Johnson Space Center, Houston Feb. 18, 2005 International Space
Station Status Report: SS05-008 The International Space Station
crew is preparing for the arrival of fresh supplies aboard a
Russian cargo ship. The seventeenth Progress to go to the
Station is set to launch on Feb. 28 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
It will dock with the orbiting laboratory March 2. Expedition 10
Commander and NASA Station Science Officer Leroy Chiao and
Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov are in the fifth month of a
six month stay in orbit. The Progress cargo spacecraft attached
to the Station will be undocked, reenter the atmosphere and burn
up on Feb. 27. This week several steps were taken to ensure all
supplies are used from aboard the docked Progress before it is
jettisoned. On Tuesday, Russian flight controllers fired the
Progress engines for about seven and one half minutes, boosting
the Station's orbit by approximately two miles. Additional
propellant was transferred from that craft into tanks aboard the
Station. Oxygen from ta