Station Crew Performs Maintenance and Science, Preps for STS-131

(NASA) – After three light-duty days, the Expedition 22 crew members aboard the International Space Station got back to a regular work schedule Thursday, focusing on maintenance, science and preparations for the arrival of the next space shuttle mission.

After the crew disconnected and reconnected valves in the system, the Urine Processing Assembly operated successfully after a leak was detected in the plumbing during STS-130. The maintenance work performed over the past few days has restored the system to full functionality.

Expedition 22 Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov works with samples from the bioscience experiment ASEPTIC (BTKh-39) in the Russian Glavboks-S (Glovebox) in the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Commander Jeff Williams worked with the Bodies in the Space Environment (BISE) Experiment, which evaluates how perception and orientation are affected by long-duration spaceflight.

Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev transferred discarded items and trash to the docked ISS Progress 35 spacecraft. After it is filled, the unpiloted Progress will undock April 27 to deorbit then burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Suraev also worked with the PLANTS-2 experiment, which takes a look at the growth of plants in a weightless environment.

To prepare for the three spacewalks scheduled during the upcoming STS-131 mission, Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer performed cooling loop maintenance on the U.S. spacesuits in the Quest airlock. The STS-131 mission is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 5.