ISS Status Report #01-6 24 Feb 2001

Expedition One
Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei
Krikalev took a short flight around the International Space Station
(ISS) today, repositioning their Soyuz capsule from the aft docking
port of the Station’s Zvezda module to the nadir, or downward facing
docking port of the Zarya module.

The 30-minute maneuver
cleared Zvezda’s docking port for the arrival of an unmanned Russian
Progress resupply cargo craft on Wednesday, carrying supplies for the
next trio of space travelers who will live and work aboard the Station
beginning next month.

With Gidzenko at
the controls, the Soyuz backed away from the Station at 4:06 a.m. Central
time, as Gidzenko maneuvered the capsule to a distance of about 300
feet away from Zvezda. He then flew the Soyuz about 45 degrees around
the complex to align the ship with Zarya’s docking port. After a brief
stationkeeping period to insure that all systems were functioning normally,
Gidzenko flew his craft in for a linkup to Zarya at 4:37 a.m. Central
time as the Soyuzand the ISS flew high over Central Europe.

It was the first
time since the Expedition One crew arrived at the Station last November
2 that the ISS had been unoccupied, albeit for a brief period.

The crew was to
spend the next several hours reopening hatches between the Soyuz and
the Station and reactivating key environmental and communications systems
on board which had been shut down last night in the unlikely event Gidzenko
would have been unable to redock, forcing the crew to come home. Shepherd,
Gidzenko and Krikalev will begin an extended sleep period this afternoon
and will be awakened on Sunday morning for a relatively light day of
activities.

The Progress launch
is scheduled on Monday at 2:09 a.m. Central time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
in Kazakhstzan, with docking to the Zvezda module planned for early
Wednesday at 3:48 a.m. Central time. The crew will spend the rest of
the week unloading the Progress in preparation for the launch of the
Shuttle Discovery March 8 to ferry their replacements, the Expedition
Two crew, to orbit.

Orbiting the Earth
at an average altitude of 235 statute miles, the International Space
Station is operating in excellent condition. The next written status
report on the International Space Station and the Expedition One crew
will be issued on Wednesday, February 28, following the Progress docking,
or sooner, if developments warrant.