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...By Denise Chow
SPACE.com Staff Writer
posted: 09 October 2010
08:04 pm ET
This story was updated at 11:30 p.m. ET.
A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts successfully doked their Soyuz spacecraft at the International Space Station Saturday (Oct. 9) to begin a months-long stay on the orbiting laboratory.
The new Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft linked up with the space station at 8:01 p.m. EDT (0001 GMT Sunday), ending a trip that began with a launch two days earlier from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Riding aboard the Soyuz are American astronaut Scott Kelly, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka. The three men are expected to spend up to six months aboard the International Space Station.
"We have contact," one of the spaceflyers said as the Soyuz TMA-01M vehicle docked at the space station. Both spacecraft were flying more than 220 miles (354 km) above the southern Pacific Ocean, just off the coast from Chile.
ReelNASA | October 09, 2010
After a two-day journey aboard the Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft three new Expedition 25 crew members arrived at the International Space Station and docked to the Poisk module at 8:01 p.m. EDT on Oct. 9, 2010.
...Expedition 25 Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineers Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin have been aboard the station since June. They greeted their new crewmates at hatch opening which occurred at 11:09 p.m. After a quick greeting ceremony the new station crew members received the standard safety briefing.
NASAtelevision | October 09, 2010
After launching in their Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft to the International Space Station, Expedition 25 Soyuz Commander Alexander Kaleri, NASA Flight Engineer Scott Kelly and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka arrived at the complex Oct. 10 (Oct. 9, U.S. time), docking their craft to the Poisk module on the Zvezda Service Module on the Russian segment of the orbiting laboratory. A few hours after docking to the station, Kaleri, Kelly and Skripochka were greeted by station Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineers Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin.
...October 9th, 2010
by Pete Harding
Soyuz TMA-01M has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) – at 00:01 GMT on Sunday - following a two-day free flight, returning the population of the ISS to six people. The TMA-01M crew will arrive at the ISS in the midst of a busy period of activity, as the Expedition 25 crew work to install the new Sabatier system, and conduct maintenance to repair the TVIS treadmill.
...Sabatier is a new system – never before tested in space – that will produce water and methane using excess hydrogen from the Oxygen Generation System (OGS) rack, and carbon dioxide from the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) – both of which are currently vented into space.
The water will be processed through the Water Recovery System (WRS) Water Processing Assembly (WPA), and the unneeded methane will be vented into space.
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Image above: Commander Doug Wheelock unpacks gear for the Sabatier life support system inside the U.S. Destiny laboratory. Credit: NASA TV
Doug Wheelock shares thoughts on the Chilean miners’ rescue
The International Space Station’s newest residents are orienting themselves to life on orbit. Flight Engineers Scott Kelly, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka are familiarizing themselves with station systems as they settle in for a nearly six-month stay. They will begin Expedition 26 in November and return to Earth in March 2011.
Expedition 25 Commander Doug Wheelock is at work on the Sabatier, part of the orbiting laboratory’s life support system. The Sabatier converts the crew’s exhaled carbon dioxide into water for use on the station and methane which is vented overboard. The commander also inspected the advanced resistive exercise device and checked on experiment gear. Wheelock spent some time Wednesday answering questions from Soldiers Magazine and Soldiers Radio and TV.
Flight Engineer Shannon Walker replaced a hose and a filter inside the Waste and Hygiene Compartment. She also checked science equipment in the Microgravity Science Glovebox and stowed hardware. Walker along with Flight Engineer Fyodor Yurchikhin also practiced photography techniques for space shuttle Discovery’s back-flip when it arrives in November with the STS-133 crew.
The new station trio is also participating in station duties as they configured tools to be used during the two spacewalks planned for STS-133. They also checked Russian station systems and audited the station’s inventory.
http://ping.fm/p/SlwTJ - Picture from the Cupola on the ISS. Amazing and useful vantage point. Adjusting well.
ISS025-E-006291 (7 Oct. 2010) --- While on an orbit that took the International Space Station over the Pacific Ocean, one of the Expedition 25 crew members captured this image of part of the Hawaiian Island chain. While most of the islands are covered by clouds, Hawaii, the largest of them, is visible at lower center. A Russian Soyuz (foreground) and a Russian Progress vehicle are docked to the massive space station.
:: 08.11.2010
ISS-25 flight engineers Fiodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Skripochka continue preparing for the space walk to take place on Nov. 15, at 17:25 MSK. The pre-EVA this week includes processing of the Orlan-MK space suits. The training with the suit on is to take place on Friday.
The EVA scheduled to last about 6 hours will cover mounting of the universal platform for scientific payloads on the outer surface of Zvezda module.
Roscosmos PAO
ISS015-E-11009 (6 June 2007) --- Cosmonaut Fyodor N. Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 commander representing Russia's Federal Space Agency, wearing a Russian Orlan spacesuit, participates in a session of extravehicular activity (EVA). Among other tasks, Yurchikhin and cosmonaut Oleg V. Kotov (out of frame), flight engineer representing Russia's Federal Space Agency, completed the installation of 12 more Zvezda Service Module debris panels and installed sample containers on the Pirs Docking Compartment for a Russian experiment, called Biorisk, which looks at the effect of space on microorganisms.
...Nov. 10, 2010
HOUSTON -- Two Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station will conduct a spacewalk Monday, Nov. 15, to prepare the outpost for future assembly work. The spacewalk will be broadcast live on NASA Television beginning at 8 a.m. CST, Nov. 15.
During the six-hour spacewalk, Expedition 25 Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Skripochka will work outside the Zvezda service module. They will clean thermal insulation around the vents for the Elektron oxygen-generation system, install a work platform, replace material sciences experiments and move a television camera from one Russian docking module to another.
Wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits, the duo will exit the Pirs docking compartment airlock at approximately 8:25 a.m. The spacewalk will be the fifth for Yurchikhin, who will wear a spacesuit marked with red stripes, and the first for Skripochka, who will wear a suit with blue stripes.
ReelNASA | November 15, 2010
Astronaut Scott Kelly, Expedition 25 flight engineer, shows off the International Space Station's observation deck known as the cupola.