New Crew, New Records, More Science Aboard Station


Image above: Expedition 15 approaches the station in a Soyuz TMA-10
spacecraft. Joining them for the ride was Spaceflight Participant Charles
Simonyi who will return home with Expedition 14.
Image credit: NASA TV

New station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and his flight engineer Oleg Kotov continue handover and familiarization activities with the outgoing Expedition 14 crew. Flight Engineer Sunita Williams joins Expedition 15 from Expedition 14, while Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi leaves for home April 20 with Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin.

Every day Lopez-Alegria is in space he extends the American single spaceflight duration record. With Williams expected to return to Earth in August she is likely to break the Expedition 14 commander’s record.

Science continues aboard the International Space Station. Crew members are working on experiments to understand the potential for decompression sickness among spacewalkers and to understand the effect of long-duration spaceflight on a crew member’s ability to pilot a spacecraft.

Williams Plans to Run Marathon Monday

Flight Engineer Suni Williams plans to run the Boston Marathon on a station treadmill on Monday, April 16, at 10 a.m. EDT. As an official entrant in the race, she will circle Earth at least twice in the process, running as fast as eight mph but flying more than five miles each second.

Williams, an accomplished marathoner, hopes her unique run will serve as an inspiration.

"I encourage kids to start making physical fitness part of their daily lives," Williams said. "I think a big goal like a marathon will help get this message out there."

Source: NASA - Space Station

Williams Starts Marathon, Handover Activities Continue


Image above: Flight Engineer Suni Williams is running the Boston
Marathon on a station treadmill.
Image credit: NASA TV

Flight Engineer Suni Williams started running of the Boston Marathon on a station treadmill Monday morning. As an official entrant in the race, she will circle Earth at least twice in the process, running as fast as eight mph but flying more than five miles each second.

Williams, an accomplished marathoner, hopes her unique run will serve as an inspiration.

"I encourage kids to start making physical fitness part of their daily lives," Williams said. "I think a big goal like a marathon will help get this message out there."

The Expedition 14 crew members are busy packing items in the Soyuz capsule for their return trip home. They are also charging satellite phone batteries and performing dedicated handover activities with the Expedition 15 crew.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Race From Space Coincides with Race on Earth

210 miles above Earth, Expedition 15 crew member Sunita Williams attempted something no other astronaut has ever done. She is running the Boston Marathon while in orbit.


Image above: Flight Engineer Suni William is running the Boston
Marathon on a station treadmill.
Photo credit: NASA TV

Williams started her running of the Boston Marathon on a station treadmill early Monday morning. As an official entrant in the race, she will circle Earth at least twice in the process, running as fast as eight mph but flying more than five miles each second.

The Boston Athletic Association has issued Williams bib number 14,000. The bib has been sent electronically to NASA, which has forwarded it to Williams. She’s a Needham, Mass., native and says her reason for running the marathon is simple. “I would like to encourage kids to start making physical fitness part of their daily lives. I thought a big goal like a marathon would help get this message out there.”

Regular exercise is essential to maintaining bone density while in space for astronauts. “In microgravity, both of these things start to go away because we don’t use our legs to walk around and don’t need the bones and muscles to hold us up under the force of gravity,” Williams said.

No one knows that better than Steve Hart. For two years, he’s been Williams’ flight surgeon. “There are specific challenges to staying healthy while in space. Sunita wants to make fitness the hallmark of her expedition stay. She wants to educate and motivate others about being physically fit in general.”

Williams, an accomplished marathoner, has been training for the marathon for months while serving a six-month stint as a flight engineer on board the ISS. She runs at least four times a week, 2 longer runs and 2 shorter runs.

Williams qualified for the marathon when she ran a 3:29:57 in the Houston Marathon last year. Her biggest challenge running in space will be staying harnessed to a specially designed treadmill with bungee cords. Williams says running on the TVIS which stands for Treadmill Vibration Isolation System can sometimes be uncomfortable. The machinery puts a strain on the runner's hips and shoulders.

Mitzi Laughlin is an Astronaut Strength, Conditioning and Rehabilitation coach at Johnson Space Center. She’s been involved in planning Williams' rigorous exercise routine for a year and a half. “We’ve done a lot more TVIS work than we would normally prescribe for any astronaut. Suni has a superb fitness level. She’s dedicated and perhaps one of our best runners.”

Here on Earth, Williams has a huge support network. Fellow NASA astronaut, Karen Nyberg, Williams’ sister Dina Pandya, and long-time friend Ronnie Harris will be among the 24,000 other runners participating in the marathon. Harris met Williams during their days together at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. “Anything regarding Boston makes Suni light up. Her running passion is manifested in the best marathon in the world, which happens to be her home town. You need to experience the Boston Marathon to understand why she is gonna do it in orbit.”

Race organizers say this will be their first satellite venture, and they are thrilled about it. "Suni running 26.2 miles in space on Patriots' Day is really a tribute to the thousands of marathoners who are running here on Earth. She is pioneering new frontiers in the running world,” said Jack Fleming, Boston Athletic Association.

Eldora Valentine
NASA's Johnson Space Center

Source: NASA - Station - Expeditions

Williams Completes Marathon, Handover Activities Continue


Image above: Flight Engineer Suni Williams is running the Boston
Marathon on a station treadmill.
Image credit: NASA TV

Flight Engineer Suni Williams circled Earth at least twice, running as fast as eight mph but flying more than five miles each second, as she completed the Boston Marathon on a station treadmill. Her unofficial completion time was four hours and 24 minutes as she completed the race at 2:24 p.m. EDT.

Williams, an accomplished marathoner, hopes her unique run will serve as an inspiration.

"I encourage kids to start making physical fitness part of their daily lives," Williams said. "I think a big goal like a marathon will help get this message out there."

