ISS Crew Continues Departure Preps
Thursday was another busy day aboard the International Space Station for the Expedition 7 crew. Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu continued to prepare for their trip home and Expedition 8’s arrival at the Station.
Malenchenko and Lu prepared Russian experiment equipment that will return to Earth with them on the ISS Soyuz 6 spacecraft. Russian flight controllers also got in on the act by testing the Soyuz’s motion control system.
The Expedition 8 crewmembers — Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri — and European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque are slated to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:38 a.m. CDT (0538 GMT) Saturday and dock with the ISS on Monday. After a week of handover activities, Expedition 7 and Duque will return to Earth on Oct. 27.
Also on Thursday, Lu filled out the weekly food questionnaire, and Malenchenko and flight controllers had the weekly Inventory Management System conference.
The Expedition 7 crewmembers took time out of their day Wednesday to congratulate China for joining the United States and Russia as the only countries to launch a human into space. Audio of Lu’s remarks is available below.
