SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Space Station Reboost Wednesday Night*

Image above: Fyodor Yurchikhin (left), Oleg Kotov (right) and Sunita Williams photographed during a teleconference in the Zvezda Service Module. Image credit: NASA

TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

The next station reboost is scheduled for May 23 at about 7:30 p.m. EDT, using the ISS Progress 25 thrusters. The purpose of the maneuver is to position the station for the STS-117 launch in June.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov continue preparations for their upcoming spacewalk. The spacewalkers spent several hours checking out and readying their spacesuits and charging battery packs. Yurchikhin will wear the Russian Orlan suit with red stripes and Kotov will wear the suit with blue stripes. A pre-spacewalk fitness evaluation was conducted on the two cosmonauts, which involved a cardiovascular evaluation using the cycle ergometer.

+ Expedition 15 Spacewalk Briefing Materials, May 23, 2007 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/exp15_msb_052307.html

To check water quality, Flight Engineer Sunita Williams took samples of potable water for chemical and microbial analysis. Some samples will be returned to Earth on STS-117, while a quicker microbial in-flight sampling is done using the Micro Sample In-Flight Analysis Packet.

Williams conducted the status check and filter inspection of the science experiment of seed germination modules and nematode worms housed in the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus incubator. Students in the U.S. and Malaysia are participating in educational activities in their classrooms while monitoring the growth in orbit.

+ Read more about the Progress 25 docking http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/exp15_progress25_launch.html + Read more about Expedition 15 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html + View crew daily timelines http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html