The Expedition 14 crew members are busy packing items in the Soyuz capsule for their return trip home. They are also charging satellite phone batteries and performing dedicated handover activities with the Expedition 15 crew.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Expedition 15 Takes Charge After Ceremony


Image above: Expedition 14 hands over control of the station to
Expedition 15 during a change-of-command ceremony.
Image credit: NASA TV

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin is now in charge of the International Space Station. Staying with him after Expedition 14 leaves are flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams. The change-of-command ceremony took place in the Destiny laboratory at 4:40 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi leave the station April 21 in a Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft. They will land northeast of Arkalyk which is southeast of the usual landing site in Kazakhstan.

On Monday, Suni Williams became the first human to run the Boston Marathon in space. She finished the race on a specially designed treadmill in 4 hours, 23 minutes and ten seconds.

Source: NASA - Space Station

'Hope' Grows


Image above: At the podium is Bill Parsons, director of Kennedy Space Center. Seated at right are Russ Romanella,
director of International Space Station and Spacecraft Processing; Dr. Kichiro Imagawa, project manager of the JEM
Development Project Team for JAXA; Melanie Saunders, associate manager of the International Space Station Program
at Johnson Space Center; and STS-123 Commander Dominic Gorie.
Image credit: NASA/George Shelton
+ View Larger Image

The second of two pressurized components for the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo has arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Kibo, which means hope, is Japan's first human space facility and its primary contribution to the International Space Station.

In the Space Station Processing Facility, representatives from both the Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA were on hand to mark the beginning of the final preparations for flight. Teams of Japanese and American technicians will work together to perform checkout and processing activities prior to launch.

Astronauts Dominic Gorie and Takao Doi. This pressurized section will be the first Kibo segment attached to the space station by the crew of the STS-123 shuttle mission, and will serve as a storage area for materials, tools and supplies. In addition, it will deliver eight experiment racks that will later be transferred to the main Kibo laboratory module.


Image Above: STS-123 Commander Dominic Gorie
(left) and JAXA Astronaut Takao Doi discuss the Kibo
pressurized segment that will be delivered to the space
station during their mission.
Image Credits: NASA

+ Visit the Observation Deck

Cheryl L. Mansfield
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

Source: NASA - Space Station - Behind The Scenes

Just a thought...


...but in reality, Suni actually finished the marathon in approximately 5.35 seconds (she was moving at approximately 17,500 MPH, no?).
Got to be a record there somewhere, eh??

She actually ran about 76,800 miles!

Expedition 15 Takes Charge After Ceremony


Image above: Expedition 14 hands over control of the station to
Expedition 15 during a change-of-command ceremony.
Image credit: NASA TV

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin is now in charge of the International Space Station. Staying with him after Expedition 14 leaves are flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams. The change-of-command ceremony took place in the Destiny laboratory at 4:40 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi leave the station April 21 in a Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft. They will land northeast of Arkalyk which is southeast of the usual landing site in Kazakhstan. The landing was delayed a day and moved farther south because wet ground at the initial site precluded helicopter operations there.

On Monday, Suni Williams became the first human to run the Boston Marathon in space. She finished the race on a specially designed treadmill in 4 hours, 23 minutes and ten seconds.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Expedition 14 Preps for Trip Home


Image above: A plume at Shiveluch Volcano, Kamchatka Peninsula,
Russia is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 14 crew
member on the International Space Station.
Image credit: NASA TV

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi are making preparations for their trip home. Members of both Expedition 14 and Expedition 15 are continuing crew rotation and handover activities, as well as prepacking hardware for return and disposal in the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft.

The returning crew is scheduled to leave the station early Saturday and will land northeast of Arkalyk, which is southeast of the usual landing site in Kazakhstan. The landing was delayed a day and moved farther south because wet ground at the initial site precluded helicopter operations there.

Flight Engineer Sunita Williams is now a member of Expedition 15 and is scheduled to return with the STS-118 shuttle crew.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Building the Dream

You don't have to spend long talking to Scott Higginbotham before you realize that this man loves his job. His enthusiasm is still evident, even after 15 years as a mission manager whose team prepares payloads to fly aboard the space shuttle.

"One of the special things about this job is that you get to see all these people come together to build some really cool spaceships, and then you get to see them launched," he says with unabashed excitement. "I did that as a little kid with toys and now I'm doing it for real. This is not just a job, it's a continuation of the fun I had as a kid. I've been really blessed. It's nice to have a job that's fun."


Image above: Scott Higginbotham works closely with the Japanese
Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA) as he helps them prepare
the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo.
Image credit: NASA

But that enthusiasm might seem to belie the huge responsibility of the work he orchestrates, backed up by two engineering degrees and some people skills that can't be taught. When dealing with the multi-national cooperative effort of building the International Space Station, all of these skills and talents must come into play.

As a mission manager for a vast array of components destined for the station, Higginbotham leads a highly trained team of engineers, technicians and quality inspectors who assemble and test station hardware at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida before it is launched aboard the shuttle.

"I get to work with an incredible bunch of people," he says. "I don't know that we have anywhere in this country a better collection of interesting and talented people than we do here."

Maybe Higginbotham's greatest joy comes from seeing those components reach space. "Launch day is the culmination of everything you've been working for, and to finally see that vehicle lift off the pad and take your spacecraft up where it belongs, it's almost indescribable."

But as exciting as the launch can be, it's what comes next that gives him the most satisfaction. "The best part is when I go home after launch, and I'm exhausted, drained," he says. "And I sit down on the couch, I turn on NASA Television -- and usually the timing's about right -- when the payload bay doors come open, and there it is: that spaceship I helped build, and it's now circling the Earth at 17,500 miles an hour. That's so incredibly cool."


