space Day event at
ceremonies commemorating the 65th anniversary of the city of Korolev, home
of the Russian Mission Control Center. Tuesday they chatted with Japanese
middle school students at the "Tokyo FM" Radio Network station,
and on Thursday they discussed the mission with a reporter from the Voice of
America. Today they talked with the winners of a Russian school science
contest.

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 on Friday, July 18, or sooner if
events warrant.

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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info

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