Space Station Crew’s Week Begins With Science and Maintenance

Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov spent Tuesday aboard the International Space Station performing science, maintaining equipment and exercising. Future activities include a Station reboost, a second spacewalk and the mid-April launch of the Expedition 11 crew.

Chiao and Sharipov measured their body mass and their calf volume. Scientists on the ground will use the data to understand deconditioning in microgravity, as well as the effectiveness of countermeasures. Also, Sharipov continued with the second part of a Russian fitness test series meant to study preventive health maintenance. He trained on the VELO cycle ergometer.

Chiao completed wrap-up and closeout tasks after replacing a heat exchanger in the Joint Airlock. Ground controllers were extremely pleased about the successful replacement and subsequent leak checks. On a similar note, Sharipov installed a water sampler in the Service Module that will sample humidity produced by the environment control and life support system.

The commander worked out for 2 ½ hours on the Station’s treadmill and the Resistive Exercise Device then prepared his exercise data files for downlink to Mission Control. Sharipov got his exercise during the Russian fitness test.

On March 25th the Station is planned for an orbital reboost and three days later a second spacewalk for Expedition 10 is scheduled. In mid-April Expedition 11 is set to launch from Russia in a Soyuz spacecraft, dock with the Station and replace Expedition 10.