Space Station Crew Completes Fifth Week

During its fifth week aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition Seven crew performed maintenance and trained for spacewalks. Early in the week, the crew replaced a faulty battery in the Zvezda Service Module.

Even though no spacewalks are slated to take place during their stay at the station, Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu practiced getting into and out of the U.S. Extravehicular Mobility Units, which are the spacesuits used by spacewalkers. A portion of the dry run will be rescheduled due to a water-flow problem that occurred in Lu’s suit. Flight controllers in the United States are evaluating the problem.

Friday, Russian flight controllers fired the Progress 10 cargo ship’s engines for seven minutes to raise the orbit of the ISS about 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles). The maneuver was performed to raise the station out of the path of a satellite. Since late 1998, the station’s orbit has been adjusted six times to avoid other orbiting objects.