NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Station Crew Prepares for Shuttle Visitors

Image above: Sand dunes in the Central Sahara of southwest Libya were captured in this photograph from an Expedition 18 crew member. Credit: NASA

The Expedition 18 crew is preparing for the arrival of space shuttle Discovery and the STS-119 crew. Discovery is delivering the station’s final truss structure and solar arrays as well as a new station crew member, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.

Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus continued recharging the metal oxide (METOX) canisters for the U.S. spacesuits in anticipation of the four spacewalks to be conducted while STS-119 is at the station. METOX removes carbon dioxide from the spacesuits while they are in use.

Commander Mike Fincke along with Magnus practiced their photography techniques they will use as the shuttle approaches the station. Discovery will do a back flip, the rendezvous pitch maneuver, before it docks and Magnus and Fincke will photograph its heat shield. The photographs will be downlinked to Mission Control for further analysis.

Fincke, Magnus and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov rehearsed their periodic Soyuz emergency descent procedures. They also transferred fuel to the station from an ISS Progress 31 cargo craft that is scheduled to depart soon.

The crew worked out on the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device in its full configuration for the first time reporting it worked like a charm.

› Read more about Expedition 18
› View crew timelines

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2009 International Space Station Calendar

As part of NASA's celebration of the 10th anniversary of the International Space Station, the agency is offering a special 2009 calendar to teachers, as well as the general public.

The calendar contains photographs taken from the space station and highlights historic NASA milestones and fun facts about the international construction project of unprecedented complexity that began in 1998.

› Download calendar (5.3 Mb PDF)