The Progress brought replacement parts for environmental systems in both the U.S. and Russian segments of the Station, office supplies, two tanks of potable water, and some clothing items for the two crewmembers. Also aboard the cargo ship are two experiment kits for European Space Agency cosmonaut Pedro Duque, who will launch in October on the Soyuz TMA-3 vehicle with the Expedition 8 crew. Duque will return to Earth with Malenchenko and Lu in the Soyuz TMA-2 vehicle, which is currently docked to the Station.

On Tuesday, Lu used the Microgravity Science Glovebox to continue the Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE) experiment. InSPACE is investigating a type of ‘smart materials’ that researchers hope will improve the types of fluids used in braking and vibration damping systems. InSPACE is one of three experiments Lu will do aboard the Space Station using the glovebox.

While looking out the window of the Destiny Lab Thursday, Lu noticed an object floating away from the Station. Lu characterized the object as a rectangular-shaped piece of metal that was about 5 cm long. Station flight controllers determined that the object was possibly a small label that may have come loose from an exterior part of the station, and that, because of its low mass and relative velocity, it posed no threat to the complex. However, an analysis of photographs of the object taken by Lu before it drifted away continues.

Information on the crew’s activities aboard the space station, future launch dates, as well as station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, is available on the Internet at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

Details on station science operations can be found on an Internet site administered by the Payload Operations Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., at:

http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/

The next ISS status report will be issued on Friday, June 20, or earlier, if events warrant.

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