June 30, 2006
Joe Pally
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-7239
James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
STATUS REPORT: SS06-031
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS06-031
The Expedition 13 crew welcomed a Russian resupply ship this week and
prepared for the arrival of Space Shuttle Discovery.
Discovery’s launch is scheduled for 3:49 p.m. EDT Saturday.
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 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 use Leonardo to bring about 5,000 pounds of
supplies to the station.
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 because of 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 on 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.
The next station status report will be issued on Friday, July 7, or
after the STS-121 mission.
For more about the crew’s activities and station sighting
opportunities, visit:
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
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