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Good morning.
This is Mission Control Houston.
Thank you for joining us for today's ISS Update this Thursday, December 22.
Aboard the orbiting complex, station Commander Dan Burbank
and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin now rounding
out their sixth week in space continue to conduct science experiments that take advantage
of their microgravity environment, perform regular maintenance to their orbital home
and prepare for the arrival of three new crew members who are scheduled to arrive
at the space station tomorrow morning at 9:22 a.m. Central time.
Yesterday, NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko
and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-03M
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:16 a.m. Central time.
They have begun their two day chase on orbit to catch up with the International Space Station.
Ascent and the first two rendezvous burns were all nominal yesterday.
The Soyuz performed another rendezvous maneuver today
and all systems aboard the Soyuz spacecraft continue to check out nominally.
The Soyuz is slated to link up to the International Space Station tomorrow morning
when it docks to the Rassvet module.
Live coverage of the Soyuz docking will begin here on NASA Television
at 8:45 a.m. Central time with docking scheduled to occur at 9:22 a.m. Central time.
Meanwhile, the Expedition 30 crew now aboard the International Space Station began their morning
with the first of two daily planning conferences a couple of hours after wakeup at Midnight.
Commander Dan Burbank is busy now gathering and setting up hardware required
for the EPIC card installation and testing and preparation
for the station's onboard computer architecture upgrade to increase its performance.
Meanwhile, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin are conducting the BAR experiment
that tests and validates methods
to detect pressure leaks onboard the station to improve space flight safety.
And later Shkaplerov will photograph the ongoing geophysics experiment known as URAGAN
that tests an experimental ground-based system that uses Earth observations
from the space station's vantage point to classify
and predict natural disasters such as hurricanes.
Earlier this morning after performing a Reaction self-test that monitors the daily effects
of fatigue on performance during long-duration space flight and his regular morning inspection
of the station, COmmander Dan Burbank began his workday on the Microgravity Science Glovebox.
He also did some work on the Compound Specific Analyzer.
Burbank then set up the KUBIK, which is a small temperature controlled incubator, or a cooler,
that is used to study biological samples in preparation for the science payload
that studies the function of substances produced within the body and regulation
of the immune processes and cell cycle under microgravity conditions.
That science payload launched aboard the Soyuz spacecraft yesterday morning that is now
on its way to the International Space Station.
Also, earlier this morning Commander Burbank participated in a live in-flight interview
with WDIV-TV in Detroit, Michigan.
Flight Engineer Anton Shakplerov spent some time earlier this morning with a variety
of maintenance tasks of the service module including some circuitry checkout,
a coolant leak and a control and atmosphere monitoring sensor check
and also a filter unit replacement.
This is Mission Control Houston.