Station Crew Prepares to Resume Outpost Assembly Amid Research Work By Todd Halvorson Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief posted: 04:15 pm ET 06 September 2001 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA and its 15 global partners will resume construction of the International Space Station next week with the launch of a Russian docking port that will double as an airlock at the frontier outpost. Almost four weeks into a four-month station tour, outpost commander Frank Culbertson and two cosmonaut colleagues this week are preparing for the planned Sept. 14 launch of Docking Compartment-1, also known as "Pirs," or pier. Mounted atop a Russian Soyuz rocket, the barrel-shaped module will blast off from Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan about 7:35 p.m. EDT (2335 GMT) that day. Its arrival at the station is expected about 9 p.m. EDT Sept. 16 (0100 GMT Sept. 17). The 8,000-pound (3,600-kilogram) compartment was sealed up for flight earlier this week and Russian officials reconfirmed the launch date with their NASA counterparts. "So I think we're on track and we expect to see the Docking Compartment on board in a little over a week," NASA mission manager Melissa Gard told reporters in a news briefing Thursday. Built by Russian aerospace giant RSC-Energia, the docking compartment will provide an extra docking port for Russian Soyuz crew transport vehicles and Progress cargo carriers. Russian spacesuits and tools will be stored within the module, and it also will serve as an airlock for staging spacewalks from the Russian segment of the 17-story international outpost, which is being built by the U.S., Russia and 14 other nations. The station in July was equipped with a $164 million American-made airlock that can accommodate spacewalkers wearing either U.S. or Russian spacesuits. The new Docking Compartment is only equipped to service Russian suits, but its presence will give station crews added flexibility when it comes to performing spacewalking construction or repair work outside the outpost. "Having the ability to perform spacewalks out of two different airlocks with two different spacesuits really helps us fulfill the objectives of station assembly and maintenance tasks," Gard said. Culbertson and his crewmates -- cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin -- will conduct three spacewalks out of the new Russian airlock in October and early November. On Oct. 8, Dezhurov and Turin will string electrical power cables, set out handrails and install a Russian cargo boom on the exterior of the docking compartment. A science experiment will be mounted outside Pirs by the two cosmonauts during an Oct. 14 spacewalk, and Dezhurov and Culbertson will hook up docking system cables during the final foray on Nov. 5. In between the excursions, a taxi crew that includes French astronaut Claudie Andre-Deschays and two Russian cosmonauts will deliver a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to the station. The trio is scheduled to launch to the station around Oct. 23 and will spent a week there before returning to Earth in the Soyuz lifeboat now parked at the outpost. Launched to the station Aug. 10 aboard shuttle Discovery, Culbertson and his crewmates have spent the better part of the past month setting up house and conducting science experiments on the outpost. Some 15,400 pounds of supplies and equipment were delivered to the station for the crew aboard the shuttle and a Progress space freighter, and Gard said Culberston and his colleagues have been busy stowing all the gear around the outpost. "The analogy I make is that the moving truck had just left all the crew's worldly possessions in the garage, and they've been spending the last couple of weeks trying to figure out which rooms in the house all those particular boxes are supposed to go into," she said. At the same time, she added, the crew has been "trying to live out of those boxes -- just trying to find their food, set up their bedrooms, and then they've got the additional overhead of the home office because they've actually had a job to do in executing the research program." The research program includes 18 U.S. science experiments, one of which already has been completed. Culbertson grew and preserved colon, kidney, neuroendocrine and ovarian cell cultures as part of a 14-day experiment that could lead to the development of new drugs to fight cancer. Sixteen other experiments, meanwhile, already have been started, including the first long-duration study of pulmonary function in space. That study will involve a series of five lung tests aimed at detecting changes in respiratory muscle strength. In addition, Culbertson and his crewmates will perform lung tests in conjunction with their upcoming spacewalks in a bid to determine whether so-called Extravehicular Activities have any affect on the pulmonary system. Senior NASA scientist John Uri lauded the crew for the fast start to the research work. "Things just couldn't be better from the research perspective. The Expedition Three crew has really dug into their work," he said. "This whole space station research program build-up is kind of like a meal. We've already served the appetizers, and the last couple of weeks, we have been taking just heaping helpings from several dishes, and it's been really exciting for us." Culbertson and his crewmates will remain on the station until early- to mid-December.