ISS Status Report No. 49 - 2003

International Space Station Status Report #03-49
4 p.m. CDT, Friday, Oct. 3, 2003
Expedition 7 Crew

The week for Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA International Space Station
Science Officer Ed Lu was filled with work on various science experiments
and routine maintenance aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Lu spent much of his time inside the U.S. Destiny laboratory setting up and
performing science investigations. He installed a protein crystal growth
experiment in the Microgravity Science Glovebox that will be operated by
European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque of Spain, who will arrive at the
Station Oct. 20 with the oncoming Expedition 8 crew. Duque, who is flying to
the Station on a Soyuz spacecraft under a commercial contract between ESA
and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, will return to Earth Oct. 28 with
Malenchenko and Lu.

A soldering experiment that is providing insight into how solder connections
in space can be improved and an automated Earth observation camera system
were also set up by Lu in the lab. This week, Lu worked with the Fluid
Dynamics Investigation, which scientists believe will help alleviate
problems with mixing samples for tissue growth experiments. Those samples
are housed in a bioreactor, which allows three-dimensional tissue cells,
like those in the human body, to grow.

As part of an educational project to help inspire the next generation of
explorers, Lu used well-known objects to videotape center-of-mass
demonstrations. Using a screwdriver, a compact disc player, a cassette tape
and a ruler, he showed how these objects behave differently without gravity.
The video will be distributed to science centers across the country for use
in lesson plans and future exhibits.

Malenchenko conducted science experiments in the Russian segment of the
Space Station. They included biomedical studies of the human body in
microgravity as well as observations of thunderstorm activity, the world's
ocean biology and studies of how space-based predictions of man-made
disasters could be made.

The maintenance activities onboard the Station included Malenchenko
inspecting fire sensors in the Zarya control module and checking systems in
the Pirs Docking Compartment. Both Lu and Malenchenko did monthly
maintenance on the treadmill and resistive exercise equipment.

Lu also configured the U.S. laptop computers so the Expedition 8 crew can
begin using them when it arrives. The oncoming resident crew, Commander and
NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri,
along with Duque, are set to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan at 12:37 a.m. CDT Oct. 18.

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 Oct. 10 or sooner if events
warrant.

-end-


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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info