Report #36<br />4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1, 2003<br />Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas<br /><br />The Expedition 7 crew, Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA International<br />Space Station Science Officer Ed Lu, spent their 14th week in space<br />performing various science experiments, practicing with the Station's<br />robotic arm and maintaining Station systems.<br /><br />On Tuesday, the crew marked the 1,000th day of human occupancy of the<br />Station with a downlinked video message and a call from the heads of the<br />five global space agencies that represent the 16 nations of the ISS Program.<br /><br />During the week, Lu worked with the Coarsening in Solid Liquid Mixtures<br />(CSLM) experiment in the Microgravity Science Glovebox in the Destiny<br />Laboratory. That experiment will be continued next week. CSLM is being used<br />to study a physical process called "coarsening" that can reduce<br />the strength of metals, such as those in jet engine turbine blades. Lu also<br />performed a functional check of the Biotechnology Specimen Temperature<br />Controller, which will be used in a fluid dynamics experiment later in the<br />Expedition 7 mission.<br /><br />Throughout the week, Malenchenko took part in various Russian medical<br />studies to continue gathering data on the effects of microgravity on the<br />human body during a long-duration spaceflight. He also worked with the<br />Russian/German Plasma Crystal-3 (PK-3) experiment, which is being used to<br />examine fine particles inside an evacuated work chamber that have been<br />charged and excited by radio frequencies.<br /><br />Both crewmembers also took time from their schedules to answer questions<br />from TV Globo's "Fantastico" show in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and from<br />teachers participating in the NASA Explorer Schools Program at Ames Research<br />Center, Calif.<br /><br />Throughout the week, Malenchenko and Lu continued regular maintenance<br />activities on the Station and performed daily physical exercises to minimize<br />the long-term effects of living in microgravity.<br /><br />The Expedition 7 crewmembers, who arrived at the station April 28, are<br />scheduled to return to Earth in their Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft on Oct. 28.<br />They will be replaced by the Expedition 8 crew, U.S. astronaut Michael Foale<br />and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri. Foale and Kaleri are scheduled to<br />launch to the Station Oct. 18 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, along with<br />European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque of Spain. Duque will then return<br />to Earth with the Expedition 7 crew after completing more than a week of<br />science activities aboard the Station.