SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

Station Crew Back at Work

ISS014-E-07084 : Geneva, Switzerland Image above: Geneva, Switzerland, is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 14 crew member on the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA TO VIEW PICTURE - GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

The Expedition 14 crew members aboard the International Space Station are back at work this week after enjoying a quiet holiday weekend. They celebrated New Year's on orbit with a traditional dinner of rehydrated American food and Russian delicacies.

Station Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams will primarily focus this week on the first phase of installing the new Oxygen Generation System. The complex procedure being performed by the crew this week will test the equipment to insure that it can support a full crew when the permanent complement aboard the station ultimately expands to six people.

Meanwhile, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin is spending several days this week modifying the ventilation system in the service module to run more quietly. He will add two new noise-isolation crew cabin fans, sound deadening vibration isolators and air ducts with acoustic shields.

+ Read more about Expedition 14 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/index.html + Read more about Expedition 15 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html + View crew's daily timelines http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html