International Space Station Status Report #03-9<br />4 p.m. CST, Friday, Feb. 28, 2003<br />Expedition Six Crew<br /><br />Approaching their 100th day in orbit, the International Space Station's<br />Expedition 6 crewmembers completed an important test of on-orbit spacewalk<br />preparation this week, while program managers cleared the way for a crew<br />rotation scenario that will bring the three-man crew back to Earth in<br />Kazakhstan in May. Monday Commander Ken Bowersox and Flight Engineer Don<br />Pettit conducted a successful test of the ability of two crewmembers to<br />safely get into American spacesuits without the assistance of a third<br />crewmember; that ability is a prerequisite to sending smaller crews to ISS<br />while the space shuttle fleet remains grounded during the investigation of<br />the Columbia accident. As Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin videotaped the<br />activity and offered his advice, Bowersox and Pettit helped each other into<br />their Extravehicular Mobility Units, donned jet backpacks called SAFERs, set<br />up the necessary equipment for a pre-breathe of oxygen to purge nitrogen<br />from their bloodstreams, and then got out of the spacesuits.<br /><br />Through a series of meetings, ISS partners announced that near-term station<br />crew rotations will involve two-person crews flying to the International<br />Space Station in Russian Soyuz spacecraft, beginning with the previously<br />scheduled launch in late April or early May. Expedition 6 will return to<br />Kazakhstan in early May in the Soyuz currently docked to the station.<br />Smaller crews will mean a reduced demand for on-board supplies, which can be<br />delivered only on Russian Progress ships until the shuttles are cleared for<br />flight. One Progress arrived at the station early this month, and the next<br />is due to launch in June.<br /><br />U.S. astronauts Mike Foale and Ed Lu, and Russian cosmonauts Yuri<br />Malenchenko and Alexander Kaleri, all of whom were previously named to<br />various ISS expedition crews and who have many months of preparation for ISS<br />missions under their belts, are training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training<br />Center in Star City, Russia.<br /><br />Specialists at the Payload Operations Control Center, at NASA's Marshall<br />Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., continue troubleshooting the<br />Microgravity Sciences Glovebox in the station's Destiny laboratory module.<br />The MSG, developed by the European Space Agency with scientists at MSFC,<br />provides an enclosed space for experiments involving fluids or flames. This<br />week Pettit did troubleshooting for the ground-based team looking for the<br />cause of the failure of two power controller boxes on the facility last<br />November, and this month's tripping of a circuit breaker on the facility<br />shortly after the installation of new power boxes delivered on the recent<br />Progress resupply ship. Additional hands-on tests are being planned for next<br />week.<br /><br />Tuesday morning the crewmembers answered questions about their mission and<br />human spaceflight from middle school science students from Pettit's old<br />junior high school, Mark Twain Middle School in Silverton, Ore. During the<br />event -- staged at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland,<br />Ore. -- Pettit spoke with the teacher, who was his own science teacher in<br />junior high school. On Friday the crewmembers conducted interviews with USA<br />Today and KPTV-TV in Portland, Ore.<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://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/<br /><br />The next ISS status report will be issued on Friday, March 7, or sooner if<br />events warrant.