[sarex] ISS STATUS REPORT 03-58

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Submitted by Arthur - N1ORC

International Space Station Status Report #03-58 
4 p.m. CST, Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 
Expedition 8 Crew

The Expedition 8 crew settled into life aboard the International Space
Station this week, squaring away 

their new home in orbit and beginning work with several different
experiments. 

Commander and NASA ISS Science Officer Michael Foale and Flight Engineer
Alexander Kaleri began 

their week by making room inside the habitable volume of the Station.
After equalizing pressure with the 

Destiny Laboratory, they opened Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA2) and
stowed a variety of supplies 

and equipment that will not be needed on short notice. They then closed
the hatch to PMA2 and 

depressurized the module. 

Foale slipped on a specially instrumented glove as part of an Italian
scientific investigation into how hand 

and arm muscles are used differently for reaching and grasping in
microgravity. The Hand Posture 

Analyzer also will attempt to quantify muscle fatigue associated with
long-duration space flight. 

Measurements taken with a Posture Acquisition Glove on the hand, an
Inertial Tracking System on the 

wrist and Hand Grip and Pinch Force Dynamometers will be compared with
those taken before and after 

flight. 

Foale and Kaleri also began taking either potassium citrate pills or
placebos and recording their food, 

water and medication intake as part of the Renal (Kidney) Stone Risk
During Spaceflight experiment. 

Previous on-orbit experiments have shown an increased risk in the
development of kidney stones during 

and immediately after space flight, and the experiment is testing a
proven Earth-based remedy in space. 

Finally, Foale set up the Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle Schools
digital camera in Destiny's 

optical-quality window so that students in grades six through eight could
take photos of the Earth and 

downlink them for analysis by the student science team. 

Meanwhile, Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science
Officer Ed Lu are at the 

Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, continuing their
immediate post-flight medical 

evaluations and debriefings. They are expected to return to Houston on
Nov. 18. They landed on Oct. 27 

after spending 183 days aboard the Station. Joining them on the returning
ISS Soyuz 6 spacecraft was 

European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque of Spain, who conducted eight
days of intensive research 

after launching with the Expedition 8 crew. 

Information on the crew's activities aboard the Space Station, and
instructions on how to view the Space 

Station from anywhere on Earth, is available at: 

spaceflight.nasa.gov

Details on Space 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 
scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/

The next International Space Station status report will be issued Friday,
Nov. 14, or sooner if events 

warrant. 

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