International Space Station Status Report #46

International Space Station Status Report #46

2005
Report #46
9 a.m. CDT Friday, Sept. 30, 2005
Mission Control Center, Houston

Preparations for arrival of the next crew of the space station, scientific
activities and maintenance highlighted this week's activities aboard the
orbiting laboratory.

Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Science Officer John
Phillips also spent some time packing up for their own return home, readying
their launch and entry suits. They checked out the Soyuz spacecraft that
brought them to the station April 16 to make sure it is ready to take them
back to Earth.

The 12th crew of the station, Commander and NASA Science Officer William
McArthur and Valery Tokarev, flight engineer and Soyuz commander, are
scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan tonight at
about 10:55 p.m. CDT. NASA Television coverage of the launch will begin at
10 p.m.

The new crew is scheduled to dock with the station a little after 12:30 a.m.
on Monday. NASA Television coverage of the docking will begin at 11p.m.
Sunday.

With the Expedition 12 crew will be spaceflight participant Gregory Olsen,
an American businessman traveling to the station under a contract with the
Russian Federal Space Agency. He will spend about eight days on the station
and return to Earth with Krikalev and Phillips. Their landing is scheduled
for about 8:10 p.m. CDT Oct. 10 on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Thursday managers at Mission Control Moscow said launch preparations were
moving along flawlessly. Managers at Mission Control Houston said the
station was ready to receive the new crew.

McArthur and Tokarev will spend the eight days they will share with their
predecessors aboard the station in intensive handover briefings, learning
about the spacecraft's systems, processes, procedures, scientific
experiments, the location of equipment and supplies. In short, they will be
trying to learn all they still need to know before they begin their months
in orbit alone.

Krikalev and Phillips began the week with NASA flight controllers in Moscow
exercising primary mission control. Mission Control Houston and the rest of
Johnson Space Center were closed because of the threat of Hurricane Rita.
Houston flight controllers resumed normal operations at 9 a.m. Monday.

On Tuesday Krikalev and Phillips each spent more than an hour familiarizing
themselves with Olsen's scientific experiments. On Wednesday they continued
preparations for arrival of the new crew, and on Thursday did predocking
tests and more preparation for their own departure. Phillips regenerated
METOX carbon dioxide absorbing cartridges for U.S. spacesuits. McArthur and
Tokarev have a spacewalk scheduled in those suits in November.

Today's schedule includes maintenance of the Elektron oxygen generating
system, functioning again after Krikalev replaced its liquids unit two weeks
ago.

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

http://www.nasa.gov/station

The next station status report will be issued this evening, after the
Expedition 12 launch.



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info