Shuttle visit breaks station crew routine

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., April 12 (UPI) -- Four months into a planned six-month stay in space, the International Space Station crew is enjoying playing host to their first visitors in orbit.

"I'm just so happy to see other faces," astronaut Dan Bursch said Friday during an inflight interview. "Nothing against Yuri or Carl," he said, turning to the two men who have been his sole companions since December, cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko and NASA crewmate Carl Walz.

The men are hosting the seven-member shuttle Atlantis crew for a week-long construction mission. The first step of the complex task to install a 44-foot-long exterior truss was completed on Monday.

The two crews took some time off Tuesday to review plans for back-to-back spacewalks over the weekend and enjoy a Texas-style barbeque, complete with beef, corn and country and western music.

The fresh food and new faces will be a welcome change for the station residents, who have been juggling non-stop maintenance tasks, trouble-shooting equipment problems and trying to conduct fledging microgravity science experiments.

The men expected to return home next month, but problems with the station's robot arm prompted NASA to add an additional task to the next shuttle crew's job list, delaying their launch to the orbiting outpost until May 31 and the station crew's homecoming until mid-June. Walz and Bursch now are expected to break the U.S. space endurance record held by Shannon Lucid, who spent six months aboard the Russian Mir space station.

"That feels nice to be able to share in a record ... but I sure do miss my family," Bursch wrote in a journal entry posted on NASA's Web site.

Science operations aboard the station are largely suspended while the shuttle crew is aboard, but are expected to resume after Atlantis departs at the end of next week. Among the equipment and supplies delivered by the shuttle is the station's first plant habitat. The prototype facility will be set up in an experiment rack in the Destiny science laboratory for a month-long test to grow wheat seedlings.

In total, the station crew is expected to oversee about 18 experiments, which include protein crystal growth studies, cell culture development and biological research for new pharmaceuticals. The shuttle crew also is delivering a freezer to the station to be used to preserve samples until they can be returned to Earth for analysis.

One job the station crew finds most pleasing is photographing the Earth.

"I really enjoy taking pictures of our beautiful planet," Bursch wrote. "The best days are when I have accomplished everything on the schedule, plus a little bit more, and I've been able to take several pictures throughout the day. A few times I was disappointed that I missed taking a picture, but now I understand that on an expedition flight there will always be another chance."

For sports, the men practice weightless drifting from one end to the other of the station's habitable compartments, which occupy about the volume of a three-bedroom house, and throwing foam balls down its length.

"We really haven't been too successful so far," said Bursch.

Mealtimes in weightlessness are considered recreational activities too, he added.

"We play with our food, like every good astronaut," Bursch said.