The International Space Station raised its orbit Thursday to accommodate the Expedition 38 crew members when they dock Nov. 7 in a Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft. A Progress resupply craft will also arrive in late November delivering gear to replenish the orbital laboratory.
Europe’s “Albert Einstein” Automated Transfer Vehicle-4 (ATV-4) fired its engines placing the station in the correct phasing for the November dockings. The ATV-4 will end its stay at the orbital laboratory when it undocks from the Zvezda service module’s aft port Oct. 28.
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Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy spent their day working on Russian Orlan spacesuits as they prepare for a Nov. 9 spacewalk. They conducted leak checks inside the Pirs docking compartment and recharged water systems and batteries inside their spacesuits.
Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin set up and began charging the Iridium phone, an emergency communication device, which will be installed on the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft he, Nyberg and Parmitano will return home in Nov. 10. The commander also worked throughout the day collecting surface samples inside Zvezda for analysis.
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