The ISS is a Busy Place These Days!
News story originally written on June 13, 2002
The Expedition Four Crew has lived on the International Space Station (ISS) the longest of any crew, but now it is time for them to go home, making way for the Expedition Five Crew.(/p)
The Expedition Four Crew, Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz, who have lived on the station since December 7, 2001, officially handed over their responsibilities to the Expedition Five Crew on Friday, June 7, 2002 soon after the new crew arrived at the ISS aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.
The new Expedition Five Crew, including Commander Valery Korzun and Flight Engineers Peggy Wilson and Sergei Treschev, will have a busy four-month stay at the ISS. During their stay, the station will be visited by four spacecrafts and the crew plans to do two space walks. Also, they will collect data for 24 new and continuing scientific experiments.
Endeavour launched June 5, 2002 carrying the new crew for the ISS, a new base for the station's robotic arm and almost 3 tons of experiments and supplies. Endeavour's crew includes Commander Ken Cockrell, Pilot Paul Lockhart and two Mission Specialists named Franklin Chang-Diaz and Philippe Perrin.
Besides replacing the ISS crew and providing new supplies and experiments, Endeavour's Mission Specialists are working with the ISS crew this week to make repairs and improvements to the station's robotic arm. The arm helps build and maintain the station. Hopefully, when they are through with their three space walks, the arm will be able to move the length of the station on a track that works like a railroad track. Being able to move along the track will allow the arm to reach easily all parts of the station.
Endeavour will return the Expedition Four Crew to Earth later this week, landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.