The crew awoke to congratulations on both yesterday's outstanding robotics operations and today's holiday.

After yesterday's SSRMS (space station remote manipulator system) run, LEE (latching end effect) checkout requirements are now complete. [Following the operations by Bowersox and Pettit, the ground collected FMS (force moment sensor) data during two orbits, with the SSRMS in the new arm configuration, then powered the system to KA (keep alive) mode. Disconnecting the DCP (display and control panel) bypass power cable of the Lab RWS (robotic workstation) was left up to the crew's convenience.]

For the April 12 PAO downlinks, there were four scheduled TV passes during Daily Orbits (DO) 14, 15, 1 and 2, starting at 2:28am EDT until 7:29am, with a fifth opportunity, at 7:40 (DO 3), as a backup for the greeting from President Vladimir Putin (from St. Petersburg). Happy April 12 was wished by the Cosmonaut Corps in Star City; also participating in the greeting exchanges were RSC-Energia Director Yuri P. Semenov and Russian Federation Human Rights Commissioner Oleg O. Mironov, accompanied by Mir cosmonaut and State Duma Deputy Elena V. Kondakova (from TsUP).

According to today's edition of "The Moscow Times", during his address to the ISS crew, Pres. Putin said, "Now that shuttle flights have been suspended, it is important to preserve the ISS in operational condition... You had to ensure non-stop manned operation of the station in the sad weeks following the Columbia tragedy. You've coped with the task brilliantly." He also said that Russians sincerely regret "the death of your colleagues and comrades; this tragedy was felt by everyone on Earth." Extending his best wishes to Budarin, Bowersox and Pettit, Putin said, "Work in orbit will never become routine. People who do this work must not only be real professionals but also brave and strong people like you." He congratulated Budarin on the birth of his granddaughter and wished Budarin and Pettit "joyful birthday celebrations" on the station. The CDR thanked Putin for wishing them well and reiterated the need for Russian-U.S. partnership.

Also during Cosmonautics Day today, Presidential administration staff members, Duma deputies and space agency executives placed flowers at Gagarin's and chief designer Sergei Korolev's tombs at the Kremlin wall on Red Square. A mass rally was held outside the Space Hall at the Russian Exhibition Center. [Gagarin was accepted into the cosmonaut unit in 1960. After the historic 108-min. flight around the Earth he was promoted to unit leader. Gagarin was killed, with a flight instructor, in a still not completely explained fighter jet crash on March 27, 1968.]

Budarin conducted the regular inspection of the BRPK air/condensate separator of the SRV-K water processing system and performed the daily routine maintenance of the SOZh life support system (including ASU toilet facilities), while Donald Pettit readied the IMS inventory system for the daily automated export/import of updates.

Nikolai Mikhailovich also took care of his daily checkup of the BIO-5 "Rasteniya-2/Lada-2" zero-G plant growth experiment.

Today's recommended targets for the Russian Diatomeya ocean observation program, on the Russian task list, were in the Atlantic Ocean, for the Nikon F5 digital camera (f80mm lens) to record the spring blooms of phytoplankton near the dynamic centers of the Caribbean and Sargasso Seas, and colored areas of the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current branches and frontal zones.

Target areas for the Russian Uragan earth imaging program for today, cloud cover permitting, on Budarin's task list, were the city of Paris, panoramic shots of the Rhine River, coal pits south of Leipzig/Germany, and the Oder and Viszla River flood plains. [Most images were to be taken with the 800mm tele-lens, then to be transferred from the camera's CompactFlash card to the laptop for potential downlink (size permitting) via Regul packet email.]

Pettit terminated the discharge process for the second EVA EMU battery, started yesterday. [Batteries are stored in discharged condition to prolong capacity performance.]

In accordance with the upcoming station occupancy by only two crewmembers during Increment 7, the U.S. segment (USOS) fire procedures have been modified to aid in the execution of fire location and suppression actions. A summary of the changes was uplinked for the crew. [Current procedures call for one crewmember (SC1) to work the necessary command steps on the PCS (portable computer system) in the "safe haven", while the other two crewmembers (SC2, 3) locate and suppress the fire in the affected module. With only two crewmembers aboard, the "buddy system" aspect of the fire procedures still is retained, and the procedures are modified accordingly, to be performed serially, with the two crew members translating together between the affected module and a PCS laptop in a safe haven. The crew is still prime for execution of all procedures, with MCC-H assisting as required in fire location and execution of the PCS steps.]

For a comprehensive Expedition 6 crew debrief scheduled for 4/16 (Wednesday), the ground has uplinked a list of questions gathered by the Flight Control Team (FCT) concerning procedures and hardware that have been used by the crew during their stay. [The debriefing list includes such topics as special installations (Airlock vacuum access jumpers {VAJs}, high rate communications outage recorder {HCOR}), preventive maintenance tasks, troubleshooting and R&R tasks, Films (in-flight maintenances), water usage and inventory. Discussing these questions at a time when the crewmembers still have the hardware in front of them will save a lot of debrief time whenthey get back.]

