Image above: Cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov works outside the International Space Station on March 10 during a 4-hour, 49-minute spacewalk. Credit NASA

• Watch NASA TV
Expedition 18 waiting for Shuttle visitors and crew replacements

Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and flight engineers Yury Lonchakov and Sandra Magnus are awaiting the crew of the space shuttle Discovery on the STS-119 mission.

Launch is scheduled for Sunday at 7:43 p.m. EDT. Magnus, KE5FYE, will be replaced by her counterpart Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, KC5ZTA, and go home aboard the shuttle.

The Expedition 19 crew, which will replace Fincke, KE5AIT, and Lonchakov, RA3DT, is in Kazakhstan preparing for its launch aboard a Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft on March 26 at 7:49 a.m. Riding along with Commander Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt, KD5MIJ, is spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP.

As preparations are being made on the ground for the upcoming station missions, the station residents continue with their normal science, maintenance and exercise activities.

On Friday, Lonchakov recharged the Russian Orlan spacesuits he and Fincke used during Tuesday’s excursion to install a European experiment outside the Zvezda service module. Fincke inspected the advanced resistive exercise device, cleaned air ducts and took air measurements. Magnus performed a science experiment and analyzed samples of the station’s water supply.

On Thursday morning, the station crew was alerted about the possible conjunction of an estimated 13-centimeter-diameter piece of space debris with the station.

Crew members entered their Soyuz TMA-13 capsule in case the debris affected the space station and they were required to undock. The crew remained in the Soyuz until the debris risk had passed and began reconfiguring station systems for normal operations afterwards.

Listen to Mission Control discuss the space debris with Mike Fincke (2.1 Mb MP3)