ISS Status Report No. 58 - 2004

International Space Station Status Report #04-58
8:20 p.m. CDT, Saturday, Oct. 23, 2004
Expedition 9 Crew

After traveling more than 78 million miles aboard the International Space
Station, Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mike
Fincke returned to Earth today.

Returning with them was Russian Space Forces Test Cosmonaut Yuri Shargin,
who had spent eight days aboard the orbiting complex conducting research.

After a flawless descent by the ISS Soyuz 8 spacecraft, Padalka, Fincke and
Shargin landed on target in north-central Kazakhstan, about 43 miles (70
kilometers) northeast of the town of Arkalyk, at 7:36 p.m. CDT. Recovery
forces arrived at the site within minutes of the touchdown.

Padalka and Fincke spent 187 days, 21 hours and 17 minutes in space. They
launched on April 18, on the same Soyuz spacecraft that brought them home.
For six months, the pair maintained systems and conducted scientific
research onboard the Station.

Fincke's return also is his first opportunity to meet his four-month-old
daughter, Tarali Paulina, born June 18 while he was in space. The crew's
families are expected to greet them upon their arrival at Star City, Russia,
a few hours after landing. Padalka and Fincke will remain in Star City for
several weeks of post-flight debriefings and medical exams before returning
to Houston in mid-November.

Among their accomplishments on the Station was an unprecedented spacewalking
repair, using Russian spacesuits and gear to replace a U.S. circuit breaker,
restoring power to a U.S. gyroscope. Fincke also performed some of the most
complex U.S. spacesuit repairs ever accomplished in orbit, replacing water
pumps in the suits' cooling systems, equipment not designed for in-flight
repairs. They completed a total of four spacewalks, including sorties that
prepared the Station for the arrival of a new European cargo ship next year.

Aboard the Station, the Expedition 10 crew, Commander and NASA Station
Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov, are
beginning a six-month mission that will include two spacewalks and
preparations for the return of Space Shuttle flights. Expedition 10 is
scheduled to return to Earth on April 25, 2005.

Chiao and Sharipov will have light duty for the next three days as they rest
after completing a busy handover period. For the past week, they have been
learning about Station operations from the two men who called the ship home
since April. Padalka and Fincke briefed Chiao and Sharipov on day-to-day
operations and gave them hands-on opportunities at Station maintenance:
Sharipov joined Padalka in completing repairs to the Elektron
oxygen-generating system, and Chiao helped Fincke with the maintenance on
the U.S. spacesuits. During his time aboard, Shargin completed a program of
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 on Friday, Oct. 29, or earlier if
events warrant.


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info