Frank De Winne’s Diary from Space 4 November 2002

Day 2

Today we started the Neurocog experiment. After some initial problems, everything worked just fine! It’s really fun working with Sergei [Zaletin] and Yuri [Lonchakov]. Valerie [Korzun] helped us out with setting everything up.
 
We have found a quiet place where we can work without disturbing the main crew because they are also very busy packing and preparing for the next Shuttle arrival. As well as the Neurocog Experiment, we’re busy with blood sampling for Sympatho, Message, DCCO and Promiss monitoring.
 
After three days in space, I could finally wash my hair and have an almost normal morning toilet (washed with a wet towel and washed my hair – although it’s already messed up again due to the paste for the electrodes of the Neurocog experiment). Still, it felt very good.

For breakfast, I had an American-style omelet with Russian bread. The main crew is really treating me well and giving me all the best things. They are perfect hosts!

Yesterday I was worried about the Promiss experiment, so many people worked so hard on it and it didn’t want to start. But with the help of Peggy [Whitson] and a last try by the ground, everything is now up and running – great! My day couldn’t have had a better start than to see that green running light this morning!