Image above: In the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy
Space Center in Florida, Higginbotham (left) discusses the Kibo with
Kohki Oikawa of JAXA.
Image credit: NASA

The international aspect of the space station work has taken him to Japan four times, since his assigned missions include all of the components that will make up the Kibo (Hope) module, the Japanese contribution to the station.

The learning experience of working with Japan and other international partner nations has helped shape what he feels is the groundwork for the future cooperative efforts in space exploration.

"What we're doing here now on the station, not only are we building this marvelous research facility, but we're also learning and setting the stage for how we can work together on manned spaceflight projects for the future," he says. "Hopefully, what we've learned from the station will make the next big program even better."

But Higginbotham is quick to point out that as much as he loves his job, it comes second to his devotion to his family. That balance is made a little easier since his wife, who he describes as his best friend, works just down the hall and has shared mission assignments with him. "I have two passions in my life. One is my family, and the second is my work. And so I'm really blessed in that regard, because I have the best of both worlds."

Given these dual passions, it's not hard to imagine that his best bragging rights come from the moments when he can point to the TV during live mission coverage and say to his kids, "Daddy helped build that!"

Cheryl L. Mansfield
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

Source: NASA - Space Station - Behind The Scenes

Expedition 14 Returning Home Saturday


Image above:The crew members onboard the International Space Station
pose for a group portrait during the Changing-of-Command ceremony
from Expedition 14 to Expedition 15 in the Destiny laboratory on April 17.
Image credit: NASA

The crew members aboard the International Space Station spent this week finalizing handover operations, conducting experiments and preparing for the departure of the Expedition 14 crew accompanied by Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi. Undocking of the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft carrying the returning crew is scheduled for 5:11 a.m. EDT Saturday with landing about three hours later at 8:30 a.m. The landing site will be southeast of the usual landing site in Kazakhstan because of wet ground due to spring thaw.

With the landing, Commander Lopez-Alegria will set a U.S. record for a single spaceflight’s duration of 215 days. He also sets the U.S. record for number of spacewalks, 10, and cumulative spacewalk time, 57 hours, 40 minutes.

Expedition 15, consisting of Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 7. Sunita Williams will remain on the station as an Expedition 15 flight engineer and is scheduled to return with the STS-118 shuttle crew.

Live coverage of the landing operations will begin on NASA-TV Saturday at 1:30 a.m. for hatch closing, then will return at 4:45 a.m. for undocking, and resume at 7:15 a.m. monitoring the deorbit burn and landing.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Expedition 14 Undocks and Heads Home


Image above:The crew members onboard the International Space Station
pose for a group portrait during the Changing-of-Command ceremony
from Expedition 14 to Expedition 15 in the Destiny laboratory on April 17.
Image credit: NASA

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi undocked from the International Space Station today at 5:10 a.m. EDT. They are headed home in a Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft with a planned landing in Russia about 8:30 a.m. EDT. Lopez-Alegria goes home holding the U.S. spaceflight endurance record.

Back on the station is Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams. Williams had been a member of Expedition 14 since December. She will remain with Expedition 15 until this summer.

Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 7.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Expedition 14 Soyuz Undocks from Space Station

Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, the 14th crew of the International Space Station, undocked their Soyuz spacecraft from the orbiting laboratory at 5:10 a.m. EDT on their way to a landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

They are scheduled to touch down about 8:30 a.m. The landing was delayed a day and moved farther south because wet ground at the initial site precluded helicopter operations there.

With Expedition 14 is Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, an American and founder of his own computer software company, who flew to the space station with the Expedition 15 crew and spent about 12 days aboard. He was on the station under a contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).


Image above: In the front row, are the Expedition 15
crew members with Spaceflight Participant Charles
Simonyi in the middle. In the back, are the Expedition
14 crew members with Suni Williams at right, who stayed
aboard after her crewmates left.
Image credit: NASA

Lopez-Alegria is a veteran of three previous spaceflights on the space shuttle, including two missions to the station, where he did five spacewalks. Tyurin spent 125 days aboard the station as a member of the Expedition 3 crew between August and December 2001. They launched Sept. 18 in the Soyuz that brought them home and arrived at the station Sept. 20.

During E14, Lopez-Alegria completed five additional spacewalks, including three with Flight Engineer Sunita Williams. The spacewalks gave him the U.S. record for number of spacewalks, 10, and cumulative spacewalk time, 57 hours, 40 minutes. He also set a U.S. record for a single spaceflight's duration.

E14 welcomed the shuttle Discovery on its STS-116 mission. Discovery brought to the station the Port 5 truss segment with its new solar arrays and more than two tons of other equipment and supplies. It also brought Williams and took home Thomas Reiter, the European Space Agency astronaut who served with the latter part of Expedition 13 and the early part of E14.

During Discovery's visit to the station, crew members and flight controllers also reconfigured the orbiting laboratory's power system.

Before closing the Soyuz-station hatches, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin said farewell to the E15 crew, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and Williams, the astronaut who served on the station during the latter part of E14 and remains for the first part of E15.

E15 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 7 at 1:31 p.m.

Back on the space station, the E15 crew began the solo portion of its six-month increment.

Yurchikhin, 48, is making his second flight into space. He was a member of the STS-112 crew which launched to the station aboard Atlantis on Oct. 7, 2002, with the Starboard 1 Truss. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and was named a cosmonaut-candidate in 1997.

Kotov, 41, is making his first spaceflight. He graduated from the Moscow Medical Academy in 1988, and was named a cosmonaut-candidate in 1996.

Williams, 41, is a Naval Academy graduate and a Navy commander. She flew helicopters and was a helicopter test pilot before being selected as an astronaut in 1998.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will spend several weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical examinations.


