Jan. 20, 2006
J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-5241
James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(281) 483-5111
STATUS REPORT: SS06-003
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS06-003
Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur began his week Sunday by running
a half-marathon on the station treadmill, supporting friends and
colleagues running in the Houston Marathon. As he ran 220 miles above
the Earth on board the station, the runners circled Houston.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, McArthur, Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev and
ground flight control teams rehearsed procedures for a rapid cabin
air leak requiring station evacuation. Similar emergency procedures
are regularly practiced by all station crews.
The crew is preparing for their second spacewalk. On Thursday, mission
managers decided to delay the spacewalk from Feb. 2 to Feb. 3 to ease
the crew’s preparation schedule. Mission Control sent the crew
detailed procedures for the spacewalk this week, and they reviewed
them with experts on the ground. The crew began charging batteries
and preparing the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock for the excursion.
For the spacewalk, they will wear Russian Orlan-M spacesuits.
During the spacewalk, the crew will move a cargo boom adapter from one
module to another; install a safety bolt into a cable cutter on the
Mobile Transporter truss rail car; and deploy SuitSat, an old Orlan
space suit equipped with an active amateur radio transmitter. SuitSat
will remain in orbit for several weeks and allow contact with amateur
radio operators on the ground.
Science operations this week included powering on the European Space
Agency Protein Crystal Growth Monitoring by Digital Holographic
Microscope for the International Space Station (PROMISS-4)
experiment.
McArthur spent several hours setting up the Microgravity Science
Glovebox and other support equipment early in the week. He began
sample processing for the PROMISS experiment in the glove box on
Thursday. The experiment will investigate the growth processes of
proteins during weightless conditions using advanced imaging methods
such as digital holography.
McArthur and Tokarev took time out from their duties on Friday to
answer questions from students at the Kuss Middle School in Fall
River, Mass.
For information about crew activities, future launch dates and station
sighting opportunities on the Web, visit:
For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:
-end-
To subscribe to the list, send a message to:
hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov
To remove your address from the list, send a message to:
hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov
