ISS Status Report No. 54 - 2003

International Space Station Status Report #03-54
6 a.m. CDT, Monday, Oct. 20, 2003
Expedition 7 Crew

The International Space Station's newest crew of Expedition 8 Commander Mike
Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri officially boarded the complex
when hatches between its Soyuz spacecraft swung open at 5:19 a.m. CDT ( 1019
GMT, 2:19 p.m. Moscow time). They were joined by visiting researcher,
European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque.

Greeting them on the station were Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko
and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu, who are 177 days into their six months
in space. The two crews will conduct eight days of joint operations and
research before Expedition 7 and Duque return home on October 27.

Among those observing the on orbit arrival of Expedition 8 to the station
were NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight William Readdy and
International Space Station Program Manager William Gerstenmaier. Both
talked to the five station crew members delivering best wishes for the
mission.

The plan for the two crews includes eight days of handover activities and
scientific experiments carried out by Duque for Spanish and other European
scientists under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Aviation
and Space Agency.

After lunch, the new crewmembers will receive a safety briefing from
Malenchenko and Lu and install a seat liner for Duque in the Soyuz earmarked
for landing Oct. 27 (U.S. time) and then begin setting up a host of Duque's
equipment previously launched on Russian Progress resupply spacecraft.

The crews are scheduled to go to bed about 3 p.m. CDT today and wake up at
midnight to begin their first full day of joint operations. Expedition 8
officially will take control of Station operations October 27 when
Malenchenko, Lu and Duque close the hatches between their returning Soyuz
and the station. Foale and Kaleri will remain on board until late April
2004.

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, Oct. 24, or earlier, if
events warrant.


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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info