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This is Mission Control Houston.
You're looking
at the International Space Station flight control room
as a team of flight controllers overseen
by flight director Royce Renfrew serve on the team
and overseeing the team all week long
through all the activities aboard the International
Space Station.
The crew on board is in its 46th day in space, 19 of those now
as the Expedition 34 crew.
It's been a busy week for this crew aboard the complex.
Monday Commander Kevin Ford worked the In-Space experiment
within the Microgravity Science Glovebox.
Performed periodically the experiment studies particles
and fluid which could have benefits in the design
of stronger building materials
that could withstand earthquake forces.
Flight Engineer Oleg Novitskiy configured communications
equipment inside the Poisk mini research module.
He also worked on an ongoing Russian science experiment.
The Kulonovskiy Kristall experiment will help model the
physical dynamics of space dust particles exposed to sunlight
as well as controller particles in a magnetic field.
Tuesday Ford worked
in the European Space Agency's Columbus module's fluid science
laboratory on the Geoflow experiment that studies heat
and fluid flow currents within the Earth's mantle.
He also checked water quality for an experiment that observes,
bone and mineral density in fish living in microgravity.
Novitskiy and flight engineer Evgeny Tarelkin worked
in the station's Russian segment checking fans and filters
and continued work with the Kulonovskiy Kristall experiment.
Wednesday the crew join the newly announced
and first long-term expedition crew of Scott Kelly
and Mikhail Kornienko to congratulate them
on their planned 2015 year-long mission.
The decision was made jointly by the ISS partnership and detailed
by program managers on NASA
and the Russian federal space agency.
Ford conducted research throughout the day
on the Nanoracks experiment hardware
such as the plate reader and microscope 2.
The research gear allows crew members and station systems
to interface with a variety of researchers on the ground.
Nanoracks is the first commercial laboratory in space.
The plate reader will provide biopharmaceutical research
opportunities in space and the microscope captures images
from slide samples for downlink to researchers on the ground.
Thursday Ford spent most of the day
in the Quest airlock cleaning cooling loops
and recharging water systems associated
with the spacesuits used for spacewalks.
This periodic maintenance ensures they are healthy
and ready to support an extravehicular activity.
This periodic maintenance ensures they're healthy
and ready to support spacewalk should one be required.
He also talked about his mission with the CBS news
and the Cable News Network.
Friday Ford as he started the week worked extensively
with the In-Space experiment
within the Microgravity Science Glovebox
to utilize the unique environment of microgravity
to study the dynamics of particles in fluid.
He also brushed up on Crew Medical Officer procedures.
This weekend, the crew will spend a relatively quiet time
talking with families, checking on some autonomous experiments,
exercising and conducting routine housekeeping chores
on board.
Meanwhile back here on Earth the next three crew members
continued their preparations
for their months long stay on the station.
Cosmonaut Roman Romanenko,
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield
and US astronaut Dr. Tom Marshburn will launch Wednesday,
December 19 and are now at the launch site
for their Soyuz rocket in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
This is Mission Control Houston