John Ira Petty
NASA's Johnson Space Center

Source: NASA - Space Station - Expeditions

Expedition 14 Back on Earth


Image above: Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria at the
landing site in Kazakhstan.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi are back on Earth. They landed safely southwest of Karaganda, Kazakhstan at 8:31 a.m. EDT.

Back on the station is Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams. Williams had been a member of Expedition 14 since December. She will remain with Expedition 15 until this summer.

Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 7.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Expedition 14 Back on Earth

Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, the 14th crew of the International Space Station, landed safely in their Soyuz spacecraft Saturday at 8:31 EDT in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

The landing was delayed a day and moved farther south because wet ground at the initial site precluded helicopter operations there.

With Expedition 14 was Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, an American and founder of his own computer software company, who flew to the space station with the Expedition 15 crew and spent about 12 days aboard. He was on the station under a contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.


Image above: In the front row, are the Expedition 15
crew members with Spaceflight Participant Charles
Simonyi in the middle. In the back, are the Expedition
14 crew members with Suni Williams at right, who stayed
aboard after her crewmates left.
Image credit: NASA

Lopez-Alegria is a veteran of three previous spaceflights on the space shuttle, including two missions to the station, where he did five spacewalks. Tyurin spent 125 days aboard the station as a member of the Expedition 3 crew between August and December 2001. They launched Sept. 18 in the Soyuz that brought them home and arrived at the station Sept. 20.

During E14, Lopez-Alegria completed five additional spacewalks, including three with Flight Engineer Sunita Williams. The spacewalks gave him the U.S. record for number of spacewalks, 10, and cumulative spacewalk time, 57 hours, 40 minutes.

He also set a U.S. record for a single spaceflight's duration more than 215 days.

E14 welcomed the shuttle Discovery on its STS-116 mission. Discovery brought to the station the Port 5 truss segment with its new solar arrays and more than two tons of other equipment and supplies. It also brought Williams and took home Thomas Reiter, the European Space Agency astronaut who served with the latter part of Expedition 13 and the early part of E14.

During Discovery's visit to the station, crew members and flight controllers also reconfigured the orbiting laboratory's power system.

Before closing the Soyuz-station hatches at 2:03 a.m. Saturday, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin said farewell to the E15 crew, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and Williams, the astronaut who served on the station during the latter part of E14 and remains for the first part of E15. Yurchikhin and Kotov launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 7 at 1:31 p.m.

Back on the space station, the E15 crew began the solo portion of its six-month increment.

Yurchikhin, 48, is making his second flight into space. He was a member of the STS-112 crew which launched to the station aboard Atlantis on Oct. 7, 2002, with the Starboard 1 Truss. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and was named a cosmonaut-candidate in 1997.

Kotov, 41, is making his first spaceflight. He graduated from the Moscow Medical Academy in 1988, and was named a cosmonaut-candidate in 1996.

Williams, 41, is a Naval Academy graduate and a Navy commander. She flew helicopters and was a helicopter test pilot before being selected as an astronaut in 1998.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will spend several weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical examinations.


John Ira Petty
NASA's Johnson Space Center

Source: NASA - Space Station - Expeditions

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi landed safely southwest of Karaganda, Kazakhstan at 8:31 a.m. EDT on Saturday, April 21.

The landing concludes a 215-day flight for Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin and marks the longest single flight by an American astronaut. Simonyi had launched on April 7 with the Expedition 15 crew, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov.

Suni Williams, who had been a member of Expedition 14 since December, remains on the station with Expedition 15 until this summer.

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

+ Full Resolution (1 Mb)


Source: NASA - Multimedia - Image of the Day Gallery

Landing and recovery officials conduct post-landing medical checks on spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, Expedition 14 flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin and mission commander Michael Lopez-Alegria near their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft at the landing site. The Soyuz spacecraft landed southwest of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, at approximately 6:30 p.m. local time, April 21, 2007.

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

+ Full Resolution (3.4 Mb)


Source: NASA - Multimedia - Image of the Day Gallery

New Crew at Work After Previous Crew Returns to Earth


Image above: From the left, Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi,
Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria
sit in chairs near their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft at their landing site.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

With the previous Expedition crew now back on Earth, the Expedition 15 crew begins a new week of science and maintenance aboard the International Space Station.

On Monday, Flight Engineer Suni Williams worked with the Capillary Flow Experiment (CFE) equipment and performed an experiment. CFE studies the interaction of liquids with solid surfaces in a microgravity environment.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi landed safely in their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Saturday at 8:31 a.m. EDT.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will now spend several weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical examinations.

+ View Expedition 14 landing images

Source: NASA - Space Station

Station Crew Measures Up


Image above: Flight engineers Oleg Kotov (foreground) and Sunita Williams
participate in a Space Station Remote Manipulator System training session
using the Robotic Onboard Trainer simulator in the Unity node of the
International Space Station.
Image credit: NASA

The Expedition 15 crew members aboard the International Space Station enjoyed a light-duty schedule Tuesday, conducting medical operations proficiency reviews and experiment hardware maintenance.

Before breakfast, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams took measurements of their body masses and calf volumes. These routine checks allow them to test the efficacy of countermeasures to the effects of weightlessness on the human body.

Later, Suni Williams performed regular maintenance on some of the station's exercise equipment, including the Resistive Exercise Device -- or RED -- and the treadmill.

Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi and the station's previous crew, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, landed safely in their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Saturday at 8:31 a.m. EDT.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will now spend several weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical examinations.

+ View Expedition 14 landing images

Source: NASA - Space Station

Space Station Reboost Successful


Image above: Flight Engineer Suni Williams performs one of multiple
tests of the Capillary Flow Experiment investigation in the Destiny
laboratory of the International Space Station.
Image credit: NASA

The Expedition 15 crew members aboard the International Space Station tackled a full work schedule Wednesday, performing biomedical tests and station maintenance.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams completed a blood test before breakfast to monitor each crew member's hematocrit, which is the proportion of red cells in the blood. The red blood cell count in space travelers tends to go down over time.

