Three-Man Crew Preparing For Return To Earth
The Expedition 6 crewmembers on board the
International Space Station stepped up their preparations for
returning to Earth this week, while the next permanent crew for the
station received its final certification for a launch scheduled for
the end of next week.
Monday the Expedition crewmembers - Commander Ken Bowersox,
Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin, and NASA ISS Science Officer Don
Pettit - got into their Sokol launch and entry suits for a fit
check in the shock-absorbing seats in the Descent Module of the
Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft docked to the station's Pirs Docking
Compartment. Wednesday morning, taking advantage of their ability
to look at the actual hardware on orbit, the crewmembers spent an
hour answering questions from members of the flight control team in
Houston about the details of several maintenance and repair tasks
completed during the past few months. Packing of personal gear, and
other preparations for departure and landing, continued all
week.
Soyuz TMA-2: All Systems Go For Launch
Plans for the launch of the next crew to the International Space
Station advanced this week, too. On Monday at the General
Designer's Review in Moscow officials confirmed that the Soyuz
TMA-2 vehicle is ready for launch. Today officials at the Gagarin
Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, certified the
Expedition 7 crewmembers for flight.
Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu
are due to depart Star City for the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site
in Kazakhstan on Sunday to make final preparations for their launch
April 26, at 9:54 a.m. Baikonur time (10:54 p.m. CDT on Friday,
April 25). The new crew should arrive at the station early in
the morning of Monday, April 28, to begin six days of handover
briefings with the returning crew. Bowersox, Budarin and
Pettit are scheduled to land in the old Soyuz on May 4; Bowersox
and Pettit will be the first American astronauts ever to land in a
Soyuz spacecraft.
Meantime, Take This Little Cup Into The Bathroom...
While spending more time on departure preparations
this week, the station crew continued their science
operations. All three participated in biomedical experiments
looking into lung function and kidney stone formation in
microgravity, and each day Pettit oversaw experiment runs of the
InSpace investigation in the Destiny Laboratory's Microgravity
Sciences Glovebox. Pettit has been applying and removing magnetic
forces to particles and clumps of particles suspended in
paramagnetic fluids for the benefit of investigators looking to
develop better fluids for brake and vibration damping systems.
All three crewmembers also continued their participation in
several research protocols to learn more about how the human body
reacts to extended periods in a weightless environment.
Thursday the Expedition 6 crewmembers participated in another
educational event, answering questions about their mission and
about living in space posed by students from Mountain Park
Elementary School in Roswell (GA) who have been participating in a
year-long celebration of the Centennial of Flight.