Station Crew Preps for Space Shuttle Docking

The Expedition 14 crew members continue to work this week on scientific experiments, station maintenance and activities related to the anticipated arrival of Space Shuttle Discovery in December.

Over the weekend, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria concluded Expedition 14’s first week-long session with EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students) by shutting down, disassembling and stowing the hardware. Nearly 6,600 students from around the globe participated in this most recent session with EarthKAM, a payload which allows students to submit requests and download images from an electronic still camera mounted in a window of the space station.

Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin revisited the Elektron oxygen-generating system on Monday to perform routine maintenance. Early last week, Tyurin repaired and re-activated the unit, returning it to service for the first time since mid-September.

Also on Monday, Tyurin and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter practiced photography techniques to be used to capture imagery of Discovery’s thermal heat shield during its final approach for docking on the STS-116 mission.

NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency have named two astronauts and two cosmonauts to the next International Space Station crew, known as Expedition 15. Astronauts Clayton Anderson and Daniel Tani will travel to the station next year and work as flight engineers. Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Dr. Oleg Kotov will spend six months aboard the orbiting laboratory.