2003<br />Report #11 <br />4 p.m. CST, Friday, March 14, 2003 <br />Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas <br /> <br />The Expedition 6 crew aboard the International Space Station, Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit, spent their week doing routine maintenance, completing the troubleshooting the Microgravity Science Glovebox and continuing a survey of the outside of the station using the Canadarm2 robotic arm. <br /><br /><br />Throughout the week, Pettit worked with specialists at the Payload Operations Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to complete the troubleshooting of the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox in the station’s Destiny laboratory. He successfully reattached all the glovebox’s connectors one by one and replaced a faulty fan. He was unable to duplicate an electrical problem first noticed in November. Engineers in Huntsville will review their data over the weekend to determine the next step. <br /><br /><br />Tuesday Pettit spoke with students at the Field School in Park Ridge, Ill., using the station’s amateur radio equipment and on Friday, all three crewmembers were interviewed by WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, Ind. and KGW-TV in Portland, Ore. Bowersox considers Bedford, Ind. to be is hometown, while Pettit grew up in Silverton, Ore.<br /><br /><br />During the week, Budarin’s activities included a survey of the windows in the Service Module, replacement of sensors in that module, which measure the amount of gravity the station experiences during thruster firings and dockings, and measuring the muscle sizes of the entire crew as part of a Russian medical experiment to study how the human body adapts to living in space for long periods of time.<br /><br /><br />On Thursday, Bowersox and Pettit used cameras on the Canadarm2 to continue surveying the station’s Starboard 1 (S1) truss, inspecting the thermal covers on the radiator beam valve modules. They also surveyed the thermal covers around the optical-quality window on the bottom of the Destiny laboratory that is used for taking photographs of the Earth and the hatch that covers it when not in use.<br /><br /><br />The station’s altitude was also increased 3 kilometers (1.8 statute miles) this week, with a firing of the Progress thrusters on Wednesday and again on Thursday. <br /><br /><br />More 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:<br /><br /><br />http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/<br /><br /><br />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:<br /><br /><br />http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/<br /><br /><br />The next ISS status report will be issued on Friday, March 21, or sooner if events warrant.<br /><br /><br />- -end-