Expedition 7 Time on ISS Winding Down

Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu will spend one more weekend aboard the International Space Station before they return to Earth. Malenchenko and Lu have spent the last week conducting handover activities with the Expedition 8 crew — Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri. Expedition 8, along with European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque, arrived at the ISS Oct. 20. Duque has been conducting experiments during his stay at the Station.

Over the weekend, the focus will be on loading the ISS Soyuz 7 spacecraft with items that will return to Earth with Lu, Malenchenko and Duque.

The Expedition 7 and 8 crews held a change of command ceremony Friday. However, the official change of command will not take place until the hatches between the Station and the Soyuz close about 2 p.m. CST (2000 GMT) Monday.

They are slated to undock at 5:18 p.m. CST (2318 GMT) Monday and land at 8:41 p.m. CST Monday (0241 GMT Tuesday) in Kazakhstan. Expedition 7 has spent six months aboard the orbital outpost maintaining Station systems and continuing science operations.

Flight controllers in the United States and Russia have been closely monitoring the predicted effects of the recent solar activity and anticipate no change to any of the landing plans. NASA flight control personnel have determined that no additional radiation exposure to the ISS crew is expected as a result of the solar activity. Increased solar activity is forecast for the next few weeks, and the control team will continue to monitor the progress of events with support from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

NASA TV will provide International Space Station commentary Monday from 10 to 11 a.m. CST (1600 to 1700 GMT). Coverage of Expedition 7’s departure from the ISS and its return to Earth will begin at 4:45 p.m. (2245 GMT).