INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS06-035

July 28, 2006

Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0688

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111

STATUS REPORT: SS06-035

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS06-035

The International Space Station's Expedition 13 crew members are a
week away from their first U.S. spacewalk. They spent much of this
week preparing themselves and their gear, and they activated a new
laboratory super deep-freezer.

Astronauts Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter will leave the station's
Quest airlock hatch at 9:55 a.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 3, for a
spacewalk that is scheduled for six hours, 20 minutes. Station
Commander Pavel Vinogradov will serve as the spacewalk choreographer
from inside the complex. NASA TV coverage of the spacewalk will begin
at 9 a.m. EDT.

Williams and Reiter are both experienced spacewalkers. They will
install a device to measure the electrical field around the station's
exterior; replace a rotary joint motor controller and a computer for
a radiator on the station's truss; deploy two experiments that expose
samples of various materials to space for extended periods; and
install various other hardware on the station.

To get ready, the crew prepared spacesuits and tools, conducted a dry
run of egress and ingress procedures, and moved the station's
Canadarm2 robotic arm into position. The arm's cameras will provide
television views of the spacewalk.

This week the crew also began operations of the new Minus
Eighty-degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS. The equipment can reach
temperatures as low as minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit. Provided by the
European Space Agency, the freezer was delivered on shuttle mission
STS-121 earlier this month and is installed in the Destiny
laboratory. It has 300 liters (about 79 gallons) of freezing and
storage capacity in four compartments for experiment samples to
preserve them for return to Earth.

On Tuesday, Russian flight controllers fired thrusters on the Progress
supply ship docked to the aft end of the station to boost the
station's altitude. They raised the complex to an orbit of 219 by 203
statute miles. The adjustment optimizes conditions for a docking by
the Space Shuttle Atlantis, targeted for a launch window that begins
Aug. 27, and by the station's next crew, Expedition 14, set for
launch in mid-September on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

The next station status report will be issued on Thursday, Aug. 3
after the spacewalk. For more information about the crew's activities
and station sighting opportunities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.nl