ISS Status Report #47 – 28 Nov 2001
An unmanned Russian Progress resupply vehicle successfully docked to the
International Space Station this afternoon, carrying food, fuel and supplies
for the next residents of the orbital outpost.
The Progress 6 craft, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan Monday, gently docked to the aft port of the Zvezda Service
Module over Central Asia at 1:43 p.m. CST, completing a two-day automated
flight.
On board the station, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot
Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin monitored the docking,
and prepared for the opening of the hatch between Zvezda and Progress later
today.
The Progress is carrying more than a ton of food, fuel and equipment for the
Expedition Four crew, Russian Commander Yury Onufrienko and U.S. Astronauts
Dan Bursch and Carl Walz, who are scheduled to be launched aboard the
shuttle Endeavour tomorrow night on the STS-108 mission to relieve the
Expedition Three crew, which has been in orbit since August. They will be
ferried to the ISS by Endeavour Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly and
Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani. Launch from the Kennedy Space
Center is scheduled for 6:41 p.m. CST.
With systems operating normally, the station is orbiting at an average
altitude of 247 statute miles (397 km). For the latest information on launch
dates and times, as well as sighting opportunities from anywhere on the
Earth, visit the Web at:
Human physiology experiments continue to be a focus of crew science
activities as the crew prepares for its return home. Autonomous microgravity
materials research continued to accumulate scientific experiment run time
hours in a variety of disciplines. Overall coordination of the research is
the responsibility of the Payload Operations Center at NASA’s Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The Human Research Facility is managed by
the Johnson Space Center. Details on station science operations can be found
on the Web at:
