The three residents of the International Space Station were busy with emergency training and science experiments Thursday as they await the arrival of three additional crew members.

Joining Expedition 28 Commander Andrey Borisenko and Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Ron Garan aboard the station next week will be Flight Engineers Mike Fossum, Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa. They are scheduled to launch June 7 aboard the Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft and arrive at the station June 9.

Aboard the station, Borisenko, Samokutyaev and Garan participated in a rapid depressurization training drill with flight control teams on the ground. The emergency training drill was conducted to familiarize the station crew members with gear locations, equipment use and procedures to help prepare them for the unlikely event of an actual emergency situation.

Borisenko and Samokutyaev also worked on the Russian Bar experiment which investigates pressurization and leak detection in the Russian modules.

Samokutyaev inspected the windows in the Russian segment and photographed them for documentation purposes.

Garan worked with the VIABLE (eValuatIon And monitoring of microBiofiLms insidE the ISS) experiment. This experiment involves the evaluation of the microbial biofilm development on space materials.

Garan also continued to clean up some of the equipment used during the STS-134 mission. During the 16-day mission, space shuttle Endeavour and its crew delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and spare parts to the station and conducted four spacewalks.

The station's residents had several opportunities to observe and photograph our home planet as they orbit the Earth every 90 minutes. Thursday's crew earth observations included Kampala, Uganda; the Florida Coastal Everglades; and Ubinas Volcano, Peru.

Tweet

Related Links Expedition 28 Station at NASA Station and More at Roscosmos S.P. Korolev RSC Energia Watch NASA TV via Space.TV Space Station News at Space-Travel.Com