An erroneous fire alarm was triggered on the Microgravity Science Glovebox while Williams was testing the facility. After the crew followed emergency procedures and removed power from the rack, it was determined that this was a false alarm. At no time was there any evidence of fire or smoke, and there were no current spikes to any of the equipment.

The Zvezda Service Module's engines were test fired at 6:22 a.m. EDT in the first of a set of scheduled reboost manuevers to optimize the station's docking opportunities with the ISS Progress 25 cargo craft in May and Space Shuttle Atlantis in June. It was the first firing of the service module's main engines since construction of the space station began.

Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi and the station's previous crew, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, landed safely in their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Saturday at 8:31 a.m. EDT.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will now spend several weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical examinations.

+ View Expedition 14 landing images

Source: NASA - Space Station

NASA to Rotate Station Astronauts on Next Shuttle


Image above: Flight Engineer Suni Williams sets up a video camera in
the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station.
Image credit: NASA

After working aboard the International Space Station since December, Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Suni Williams will come back to Earth aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, targeted for launch June 8. That shuttle mission, STS-117, will carry her successor, astronaut Clay Anderson, to the station to begin his duty as an Expedition 15 flight engineer.

The exchange of Anderson and Williams was originally planned for the STS-118 mission, now targeted for launch in August. However, that flight, first set to fly in June, had to be postponed after an unexpected hail storm damaged Atlantis' external fuel tank and delayed STS-117.

With the new plan, Williams' mission on the station will be approximately the same length as originally anticipated. She launched to the station on Dec. 9, 2006, with the STS-116 crew on space shuttle Discovery and joined the station's Expedition 14 crew.

Williams later became a member of the Expedition 15 crew, joining Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov who arrived at the orbital complex on April 9.

Williams' former crewmates, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, returned to Earth along with spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi aboard their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft on April 21.

Source: NASA - Space Station

New Crew Completes First Week Alone


Image above: Flight Engineer Suni Williams works with water tanks in
the Progress 24 spacecraft docked to the International Space Station.
Image credit: NASA

The Expedition 15 crew members completed their first full week alone aboard the International Space Station since the departure of the previous crew on April 21.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams performed medical exams, science experiments, emergency drills and station maintenance.

Williams, who has been working aboard the space station since December, was informed Thursday that she will return to Earth with the STS-117 crew on space shuttle Atlantis, targeted for launch June 8. That shuttle mission will carry her successor, astronaut Clay Anderson, to the station to begin his duty as an Expedition 15 flight engineer.

The exchange of Anderson and Williams was originally planned for the STS-118 mission, now targeted for launch in August. However, that flight, first set to fly in June, had to be postponed after an unexpected hail storm damaged Atlantis' external fuel tank and delayed STS-117.

The Zvezda Service Module's engines were test fired on Wednesday in the first of a set of scheduled reboost maneuvers to optimize the station's docking opportunities with the ISS Progress 25 cargo craft in May and Atlantis in June. It was the first firing of the service module's main engines since Zvezda arrived in 2000.

The station's former occupants, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, returned to Earth along with spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi aboard their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft on April 21. Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will remain at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia for several weeks of post mission debriefing and rehabilitation.

Source: NASA - Space Station

has anyone ever seen a picture of sunni where she looks unhappy up there?.....B





free to edit if this seems a frivolus question waspi (or any of my posts for that matter)

Crew Begins Week With Maintenance and Experiments


Image above: Venice, Italy, is featured in this image photographed by a
crew member on the International Space Station.
Image credit: NASA

The Expedition 15 crew begins the week with the replacement of several components in the Russian segment of the complex and medical experiments. Sunday was an off-duty day for the crew.

On Saturday, the station was reboosted by the Progress 24 cargo ship's engines to place it at the correct altitude for the docking of the ISS Progress 25 cargo craft on May 15. The reboost also provides at least six flight day three rendezvous opportunities for Atlantis during the STS-117 mission beginning on June 8.

Also over the weekend, Flight Engineer Sunita Williams conducted another weekend science session with the Capillary Flow Experiment, Interior Corner Flow 2. This experiment has applications to the management of liquid fuels, cryogens, water-based solutions and thermal fluids in spacecraft systems.

Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov completed another run of the Russian Diatomeya ocean observations program to record high production zones of phytoplankton. April and May are the period of most intensive blooming of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic waters.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin conducted another session with the Russian Uragan Earth-imaging program, taking pictures of natural environment targets, including those showing man-made impacts on nature.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Expedition 15 Crew Busy With Station Maintenance Tasks

Flight Engineer Sunita Williams began Tuesday with the second session of the new Elastic Memory Composite Hinge experiment, which studies the performance of an advanced type of composite hinge to determine its suitability for use in space. Building new spacecraft structures in space necessitates unfolding items that have been launched from Earth, and elastic memory technology may eliminate the need for highly complex deployment mechanisms by providing a simpler, lighter-weight alternative.


Image above: Sunita Williams works with th
Lab-on-a-Chip Application Development-
Portable Test System experiment.
Image credit: NASA

Williams' main task Tuesday was the removal and replacement of the failed Remote Power Controller Module that governs electrical routing for several systems in the Destiny Laboratory.

Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin performed inflight maintenance to remove a defunct air conditioner and the crew also spent time working on the Elektron oxygen-generating system.

