International Space Station Science Operations Status Report #4 – 13 Mar 2001

The Expedition Two crew completed a major milestone when they began
installation of the first, large science rack — the Human Research Facility —
in the Destiny laboratory module.
Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd and Expedition
Two Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineer Jim
Voss transferred the Human Research Facility from the
Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, known as Leonardo, to the
laboratory module.

The crew was scheduled to move the Human Research
Facility tonight, but they got ahead of schedule and
completed the activity early. Leonardo contains more than
five tons of equipment and experiments that the crew will
continue to unload during the next few days.

After the Shuttle leaves the Space Station, the crew will
continue installing the Human Research Facility connecting
umbilicals and other equipment to link it to systems in the
Destiny laboratory. This floor-to-ceiling rack is about the size
of a large phone booth and supports a variety of experiments
dedicated to studying how space flight affects human
physiology.

During Expedition Two, the crew will activate and check out
the Human Research Facility’s systems. This rack houses a
computer workstation and a portable laptop computer for
crew members to command and test equipment, collect and
store experiment data, and send data to and from scientists
on Earth. The crew will use this rack to store and send date
from the suite of radiation monitors that will be characterizing
the radiation environment onboard the Space Station — one
of the major goals of Expedition Two.

The Human Research Facility rack was built at the Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and then outfitted with
life sciences research equipment at the Johnson Space
Center in Houston, Texas. The Human Research Facility is a
modified EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to the
Space Station rack — called an EXPRESS rack.

The Marshall Center and the Boeing Company are building a
total of eight EXPRESS racks for the Space Station. The
second Human Research Facility rack is currently under
construction at Marshall.

Two more EXPRESS racks will be delivered during the next
Space Shuttle mission, STS-100, set for mid-April.
EXPRESS experiments are controlled by the Station crew, or
by the Payload Developer from their home institution, or by
the Payload Rack Officer on duty at the Marshall Center
Payload Operations Center.