NASA Space Station Status Report 3 a.m. CDT, Monday, Oct. 20, 2003

New residents arrived at the International Space Station Monday with the ISS Soyuz 7 spacecraft docking to the Station at 2:16 a.m. CDT (0716 GMT, 11:16am Moscow time). The arrival of Expedition 8 and a European Space Agency visiting researcher initiated a week of intense science operations and handover activities for the newest station crew, which will stay aboard the complex for nearly 200 days.

With Soyuz Commander and Expedition 8 Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri at the controls, the Soyuz vehicle softly linked up to the Pirs Docking Compartment as the two spacecraft flew 240 miles above central Asia. The docking followed Saturday’s launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Joining Kaleri are Expedition 8 Commander and NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Foale and Pedro Duque of Spain.

Foale and Kaleri will spend more than six months living on the Station while Duque, who is flying under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, will conduct an eight-day research mission before returning October 27 with Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu, who monitored the new crew’s arrival from onboard the ISS. Today marked 177 days in space for Malenchenko and Lu, and 175 days on the ISS.

After docking, clamps were affixed to the interface between the Soyuz and Pirs, and leak checks in the small tunnel connecting the two craft was underway. The hatches will be opened at about 5:15 a.m. Central time signaling the start of eight days of joint operations. Foale, Kaleri and Duque are the first visitors for Malenchenko and Lu, who have overseen operations and been in orbit since late April.

On the scene at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev outside Moscow are NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, Associate Administrator for Space Flight William Readdy and International Space Station Program Manager William Gerstenmaier. O’Keefe plans to congratulate the crews on their achievement shortly after hatch opening.

Information on the crew’s activities aboard the Space Station, future launch dates, as well as Station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, is available on the Internet at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

Details on Station science operations can be found on an Internet site administered by the Payload Operations Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., at:
http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/

The next ISS status report will be issued after hatch opening.