International Space Station Status Report #37 - 2003

Report #37
4 p.m. CDT, Friday, Aug. 8, 2003
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

The Expedition 7 crew, Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA International
Space Station Science Officer Ed Lu, continued work this week with unique
microgravity science experiments and maintained the operating systems of the
orbiting lab.

On Monday, the crewmembers passed the 100-day mark on orbit since their
launch to the Station April 26. The crew is scheduled to return to Earth in
late October aboard the same Soyuz vehicle they arrived in. The Expedition 8
crew, U.S. astronaut Michael Foale and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri,
will replace the Expedition 7 crew. Foale and Kaleri are scheduled to launch
to the Station Oct. 18 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, along with
European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque of Spain. Duque will then return
to Earth with the Expedition 7 crew after completing more than a week of
science activities aboard the Station. Foale, Kaleri and Duque will talk to
reporters about their upcoming mission during a news conference at 3 p.m.
EDT, Thursday, Aug. 14, at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, which will be
broadcast on NASA TV.

Throughout the week aboard the ISS, Lu worked with a run of the Coarsening
of Solid-Liquid Mixtures-2 (CSLM-2) experiment in the Microgravity Science
Glovebox. CSLM-2 is studying how the strength of metals, such as those used
in jet engine turbine blades, is reduced during a process called coarsening.
Malenchenko worked with Earth observation experiments and wrapped up a
Russian agriculture experiment studying the growth of plants in space. He
saved the data from the Rasteniya-2 experiment in preparation for its return
to Earth.

Tuesday, the Station operating system briefly shifted into "survival mode"
when the on-board computers did not recognize both thermal system loops in
the Russian segment. Nonessential systems were automatically turned off, but
flight controllers and payload controllers worked with the crew to
reactivate the operating and payload systems without major impacts to
operations or science.

Lu and Malenchenko resized a spare U.S. spacesuit to fit Lu. Malfunctions in
Lu's original suit were found during a test earlier in the mission and the
larger modular-designed suit was easily adjusted to fit Lu in the event he
needs to conduct a U.S. airlock-based spacewalk. Initially, during the fit
check of the suit, the cooling system did not function correctly but began
working later in the test. Spacesuit experts will continue to troubleshoot
the issues with both spacesuits.

This week, Malenchenko used oxygen from the Progress cargo vehicle docked to
the aft of the Zvezda Service Module to repressurize the Station. The extra
oxygen is being used before the spacecraft is undocked later this month to
make room for a new Progress resupply craft scheduled for launch to the
Station Aug. 28 (U.S. time).

Information on the crew's continuing activities on the Space Station, future
launch dates and Station sighting opportunities from anywhere on Earth is
available 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, Aug. 15, or sooner if
events warrant.


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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info

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