ISS Status Report No. 55 - 2003

International Space Station Status Report #03-55
4 p.m. CDT, Friday, October 24, 2003
Expedition 7 Crew

Final handover activities are underway aboard the International Space
Station as the Expedition 7 crew prepares to return to Earth Monday,
following six months aboard the orbiting complex. Landing is scheduled for
8:41 p.m. CST on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Ready to take over is the Expedition 8 crew, which has spent the last week
in space "cramming" for its role as prime station crew effective Monday
afternoon when the hatches close between the station and returning Soyuz
spacecraft, signaling the official change of command. A ceremonial "Change
of Command" ceremony took place Friday afternoon.

Flight controllers in the U.S. and Russia have been closely monitoring the
predicted effects of the recent solar activity and anticipate no change to
any of the landing plans. NASA flight control personnel have determined that
no additional radiation exposure to the ISS crew is expected as a result of
the solar activity. Increased solar activity is forecast for the next few
weeks, and the control team will continue to monitor the progress of events
with support from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Since arriving early Monday morning at their home for the next six months,
Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri have
spent the week familiarizing themselves with real-time station operations
from departing Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science
Officer Ed Lu.

Among the handover activities conducted this week were robotic training for
Foale on the station's remote manipulator system, called Canadarm2. He will
serve as the incoming NASA ISS science officer also, and spent a great deal
of his handover activities in the Destiny laboratory where most of the
experiment work will take place during his six months aboard. Meanwhile,
Kaleri and Malenchenko devoted their attention to operational handover in
the Russian segment of the station, which will be overseen by Kaleri
throughout the increment.

The weekend will be devoted almost exclusively to Soyuz stowage activities
for the Expedition 7 crew's return to Earth along with European Space Agency
astronaut Pedro Duque, who has spent the last eight days conducting a host
of science experiments in support of a commercial contract with the Russian
Aviation and Space Agency.

The station crews will wake up Monday about 1 a.m. CST and the hatch to the
Expedition 7 crew's Soyuz is set to be closed around 2 p.m. Undocking is
planned for 5:18 p.m. followed by the deorbit burn at 7:47 p.m. and landing
at 8:41 p.m.

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 Monday, Oct. 27, after the
Expedition 7 Soyuz lands, or earlier, if events warrant.


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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info