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Scientific equipment including the first European student experiment reaches the International Space Station

9 September 2003

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Progress approaches the aft docking port on the Zvezda Service M

Backdropped by the blackness of space, an unpiloted Progress supply vehicle approaches the aft docking port (out of frame) on the Zvezda Service Module on the International Space Station (ISS). The Progress 12 resupply craft, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:48 p.m. (CDT) on August 28, 2003, carried nearly three tons of food, fuel, water, supplies and scientific gear for the Expedition 7 crew aboard the Station. The Progress linked up with the Station at 10:40 p.m. (CDT) on August 30, 2003 as the two spacecraft were flying over Central Asia at an altitude of 240 statute miles.

Credits: NASA

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The WINOGRAD student experiment which will investigate differences between the growth of Winogradski columns in weightlessness and on Earth. A Winogradski column is a colony of different types of bacteria in which the waste products of one bacterium serve as nutrients for another and vice versa. On Earth they live in pond or lake water and need only light for photosynthesis. This makes them of interest to scientists, who want to find out more about a possible future role for bacteria in long-duration spaceflight. Bacteria could help to dispose of waste or to recycle air and water, and their gas might be used as fuel.

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Progress M-48 was launched on 29 August from Baikonur

The Progress M-48 on mission 12P to the ISS was launched into orbit on Friday, 29 August 2003 at 03.48 Central European Time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credits: Jason Maroothynaden

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Spanish ESA astronaut Pedro Duque with Russian cosmonaut Gennady Ivanovich Padalka during training at Star City near Moscow. In preparation for his Soyuz mission to the International Space Station currently scheduled for Autumn 2003. Padalka was originally scheduled to fly with Pedro Duque, he is now assigned as Commander to the ISS Expedition Nine crew.

Duque will carry out a full scientific programme, spending some 40 hours of his eight day stint on the ISS on experimental activity. Most of the experiments are sponsored by the Spanish government although there are also a number of reflights of experiments from the Belgian Odissea mission to the ISS in October 2002.

Duque will also participate in a number of educational and promotional activities with the aim of bringing the European human space programme and research performed in space to a wider public, and young people in particular.

Credits: ESA-Corvaja

European experiment hardware reaches the International Space Station