ISS Status Report No. 53 - 2003

International Space Station Status Report #03-53
3 a.m. CDT, Monday, Oct. 20, 2003
Expedition 7 Crew

New residents arrived at the International Space Station Monday with the ISS
Soyuz 7 spacecraft docking to the Station at 2:16 a.m. CDT (0716 GMT,
11:16am Moscow time). The arrival of Expedition 8 and a European Space
Agency visiting researcher initiated a week of intense science operations
and handover activities for the newest station crew, which will stay aboard
the complex for nearly 200 days.

With Soyuz Commander and Expedition 8 Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri at
the controls, the Soyuz vehicle softly linked up to the Pirs Docking
Compartment as the two spacecraft flew 240 miles above central Asia. The
docking followed Saturday's launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. Joining Kaleri are Expedition 8 Commander and NASA ISS Science
Officer Mike Foale and Pedro Duque of Spain.

Foale and Kaleri will spend more than six months living on the Station while
Duque, who is flying under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian
Aviation and Space Agency, will conduct an eight-day research mission before
returning October 27 with Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA
ISS Science Officer Ed Lu, who monitored the new crew's arrival from onboard
the ISS. Today marked 177 days in space for Malenchenko and Lu, and 175 days
on the ISS.

After docking, clamps were affixed to the interface between the Soyuz and
Pirs, and leak checks in the small tunnel connecting the two craft was
underway. The hatches will be opened at about 5:15 a.m. Central time
signaling the start of eight days of joint operations. Foale, Kaleri and
Duque are the first visitors for Malenchenko and Lu, who have overseen
operations and been in orbit since late April.

On the scene at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev outside Moscow
are NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight William Readdy and
International Space Station Program Manager William Gerstenmaier.

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 after hatch opening.


###



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

Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info