INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
                      Expedition Two Science Operations

                        Weekly Science Status Report #16
                           Thursday, July 19, 2001

 When Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the orbiting research outpost on
 June 12, the event was recorded by an important Expedition Two science
 experiment.

 The Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS) precisely
 recorded both the initial Shuttle capture, followed minutes later by the
 hard mating when docking latches locked the Station and Shuttle securely
 together, said Kevin McPherson, project manager for Principal Investigator
 Microgravity Services at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

 "This is the first time we’ve captured a Shuttle docking event to the
 Space Station," McPherson said.  "In a few days, we will record the
 undocking event."  For folks operating payloads through Station joint
 operations, these kinds of impulsive disturbances are important to them
 so they know what to expect and what precautionary action they might take
 to minimize the effect on their science.”

 This is important basic data for scientists operating or planning
 experiments that require a very stable microgravity environment.
 Dockings, crew activities and even operating equipment can create
 gravity-like accelerations that can disturb experiments.  The vibration
 environment will change throughout the Station program as new modules and
 facilities are added to the orbiting facility, which in its current
 configuration weighs 130 tons and is roughly 171 feet by 240 feet in size.

 The focus of Expedition Two crew activities shifted this week as planned
 from payloads to joint operations with the crew of Space Shuttle
 Atlantis, including installation of a new airlock module and the transfer
 of equipment between the Shuttle and the Station.  The crew conducted
 normal science payload status checks to make sure experiments are
 operating normally.

 This is a transition period for several Expedition Two experiments.  One
 is arriving on board the Station.  Three others are returning to Earth at
 the conclusion of their research programs.

 On Monday, June 16, the crew moved the Protein Crystal Growth Enhanced
 Gaseous Nitrogen Dewar experiment from the Shuttle to the Station.  This
 is the last Expedition Two experiment to arrive on the Station.  This
 untended experiment will be activated after the Shuttle undocks and
 stowed in the Russian Zvezda Service Module until its return on the next
 Shuttle mission, STS-105, now scheduled for launch on August 9.

 This is the third trip to the Station for the Dewar. Inside are hundreds
 of samples of biological materials that carry out many important
 functions in humans, animals and plants.  In space, the materials will
 form crystals that will be returned to Earth, where scientists will
 retrieve the samples and analyze them to determine the structure of the
 biological molecules.  Knowledge of the precise three-dimensional
 molecular structure is an important tool for biochemists designing
 medicines.  Students around the country helped prepare some of the
 samples and will be able to monitor the results.  More than 500 schools
 across the country have participated in the program since it began in
 1999.

 The crew was scheduled to transfer the Advanced Astroculture and
 Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus experiments to the Shuttle
 today for return to Earth.  On Saturday, the crew is scheduled to
 transfer Protein Crystal Growth Single Thermal Enclosure System Units 9
 and 10 to the Shuttle.

 Automated experiments continue to operate aboard the Station.  Those
 currently include the Experiment on the Physics of Colloids in Space
 (EXPPCS), the Active Rack Isolation System (ARIS), and three radiation
 monitoring experiments -- Phantom Torso, Dosimetric Mapping (DOSMAP) and
 the Bonner Ball Neutron Detector.

 Among the list of targets uplinked to the Station this week for the Crew
 Earth Observations photography research program are smog and dust in the
 Sichuan Province in China, reefs of the central Philippines, the Ganges
 River delta around Calcutta, sediments and wetlands of the Irraddy River
 delta near Rangoon, Burma, and the Lake Eyre basin area of Australia.