Yurchikhin and Kotov again had an hour each allocated for station familiarization and adaptation to help in adjusting to their new surroundings and activities. These unstructured and discretionary sessions have become a valuable standard requirement for new station occupants.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Crew Conducts Medical Proficiency Training

Flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Sunita Williams performed the Crew Health Care Systems/Crew Medical Officer on-board training drill, a 30-minute video and audio refresher course to hone their skills in emergency medical operations. Wednesday's proficiency drill was guided by a number of training videos and concluded with a self-assessment questionnaire. The training focused on skills and techniques required for eye treatment, medication administration, and treating fractures and dislocations.


Image above: Sunita Williams works with th
Lab-on-a-Chip Application Development-
Portable Test System experiment.
Image credit: NASA

Williams also conducted the periodic two-hour acoustic survey of noise level measurements in the station's interior, while Kotov continued maintenance work on a failed air conditioner.

Williams continued work on the spacesuit batteries by ending the discharge process on the first of two sets, which began on April 30. She then started the procedure on the second set. The batteries will be required for the STS-117 spacewalks. The periodic maintenance consists of fully discharging and then recharging the storage units to prolong their useful life.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Kotov again had an hour each allocated for station familiarization and adaptation to help in adjusting to their new surroundings and activities.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Crew Busy With Experiments and Maintenance


Image above: Sunita Williams, Expedition 15 flight engineer, works with
the Lab-on-a-Chip Application Development-Portable Test System
(LOCAD-PTS) experiment. LOCAD-PTS is a handheld device for rapid
detection of biological and chemical substances onboard the station.
Image credit: NASA

Flight Engineer Sunita Williams finalized the experiment results of the last Lab-on-a-Chip Application Development-Portable Test System session Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Williams completed the certification steps for the annual housekeeping and re-certification of the European Microgravity Science Glovebox. The checkout went well.

Williams deactivated the MedOps cardiac defibrillator and conducted its periodic checkout. This was last done on March 8. The routine maintenance is scheduled as soon as possible from the beginning of a new expedition and every 60 days thereafter. For the checkout, the defibrillator is allowed to charge for about five seconds to a preset energy level. After the button-triggered discharge, a console indicator signals success or failure of the test.

On Wednesday, Williams completed the fifth run of the Elastic Memory Composite Hinge experiment, which was judged very successful.

Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov began Thursday with maintenance in the Zarya module testing the circuits of a temperature sensor on one of the batteries. Kotov also conducted the periodic collection of air readings in the station with the Russian Real-Time Harmful Contaminant Gas Analyzer system.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Kotov again had an hour each allocated for station familiarization and adaptation to help in adjusting to their new surroundings and activities.

Source: NASA - Space Station

May 3, 2007. Baikonur launch site, branch office of S.P.Korolev RSC Energia

Fueling of the Progress M-60 cargo vehicle with propellants and compressed gases is under way.

Click images for larger version

Source: S.P. Korolev RSC Energia - News

May 4, 2007. Baikonur launch site, branch office of S.P.Korolev RSC Energia

Progress M-60 cargo vehicle fuelled with propellant components and compressed gases was delivered to the Spacecraft Assembly and Testing Facility for final processing operations.

Click images for larger version

Continued below:

Continued from above:

Click images for larger version

Source: S.P. Korolev RSC Energia - News

Crew Completes a Week of Experiments and Maintenance


Image above: Sunita Williams, Expedition 15 flight engineer, works with
the Lab-on-a-Chip Application Development-Portable Test System
(LOCAD-PTS) experiment. LOCAD-PTS is a handheld device for rapid
detection of biological and chemical substances onboard the station.
Image credit: NASA

Expedition 15 crew members replaced a heat exchanger on Friday in the Zvezda Service Module. They also swapped out computers in the U.S. lab. Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov finished the repair of the Russian air conditioner that began a few days ago. Flight Engineer Sunita Williams completed the discharge process on the second of two sets of spacesuit batteries. The batteries will be required for the STS-117 spacewalks.

To prepare for the arrival of the unpiloted cargo carrier, ISS Progress 25, the station was reboosted by the Progress 24’s engines April 28. Transfers of cargo continue from the Progress 24 craft to the station. Progress 25 is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan May 11.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Kotov again had an hour each allocated for station familiarization and adaptation to help in adjusting to their new surroundings and activities.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Cross-culture Effort Gives Rise to 'Hope'

Imagine leaving your home, culture and familiar language thousands of miles behind as you carry your nation's hope for space exploration on your shoulders. That's just what some of Japan's space pioneers have been doing for a number of years as they prepare their country's first human spaceflight facility.

The Japanese Experiment Module is called Kibo, which means "hope" in Japanese. Made up of five elements, the module will expand the research capabilities of the International Space Station, or ISS, once its components are assembled in space.


Image above: Technicians review data for preparing
the Japanese modules for space.
Image credit: NASA/KSC

With both pressurized elements now undergoing processing and checkout in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the pace of the long-standing cooperative efforts between the U.S. and Japan has quickened.

Along the way, space workers from both countries have learned quite a bit about each other while bridging the cultural and language gaps. However, with English as the official language while working on the station components at Kennedy, the gap might have been slightly wider for the Japanese.

Among the cultural challenges they've faced, "Difference of language might be the biggest one, for which we Japanese were prepared to work with the NASA engineers in English," says Tetsuro Yokoyama, operations project deputy manager for Kibo. He points out that he has seen improvements during the 20-year collaborative effort.

Scott Higginbotham, NASA's payload mission manager for all three of the space shuttle flights that will carry the Kibo modules to space, calls his Japanese counterparts "a joy to work with." He explains that even something as simple as the difference in time between Florida and Japan can present one more hurdle for them to overcome while working in the U.S.


Image above: Workers process the Japanese Experiment
Module at Kennedy's Space Station Processing Facility.
Image credit: NASA/KSC

"Their management is half a world away, so they end up working here during the day and, at night, they have to go have teleconferences with their bosses back home," he says. "They tend to work very, very long days."

