15th ISS Crew Due To Arrive Monday Afternoon

NASA representatives tell ANN the Expedition 14 crew of the International Space Station was busy this week performing fitness evaluations, working on scientific experiments and preparing for the arrival of the Expedition 15 crew.

As Aero-News reported earlier this week, cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 commander, and Oleg Kotov, Expedition 15 flight engineer, and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, a US businessman, are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at approximately 1230 CDT Saturday. Their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the station at approximately 1412 CDT Monday.

The Expedition 14 crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, will return to Earth with Simonyi on April 20. In preparation for their departure, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin reviewed descent procedures. Suni Williams, who joined Expedition 14 in progress, will remain on the station as an Expedition 15 crew member for the first part of its increment.

The two crews held a space-to-ground conference on Wednesday discussing upcoming mission activities.

On Monday, Lopez-Alegria (shown below) set a new US single-mission spaceflight record, passing the 196-day mark previously set by station crew members Dan Bursch and Carl Walz in 2001 and 2002.

The Expedition 14 crew performed periodic fitness evaluations this week. Additionally, they worked on a video tape recorder and on a faulty light of an ophthalmoscope that was used during a health check. They downloaded information from the Internal Wireless Instrumentation System, or IWIS, which monitors the health of the station's systems.

In addition to the departure-related proceedings, the crew also continued scientific activities aboard the station. Williams tested a bacteria detection instrument developed by researchers at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, AL and industry partners.

The device, Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development Portable Test System (LOCAD-PTS) is a portable bacteria detection system small enough to fit into a compact ice cooler. Four more sessions with LOCAD-PTS are planned for upcoming weekend science sessions.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/station