International Space Station Status Report #03-29<br />4 p.m. CDT, Friday, June 13, 2003<br />Expedition Seven Crew<br /><br />Fresh food, new clothes and more water were among the welcome new arrivals<br />to the International Space Station this week as an unmanned Russian resupply<br />craft docked with the complex. The Progress 11 spacecraft automatically<br />docked to the station's Pirs Docking Compartment Wednesday morning, three<br />days after its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition<br />7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu began<br />unloading the cargo ship Friday afternoon.<br /><br />The Progress brought replacement parts for environmental systems in both the<br />U.S. and Russian segments of the Station, office supplies, two tanks of<br />potable water, and some clothing items for the two crewmembers. Also aboard<br />the cargo ship are two experiment kits for European Space Agency cosmonaut<br />Pedro Duque, who will launch in October on the Soyuz TMA-3 vehicle with the<br />Expedition 8 crew. Duque will return to Earth with Malenchenko and Lu in the<br />Soyuz TMA-2 vehicle, which is currently docked to the Station.<br /><br />On Tuesday, Lu used the Microgravity Science Glovebox to continue the<br />Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal<br />Emulsions (InSPACE) experiment. InSPACE is investigating a type of 'smart<br />materials' that researchers hope will improve the types of fluids used in<br />braking and vibration damping systems. InSPACE is one of three experiments<br />Lu will do aboard the Space Station using the glovebox.<br /><br />While looking out the window of the Destiny Lab Thursday, Lu noticed an<br />object floating away from the Station. Lu characterized the object as a<br />rectangular-shaped piece of metal that was about 5 cm long. Station flight<br />controllers determined that the object was possibly a small label that may<br />have come loose from an exterior part of the station, and that, because of<br />its low mass and relative velocity, it posed no threat to the complex.<br />However, an analysis of photographs of the object taken by Lu before it<br />drifted away continues.<br /><br />Information on the crew's activities aboard the space station, future launch<br />dates, as well as station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth,<br />is available on the Internet at:<br /><br />http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/<br /><br />Details on station science operations can be found on an Internet site<br />administered by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space<br />Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., at:<br /><br />http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/<br /><br />The next ISS status report will be issued on Friday, June 20, or earlier, if<br />events warrant.