That dedication is bringing the 20-year-old dream of a Japanese presence in space to reality. "And for those of us who are working with them, it's very easy to get wrapped up in their enthusiasm," says Higginbotham, who got to experience the other side of the cultural exchange during four trips to Japan during the course of his involvement with the development of Kibo.

Koki Oikawa, who is in charge of both pressurized Kibo components and their launch site operations, has seen the mutual understanding evolve. "After some accumulated experience in the joint operations at KSC, the American team started to understand our culture and even our individual personalities and ways of thinking. I believe not only Japanese, but also my American colleagues are very devoted to the ISS program and I feel that a healthy mutual respect has been established between us."


Image above: Koki Oikawa from Japan stands with
NASA's payload mission manager, Scott Higginbotham.
Image credit: NASA/KSC

While Kibo's orbiting of Earth as part of the space station will be the tangible result of the cooperative effort, space workers from both sides have learned valuable lessons about one another that will take them forward to future projects.

"What we're doing here now on the station, not only are we building this marvelous research facility, but we're also learning and setting the stage for how we can work together on manned spaceflight projects for the future," Higginbotham says. "Hopefully, what we've learned from the station will make the next big program even better."

Cheryl L. Mansfield
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

Source: NASA - Space Station - Behind The Scenes

May 5, 2007. Baikonur launch site, branch office of S.P.Korolev RSC Energia

Progress M-60 transport cargo vehicle was docked with the transfer compartment in the Spacecraft Assembly and Testing Facility.

Click images for larger version

Source: S.P. Korolev RSC Energia - News

May 6, 2007. Baikonur launch site, branch office of S.P.Korolev RSC Energia

Designers inspection of the Progress M-60 cargo vehicle was completed.

Payload shroud roll on to the cargo vehicle was performed.




Click images for larger version

Source: S.P. Korolev RSC Energia - News

May 7, 2007. Baikonur launch site, branch office of S.P.Korolev RSC Energia

Orbital module of the Soyuz-U launch vehicle, containing Progress M-60 spacecraft was transported from the spacecraft processing facility for the general integration with LV.

Click images for larger version

Source: S.P. Korolev RSC Energia - News

Crew Focuses on Maintenance, Experiments and Fitness


Image above: Sunita Williams, Expedition 15 flight engineer, works with
the Lab-on-a-Chip Application Development-Portable Test System
(LOCAD-PTS) experiment. LOCAD-PTS is a handheld device for rapid
detection of biological and chemical substances onboard the station.
Image credit: NASA

Expedition 15 is busy at work inside the International Space Station. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov have been measuring their calf volume and body mass. They have also been counteracting the effects of microgravity with preventive health maintenance fitness tests on a stationary cycle ergometer. They will continue these tests on a treadmill Tuesday.

The cosmonauts also worked inside the Progress cargo craft dismantling gear for return to Earth on the space shuttle.

Flight Engineer Suni Williams activated and conducted operations on an Air Force Research Laboratory Experiment that is studying elastic memory technology. She also gathered air samples for bacterial and fungal analysis. In the Zvezda service module Williams performed routine maintenance of the Russian environmental control and life support system.

Source: NASA - Space Station

Queen Elizabeth II Visits NASA, Meets Station Crew


Image above: Queen Elizabeth II, right, talks to the International Space
Station crew along with NASA Astronaut Michael Foale, center, and NASA
Administrator Michael Griffin from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center‘s
Operational Control Room, Tuesday, May 8, 2007, in Greenbelt, Md.
NASA Goddard was one of the last stops on the Queen's six-day visit to
the United States.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Queen Elizabeth II visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Tuesday morning. NASA astronaut Michael Foale and NASA Administrator Mike Griffin hosted the queen and introduced her to the Expedition 15 crew members as they orbited the Earth.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams greeted Queen Elizabeth from the International Space Station. The crew members each spoke briefly to the queen describing life on the space station and the importance of human space flight.

Source: NASA - Space Station

May 8, 2007. Baikonur launch site, branch office of S.P.Korolev RSC Energia

The orbital module was integrated with the Soyuz-U launch vehicle in the processing facility.

Click images for larger version

Source: S.P. Korolev RSC Energia - News

Progress to Launch to Space Station

05.08.07

A new Progress freighter is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station at 11:25 p.m. EDT Friday, May 11, with more than 2.5 tons of fuel, air, water and other supplies and equipment aboard.

The station's 25th Progress unpiloted cargo carrier will bring to the orbiting laboratory more than 1,050 pounds of propellant, almost 100 pounds of air, more than 925 pounds of water and 3,042 pounds of dry cargo – a total of 5,125 pounds.

P25 will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It is scheduled to dock with the station Tuesday, May 15, at about 1:10 a.m.


Image above: A Progress cargo spacecraft approaches
the International Space Station prior to docking on
Jan. 19, 2007.
Photo credit: NASA

The spacecraft will use the automated Kurs system to dock at the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin will be at the manual Toru docking system controls, should his intervention become necessary.

Expedition 15 crew members, Yurchikhin and flight engineers Sunita Williams and Oleg Kotov, will continue to use oxygen from the Progress 24 at the Pirs Docking Compartment. It is scheduled to remain there until mid-August.

Once its cargo is unloaded, P25 will be filled with trash and station discards. It is scheduled to be undocked, deorbited and incinerated on re-entry on July 20.

The Progress is similar in appearance and some design elements to the Soyuz spacecraft, which brings crew members to the station, serves as a lifeboat while they are there and returns them to Earth. The aft module, the instrumentation and propulsion module, is nearly identical.

