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2003
Report #9 
4 p.m. CST, Friday, Feb. 28, 2003 
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 

Approaching their 100th day in orbit, the International Space
Station's Expedition 6 crewmembers completed an important test of
on-orbit spacewalk preparation this week, while program managers
cleared the way for a crew rotation scenario that will bring the
three-man crew back to Earth in Kazakhstan in May.

Monday Commander Ken Bowersox and Flight Engineer Don Pettit conducted 
a successful test of the ability of two crewmembers to safely get into 
American spacesuits without the assistance of a third crewmember; that 
ability is a prerequisite to sending smaller crews to ISS while the 
space shuttle fleet remains grounded during the investigation of the 
Columbia accident.  As Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin videotaped the 
activity and offered his advice, Bowersox and Pettit helped each other 
into their Extravehicular Mobility Units, donned jet backpacks called 
SAFERs, set up the necessary equipment for a pre-breathe of oxygen to 
purge nitrogen from their bloodstreams, and then got out of the 
spacesuits. 

Through a series of meetings, ISS partners announced that near-term
station crew rotations will involve two-person crews flying to the
International Space Station in Russian Soyuz spacecraft, beginning
with the previously scheduled launch in late April or early May.
Expedition 6 will return to Kazakhstan in early May in the Soyuz
currently docked to the station.  Smaller crews will mean a reduced
demand for on-board supplies, which can be delivered only on Russian
Progress ships until the shuttles are cleared for flight.  One
Progress arrived at the station early this month, and the next is due
to launch in June. 

U.S. astronauts Mike Foale and Ed Lu, and Russian cosmonauts Yuri
Malenchenko and Alexander Kaleri, all of whom were previously named to 
various ISS expedition crews and who have many months of preparation 
for ISS missions under their belts, are training at the Gagarin 
Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

Specialists at the Payload Operations Control Center, at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., continue
troubleshooting the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox in the station's
Destiny laboratory module.  The MSG, developed by the European Space
Agency with scientists at MSFC, provides an enclosed space for
experiments involving fluids or flames.  This week Pettit did
troubleshooting for the ground-based team looking for the cause of the 
failure of two power controller boxes on the facility last November, 
and this month's tripping of a circuit breaker on the facility shortly 
after the installation of new power boxes delivered on the recent 
Progress resupply ship.  Additional hands-on tests are being planned 
for next week. 

Tuesday morning the crewmembers answered questions about their mission 
and human spaceflight from middle school science students from 
Pettit's old junior high school, Mark Twain Middle School in
Silverton, Ore.  During the event -- staged at the Oregon Museum of
Science and Industry in Portland, Ore. -- Pettit spoke with the
teacher, who was his own science teacher in junior high school.  On
Friday the crewmembers conducted interviews with USA Today and KPTV-TV 
in Portland, Ore.

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://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/

The next ISS status report will be issued on Friday, March 7, or
sooner if events warrant. 

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