SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

The Expedition 15 crew members are busy with science, station maintenance, preparations for their return to Earth and the arrival of the next crew to the International Space Station.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov worked Monday with a medical experiment that tests the cardiovascular system by applying negative pressure on the lower body to simulate the effects of gravity.

Flight Engineer Clay Anderson collected samples of the station's potable water. These samples are for a periodic check of the water for microbial or chemical contamination.

The Expedition 15 crew continues with preparations for departure and for the arrival of the next crew. The Expedition 16 crew, Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko, will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 10 and arrive at the station on Oct. 12.

Accompanying Expedition 16 is Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who will return to Earth on Oct. 21 with Yurchikhin and Kotov. Anderson will remain on the station with Expedition 16 until his replacement, Flight Engineer Dan Tani, arrives on space shuttle Discovery later in October.

The Zarya module's solar array wings were successfully retracted on Friday and Saturday, marking the first time they had been retracted since the module was put in orbit in November 1998. The arrays needed to be retracted to avoid contact with the station's radiators. The starboard radiators will be deployed during Discovery's STS-120 mission, followed by the port radiators after the shuttle departs.

+ View crew daily timelines http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html + Read more about Expedition 15 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html + Read more about Expedition 16 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition16/index.html