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2003
Report #13 
4 p.m. CST, Friday, March 28, 2003 
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 
 
Expedition 6 crewmembers are finishing their 18th week on the
International Space Station, preparing for a second spacewalk and for
their return to Earth in a Russian spacecraft in May.  Commander Ken
Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science
Officer Don Pettit spent the week advancing their science agenda and
getting a major experiment apparatus, the Microgravity Sciences
Glovebox (MSG), working again after weeks of troubleshooting an
electrical problem.

The MSG, which provides a sealed environment for delicate
microgravity experiments that involve fluids or flames, completed a
long-duration test run this week and has been cleared for normal
operation beginning Monday.  First up: the experiment known as
InSpace (Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from
Colloidal Emulsions), studying how particles and clumps of particles
respond to an external magnetic field.  This experiment is a step to
the future production of improved fluids used in braking and
vibration damping systems, and for new applications like seismic
dampers to make high-rise buildings more resistant to earthquakes.
The MSG was built in collaboration by the European Space Agency and
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., the site of
the ISS Payload Operations Center. 

On-board preparations continued this week for this crew's second
spacewalk with a checkout of tools to be used by Bowersox and Pettit
on a 6½-hour spacewalk on the morning of April 8.  Completing the
tasks planned on this EVA including reconfiguring power connections,
providing a second power source for one of the station's control
moment gyroscopes, securing thermal covers on quick disconnect
fittings for the station's thermal control system, and releasing a
light stanchion on one of the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid
(CETA) carts will reduce the likelihood of calling upon the two-man
Expedition 7 crew to make a spacewalk.  The early April excursion
will be the 51st spacewalk in support of station assembly, the 26th
to originate from the station itself. 

Crewmembers are devoting more time to planning for their return to
Earth in the Soyuz-TMA spacecraft now docked to the Russian Docking
Compartment.  They reviewed procedures this week and will consult on
deorbit procedures with ground specialists next week.  The
crewmembers downlinked video of the interior of the Soyuz craft while
describing their preparations for a landing in Kazakhstan in early
May, made necessary by the grounding of the space shuttle fleet after
the loss of Columbia on Feb. 1. 
 
On Wednesday Pettit used the station's amateur radio to talk to
students about the ISS science mission.  He answered questions from
students at the Higashi Kaneko Junior High School in Japan's Iruma
District, and from students at the primary school of
Selnica-ob-Dravi (Selnica on the Drava) in the Republic of Slovenia.
On Thursday Pettit was joined by Bowersox and Budarin in responding
to questions from middle school students at the Region 12 Education
Service Center in Waco, Texas. 

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 on Friday, April 4, or
sooner if events warrant. 

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