Thursday, September 1, 2005 Mission Control Center, Houston

The International Space Station’s Expedition 11 crewmembers completed 20 weeks in space this week and focused on an upcoming cargo ship exchange and computer software transition.

Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and NASA ISS Science Officer John Phillips spent time packing the docked ISS Progress 18 supply ship with items no longer needed on the Station. The unpiloted cargo craft will be undocked from the Zvezda module’s aft port at 5:23 p.m. CDT Wednesday. The Progress will later burn up in Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean.

A new supply ship, ISS Progress 19, will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 8:08 a.m. CDT Thursday. It will dock to the Station at 9:50 a.m. CDT Sept. 10. Food, water, fuel, clothing and other supplies will be among the two-and-a-half tons of cargo aboard. The craft will deliver a new liquids unit for the Station’s Elektron, a primary oxygen-generating system, as well as spare parts for the Station's Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal system.

Also this week, Krikalev and Phillips prepared new laptop computers for a software upgrade that will be performed later this month. They also conducted a routine rehearsal of emergency response procedures, simulating an emergency departure from the Station in the Soyuz; and checked out new blood pressure and electrocardiograph equipment that was delivered by the Space Shuttle last month.

On Monday, Phillips, who says he was inspired as a boy by history's great explorers, took time Monday to discuss his mission in an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting. Phillips talked about the similarities and differences of space exploration and the journey of Lewis and Clark for a series celebrating the bicentennial of that exploration of the American West.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/station