But the second of the three Progress sections is a refueling module, and the third, uppermost as the Progress sits on the launch pad, is a cargo module. On the Soyuz, the descent module, where the crew is seated on launch and which returns them to Earth, is the middle module and the third is called the orbital module.

John Ira Petty
NASA's Johnson Space Center

Source: NASA - Station - Expeditions

they should retrofit progress 25 with a "deorbit burn-cam"......B

To film what exactly?

The ISS is photographed by every approaching crew on the shuttle in far high detail than a TV system could manage so there is no benefit from that. Returning images of the re-entry and burn up would be impossible because once re-entry starts the vehicle becomes surrounded by a plasma which causes a radio black out and so the signals from the camera would not be received on Earth. In between these two event you could get some nice orbital images of the Earth but as these are already provided by the ISS there would be no benefit from those either. All in all there would be nothing of interest to film.

Is he trying to see what it would look like to see the plasma and heat around thye ship during re-entry?

Possibly, but the radio black out caused by the plasma means that the signals couldn't be received. The other, more obvious, problem with this is that the best (and probably only) place you could see this would be from a camera on the outside of the hull (being an unmanned vehicle the Progress has no windows). A camera on the outside of the hull would be just about the first thing that the plasma destroyed.

Cargo Craft Launches to Station on Friday


Image above: A Progress resupply spacecraft approaches the International
Space Station preparing to dock on Dec. 23, 2005.
Image credit: NASA

A Russian cargo craft, the ISS Progress 25, will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:25 p.m. EDT Friday. The unpiloted cargo carrier is delivering propellant, air, water and equipment to the International Space Station. Progress 25 is scheduled to dock at the station Tuesday about 1:10 a.m.

Wednesday, May 9, is “Victory Day” – a Russian holiday. In celebration of Russia's victory over Germany in World War II, the Expedition 15 crew members had an off-duty day.

Source: NASA - Space Station

May 10, 2007. Baikonur launch site, branch office of S.P.Korolev RSC Energia

At 5:00 Moscow time Soyuz launch vehicle was rolled out from the integration building to the launch pad. Soyuz-U launch vehicle with Progress M-60 transport vehicle is installed on the launch pad. L-2 days activities have been started.

Click images for larger version

Source: S.P. Korolev RSC Energia - News

Station Maintenance; Progress Rolls Out to Launch Pad


Image above: The Progress 25 spacecraft rolls out to its launch pad at
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Image credit: NASA/Mark Bowman

Aside from documenting her sleep patterns for an experiment each morning this week, Flight Engineer Sunita Williams performed maintenance on a station treadmill on Thursday. She also inventoried power adapters for several laptop computers.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin performed a periodic health test. Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov set up an experiment that studies respiration of crew members during long-duration missions.

The Progress 25 cargo craft rolled out to its launch pad Thursday at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch is scheduled for 11:25 p.m. EDT Friday. Docking is set for Tuesday about 1:10 a.m.

Queen Elizabeth II visited NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center May 8. Astronaut Michael Foale and NASA Administrator Michael Griffin introduced the queen to the orbiting Expedition 15 station crew during a video conference.

Source: NASA - Space Station

The media advisory is reproduced below:

May 11, 2007

Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-3749

Kyle Herring
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-511

MEDIA ADVISORY: M07-53

NASA TV Broadcasts Cargo Ship Arrival to Space Station

HOUSTON - A cargo ship with more than two tons of supplies for the International Space Station will launch Friday night from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams will receive the shipment of food, fuel and supplies on Tuesday, May 15.

NASA TV will not broadcast the launch of the unpiloted Progress 25 spacecraft but will broadcast its arrival at the International Space Station. NASA TV coverage will begin at 11:30 p.m. CDT, May 14. The Progress is scheduled to dock automatically to the Zvezda Service Module of the station at 12:10 a.m.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information on the space station and the expedition crews, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

- end -

Source: NASA Media Advisory M07-53

Station Resupply Craft Set to Launch Tonight


Image above: The Progress 25 spacecraft rolls out to its launch pad at
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Image credit: NASA/Mark Bowman

A new Progress freighter is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station tonight at 11:25 p.m. EDT with more than 2.5 tons of fuel, air, water and other supplies and equipment aboard.

The station's 25th Progress unpiloted cargo carrier will bring to the orbiting laboratory more than 1,050 pounds of propellant, almost 100 pounds of air, more than 925 pounds of water and 3,042 pounds of dry cargo – a total of 5,125 pounds.

In preparation for the arrival of the cargo craft on Tuesday, the Expedition 15 crew spent some time Friday brushing up on training with the telerobotically operated rendezvous system they would use to manually guide in the Progress 25 cargo craft for docking in the unlikely event its automated system encountered a problem.

On Sunday, May 13, Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, along with Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, will deliver a special message from the space station to Jamestown, Va., as part of the Jamestown Anniversary Weekend. NASA Administrator Mike Griffin will introduce the space explorers to a crowd expected to include President George Bush and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.

+ Read more about NASA and the Jamestown Anniversary Weekend

Source: NASA - Space Station

you guys just can't stop thinking about it though, can ya? ......B

ISS Progress 25 Resupply Craft Launches Friday Night


Image above: The Progress 25 spacecraft rolls out to its launch pad at
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Image credit: NASA/Mark Bowman

A new Progress freighter launched to the International Space Station Friday at 11:25 p.m. EDT with more than 2.5 tons of fuel, air, water and other supplies and equipment aboard.

The station's 25th Progress unpiloted cargo carrier will bring to the orbiting laboratory more than 1,050 pounds of propellant, almost 100 pounds of air, more than 925 pounds of water and 3,042 pounds of dry cargo – a total of 5,125 pounds.

In preparation for the arrival of the cargo craft on Tuesday, the Expedition 15 crew spent some time Friday brushing u