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2003
Report #22 
4 p.m. CDT, Friday, May 9, 2003 
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 
 
Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer
Ed Lu are wrapping up their first week of independent operations
aboard the International Space Station after departure of their
Expedition 6 predecessors on May 3. A Russian holiday gave them some
time off today. 

The week began with Sunday and Monday off for Malenchenko and Lu to
help them become accustomed to their home for the next six months. An
hour of ISS familiarization followed on Tuesday, along with standard
maintenance and inspection activities. 

The station's toilet system underwent three hours of periodic
maintenance on Wednesday, with Malenchenko changing out elements,
including hoses and filter inserts. Lu also had a three-hour project,
inspecting emergency lighting power sources in the station's U.S.
segment. 

The first medical tests for the new crew were a Thursday highlight.
The experiments looked at crew body mass, red blood cell count and
heart activity. The Resistive Exercise Device (RED) was out of
kilter, showing higher than normal resistance and making unusual
sounds. 

Today was the Russian holiday, Victory Day, marking the end of World
War II in Europe. 

The crew had the day off, but they did perform scheduled maintenance
and two sessions each of physical exercise.  Lu changed out canisters
on the RED. The device is functioning well after the canister change
out. 

Meanwhile, the Expedition 6 crew remains at Star City, the Russian
cosmonaut training center near Moscow, after its landing in
Kazakhstan on May 3. E6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Cosmonaut Nikolai
Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit are undergoing
debriefings and physical rehabilitation.  Bowersox and Pettit are
scheduled to return to Johnson Space Center a little over a week from
now.

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 International Space Station status report will be issued on
Friday, May 16, or sooner if events warrant. 

                        -end-

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