Dec. 29, 2006

Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
STATUS REPORT: SS06-053

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS06-053

HOUSTON - The three residents of the International Space Station spent
a busy week unpacking, inventorying and stowing more than two tons of
equipment and supplies left by the Space Shuttle Discovery.

The week began with Christmas, a day off for the crew except for
required maintenance and exercise. Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and
flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Sunita Williams were back on
their regular schedule Tuesday, waking at midnight CST and going to
bed at 3:30 p.m.

Unpacking items delivered by Discovery took up part of each day during
the week. Crew members entered the new supplies and equipment in the
Inventory Management System, a computerized, bar-coded tool to keep
track of the voluminous material aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin passed a milestone of their stay on the
station on Tuesday -- it was their 100th day in space. Williams came
to the station aboard Discovery earlier this month. She had an hour
budgeted each day to familiarize herself with the station and adapt
to life on board. These unstructured hours are scheduled during new
crew members' first two weeks aboard to get them used to the station
and its activities.

Scientific activities picked up again on the station since the
departure of the STS-116 crew. During the week, crew members worked
on experiments analyzing heart function during long-duration
spaceflight, measuring cosmic rays, and examining plant growth and
changes in blood of long-duration spacefarers. They also continued a
Nutritional Status Assessment.

Crew members also performed required station maintenance and did their
daily 2.5 hours of exercise, designed to mitigate some of the
negative effects of lengthy space flights.

The next station status report will be issued Jan. 5, or earlier if
events warrant. For more information about the crew's activities and
station sighting opportunities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station