INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS05-058

December 16, 2005

Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-3749

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
Phone: (281) 483-5111

STATUS REPORT: SS05-058

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS05-058

This week the crew focused on preparing for the arrival of a holiday
shipment of fuel, food, water, spare parts and gifts. A Progress
spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at
1:38 p.m. EST, Dec. 21. The 20th supply ship to visit the station
will arrive at the Pirs docking compartment Dec. 23 at 2:54 p.m. EST.

Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery
Tokarev brushed up on operating a backup, manual docking system in
case the standard automated one fails. The Progress will deliver
3,097 pounds of food, clothing, experiment hardware, spare parts and
gifts; 1,940 pounds of propellant; 463 pounds of water; 183 pounds of
oxygen and air. The Progress docked to the station will remain for
several months along with the new craft.

The crew also performed biomedical experiments to study the impact of
long-duration missions in space. Maintenance work this week included
upgrading software on equipment racks in the Destiny laboratory;
restoring the air conditioner in the crew health care system to full
operation; and reactivating an air monitoring system.

McArthur completed refresher training with the station’s
Canadian-built robotic arm. He also videotaped a lesson on how
station crews recycle supplies. The video demonstrates basic
scientific principles and will be part of NASA educational products
made available to schools across the country.

For information about crew activities, future launch dates and station
sighting opportunities on the Web, visit:

-end-

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