Sun, Jul 02, 2006
ISS Status Report #33, 4 p.m. CDT, Friday, June 30, 2006
The Expedition 13 crew
welcomed a Russian resupply ship this week and prepared for the
arrival of Space Shuttle Discovery.
Discovery’s launch was originally scheduled for 3:49 p.m.
EDT Saturday and has been rescheduled for Sunday. Discovery's
STS-121 mission will return the station to three crew members for
the first time since 2003, when European Space Agency astronaut
Thomas Reiter joins crew members Jeff Williams, flight engineer and
Pavel Vinogradov, commander.
To get ready for upcoming STS-121 spacewalks, the crew flushed
cooling loops in the Quest airlock and U.S. spacesuits, configured
airlock systems and tools, and reviewed robotic arm procedures.
They checked out a ship-to-ship communications system that will be
used for conversations with Discovery's crew during rendezvous and
disconnected the station’s Common Cabin Air Assembly heat
exchanger. That device will be returned to Earth aboard Discovery
along with other equipment in the Italian-built Leonardo
Multipurpose Logistics Module. Discovery will bring about 5,000
pounds of supplies to the station carried aboard the logistics
module.
The crew also completed a mid-mission session of the renal stone
experiment by collecting urine samples and logging all of the food
and drinks consumed over a three-day period. Each crewmember is
taking either potassium citrate, a drug found to be useful in
preventing kidney stone formation on Earth, or a placebo. Crews in
space are at risk for kidney stones linked to their loss of bone
density.
ISS Progress 22, the unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft, brought
2.5 tons of fresh produce, other foodstuffs, food, fuel and
supplies to the station June 26. After the cargo ship was fully
connected with station systems, flight controllers in Moscow
completed a routine thruster test and Vinogradov removed its Kurs
automated rendezvous hardware.
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