Science and Station Orientation for Crew

Image above: (From left to right) Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi, Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer participate in an in-flight media interview aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV

Orientation activities and science investigations continued Wednesday for the Expedition 22 crew aboard the International Space Station.

The newest crew members, Flight Engineers Soichi Noguchi, T.J. Creamer and Oleg Kotov, who arrived at the station Dec. 22, continued orientation procedures scheduled for their first two weeks aboard the orbiting complex.

Creamer also worked with the DEvice for the study of Critical LIquids and Crystallization (DECLIC) experiment that studies the material growth and the behavior of liquids. DECLIC may lead to spin-offs in the field of clean technologies for producing energy and treating household and nuclear waste.

Noguchi also worked with the Bodies in the Space Environment (BISE) Experiment, which is evaluating how astronauts’ perception of their bodies’ orientation are affected by long-duration spaceflight. Findings from BISE are expected to help create a safer work environment in space and could eventually help develop treatments of aids for people on Earth who experience balancing problems or are prone to falling, including seniors and people with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease.

Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Max Suraev practiced for a full-crew emergency exit drill planned for Thursday, and discussed the upcoming drill with specialists on the ground. Such periodic drills prepare the crew for an escape in the docked Soyuz vehicles in the unlikely event of an emergency serious enough to require evacuation.

Noguchi, Williams and Creamer also participated in an in-flight media interview with Wisconsin Public Radio and the Washington Post.

Williams, a retired U.S. Army colonel, and Creamer, an Army colonel, saluted U.S. forces in Iraq with a special call to Baghdad Tuesday. Service members had the chance to talk with the astronauts about life on the station, their military careers and what it is like to live in space for up to six months.

› View video of Williams and Creamer saluting the troops

› Read more about Expedition 22

› View crew timelines

› Read more about the station's butterfly experiment

2010 International Space Station Calendar

NASA is offering a 2010 calendar that describes the work being done on the International Space Station and gives information about the crews that have lived there. The calendar contains photographs taken from the space station and highlights historic NASA milestones and fun facts about the international construction project of unprecedented complexity that began in 1998.