November 18, 2005

Allard Beutel 
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-4769 

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111) 

STATUS REPORT: SS05-054

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS05-054

Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery 
Tokarev took a short ride around the International Space Station 
today, flying their Soyuz spacecraft from one docking port to 
another. 

The crew left the station unoccupied for approximately 30 minutes, as 
they relocated the Soyuz. Tokarev undocked the spacecraft at 3:46 
a.m. EST, while the station orbited 225 miles above the Atlantic, and 
docked to the nearby Zarya module at 4:05 a.m. EST. 

The Soyuz move freed the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock for an 
upcoming spacewalk. The Soyuz is the crew's ride home at the end of 
their six-month stay on the station. It also serves as a lifeboat.

The crew must finish unpacking the Progress cargo spacecraft docked to 
the complex, prepare it for undocking and get ready for the Dec. 23 
arrival of the next supply ship. McArthur spent several hours 
photographing samples of colloids that had been undisturbed in the 
station's microgravity environment for more than a year. The work is 
part of an experiment called the Binary Colloidal Alloy Test. The 
behavior of these supercritical fluids is important because they 
combine the properties of liquids and gases. A better understanding 
of their reaction in the weightless environment of space could help 
in the development of new drugs, cleaner power and interplanetary 
transportation.

Information about crew activities, future launch dates and Station 
sighting opportunities is available on the Web at: 

http://www.nasa.gov/station 

	
-end-