Mon, Jun 23, 2003
4 p.m. CDT, Friday, June 20, 2003, Mission Control Center,
Houston, TX
Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA International
Space Station Science Officer Ed Lu donned Hawaiian aloha shirts
this week to show off some of the clothing they had unpacked from a
newly arrived Russian resupply craft. They wore the red and white,
flowered shirts – complete with the Expedition 7 crew patch
– in downlink television interviews.
Malenchenko and Lu answered questions posed by reporters from
CNN, CBS and KCRA-TV, Sacramento, Calif., during breaks in their
Progress unloading and scientific research. Lu even took a moment
in one interview to play a short rendition of the
“Peanuts” theme on a keyboard he has been practicing
with on orbit.
But for the most part, it was a busy week of work as the pair
unloaded about two tons of food, water, clothing, office supplies,
environmental system replacement parts and experiment gear from
Progress 11. The Russian cargo craft automatically docked to the
Pirs Docking Compartment on June 11; the Expedition 7 crew began
unloading the cargo ship last Friday. Water transfers were effected
using hoses and a portable electric pump that moved about 210
liters of drinking water from the Progress into a bladder in the
Zvezda Service Module. Each crewmember uses about 2 liters of water
per day.
In addition, propellant valves were opened between the Service
Module fuel system and the Pirs system to enable fuel to be
transferred from the new Progress to Zvezda.
Tuesday, Lu slipped his hands into
the Microgravity Science Glovebox to continue work with the
Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from
Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE) experiment. InSPACE is investigating
a type of “smart fluids” that researchers hope will
help improve braking and vibration damping systems. Lu beamed down
video of his setup and deactivation of the experiment, as well as
shots of the bright green liquid inside the experiment chamber.
Scientists at the Payload Operations Center at Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., monitored the experiment and the
associated video.
Next week, the crew will continue unpacking the Progress and
transferring fuel to Zvezda’s tanks. Also on the schedule is
a ship-to-ship conversation between the crew and Peggy Whitson, the
Expedition 5 science officer who is commanding a 14-day underwater
research mission as part of the NASA Extreme Environment Operations
(NEEMO) project. That conversation will be broadcast live on NASA
TV at 11:25 a.m. CDT Wednesday, June 25, between the ISS and the
Aquarius underwater lab off the coast of Key Largo, Fla..
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