Station Crew Stays Busy, Awaits Departure

Expedition 9 Keeps Busy as Departure Approaches

Troubleshooting and analysis continue as the Elektron oxygen generator shut
itself off Wednesday. Ground specialists are looking into the possibility
that a software glitch may have caused too much pressure in an oxygen line.
Meanwhile, Station operations continue as Expedition 9 plans for a Station
reboost Thursday morning.

Flight Engineer Mike Fincke successfully activated and checked out the Space
Station's treadmill. Despite slack rope concerns, the treadmill was cleared
for normal crew exercise sessions. Every six months the resident crew
inspects and maintains the treadmill and its chassis.

Fincke and Commander Gennady Padalka conducted another session of the
NEUROCOG experiment. They took turns attaching head electrodes and measuring
EEG (electroencephalogram) data for study on Earth. The experiment records
data as the crewmembers experience a virtual environment in free-floating
and fixed positions.

Padalka also inspected a Russian plant experiment, while Fincke did some
maintenance of an environmental control and life support system inside the
Zvezda Service Module. The commander also photographed more Earth features
as his crewmate chose September 25 to perform a microgravity demonstration
in support of NASA's Educational Program Operation.

Mission managers have set the launch date and time for Expedition 10.
Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov,
are planned to launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on October 10. After
liftoff, they would arrive at the ISS nearly two days later.

Also, Flight Engineer Yuri Shargin, a Russian cosmonaut, will launch to the
ISS with Expedition 10. He will live and work aboard the Station for several
days and then return home with Expedition 9. Padalka and Fincke will return
home in the same Soyuz capsule that took them to the Station. They will land
in Kazakhstan.


--
---------------------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info