Report #16<br />4 p.m. CDT, Friday, April 11, 2003<br />Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas<br /><br />A remarkable week of spacewalk and science activities is winding down for<br />the International Space Station's Expedition 6 crew, Commander Ken Bowersox,<br />Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit.<br /><br />During a 6-hour, 26-minute spacewalk Tuesday, Bowersox and Pettit<br />reconfigured critical power cables and continued the external outfitting of<br />the station. They also completed a number of get-ahead tasks for future ISS<br />assembly.<br /><br />Science experiments this week measured the amount of radiation the<br />astronauts receive and the possible changes in their lung function, before<br />and after spacewalks. Other experiments studied fluids used in mechanical<br />lines such as those in automobile brake systems for possible improvement,<br />and allowed middle school students around the world to command a camera to<br />take pictures of Earth from the station.<br /><br />Bowersox and Pettit maneuvered the space station robotic arm, Canadarm2,<br />three times this week. The first session, on Sunday, put the robotic arm in<br />position to use its cameras to view the spacewalk and the next two completed<br />the on-orbit checkout of robotic components and gathered data from a sensor.<br /><br />The altitude of the station was raised to an average 244 statute miles in<br />preparation for the arrival of a new Soyuz spacecraft and its crew.<br />Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer/NASA ISS Science<br />Officer Ed Lu traveled to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan from their<br />training base in Star City, Russia, to inspect the Soyuz TMA-2 vehicle in<br />which they will be launched on April 26 to begin a six-month mission on the<br />ISS. They also did fit checks today.<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, April 18, or sooner if<br />events warrant.