Science Update (Expedition Six -- 19th):

Great appreciation was again expressed to the crew by Lead Increment Scientist Vic Cooley for accomplishing a significant amount of payloads activities despite a busy EVA week. They completed the weekly EVARM badge reading as well as activation of the CGBA hardware, performed the post-EVA PuFF session and the EarthKAM setup and activation and capped off the week with the completion of three runs of the InSPACE samples. The ground also appreciates the pictures they took of MSG that "were just what we needed".

Extra-Vehicular Activity Radiation Monitors (EVARM): EVARM files from the past several badge readings were successfully downlinked this week and are being analyzed by the PI (Principal Investigator).

GASMAP/Pulmonary Function in Flight (PuFF): The PuFF team sent their thanks for another job well done. The crew's final inflight PuFF session is currently planned for next Friday, 4/18. Renal (Kidney) Stone Experiment: Completed for Increment 6. Bowersox and Pettit continue taking their stone-prevention (or placebo) pills. Third and final session is planned for next week (of 4/14).

Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS): Continuing.

Foot/Ground Reaction Forces During Space Flight (FOOT): The FOOT team is working on the extra exercise protocols recommended by Bowersox.

Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI): The ground appreciated all the hard work that went into removing the hardware from MSG and stowing it in the correct locations.

Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS is nominal and currently supporting a test to compare drag profiles for different solar array orientations. Monitored operations during EVA with hammer hits to CETA light stanchion. Monitored reboost on 4/10. Currently analyzing data from these events.

Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): MAMS is nominal and currently supporting a test to compare drag profiles for different solar array orientations. Monitored operations during EVA with hammer hits to CETA light stanchion. Monitored reboost on 4/10. Currently analyzing data from these events.

Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES): Temperatures are nominal. Crystals are still growing.

Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE): InSPACE is up and running. The ground team is undergoing a learning process with each test point and planning the next run based on the findings. As a result they are deviating from the structured test plan, and they appreciate the crew's patience with this approach. A wide range of structure development and MR fluid behavior has been exhibited as the test variables have been changed. The structure formation activity appeared the most dynamic during Test 27 (Coil Assembly 003, with particle size 0.6 microns, current amplitude 1.2 Amps, frequency 5 Hz). The least dynamic test in terms of structure formation was today' s second run, Test Run 21 (Coil Assembly 003, current amplitude 1.2 Amps, frequency 2 Hz). So far the focus of the cameras has been very good. InSPACE is looking forward to the performance of several more tests.

Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): In progress. Deployed outside. Nominal and collecting data. The MISSE team sent their thanks to Sox and Don for photographing the MISSE containers during their EVA. In-site photographs will be invaluable to the ground in the post-flight evaluations of the MISSE test specimens.

Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG): ZCG has finished science operations for Increment 6.

Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA): The CGBA team is "thrilled" that CGBA powered up nominally and all is looking great so far. "We are very appreciative to the crew for their assistance in getting things started for us."

EarthKAM (EK): There are 70 schools involved in this session of EarthKAM operations. Thus far the students have requested over 400 images. All are very excited about what they have received. Thanks to the crew for all of their help to get the EarthKAM setup and activated. EK images can be viewed on the Internet at http://datasystem.earthkam.ucsd.edu/cgi-bin/datasys/ek_images_station

Crew Earth Observations (CEO): Congratulations to the crew on completing the long task of documenting both context and highly detailed images of the ice fields of the southern Andes Mountains (Patagonian glaciers site). The latest downlink includes compelling contextual images of the ice fields and indeed, all of Patagonia. The images include detail of the hardest-to-get west-side glacier tongues that have not been seen before at this level of detail. Investigators are thus set to write the broad descriptive work on this site with their Russian colleagues who included the site. The crew's image of Los Angeles at night appears in NASA's weekly Earth Observatory offering by the JSC/CEO office. Today's CEO (crew earth observations) targets, with the current LVLH attitude now including near-vertical views from the city target list, were Bombay, India (nadir and a touch right; ESC [electronic still camera]), Eastern Mediterranean Smog (looking left for probable smog emanating from the Po River valley and flowing south down the Adriatic Sea. One of the recent ISS images of this phenomenon has been selected for this week's Earth Observations image on NASA's "Earth Observatory" website [see below]), Athens, Greece (nadir and a touch right; ESC), Istanbul, Turkey (nadir and a touch right; ESC), Brasilia, Brazil (nadir pass over Brazil's capital; ESC), Western Mediterranean Dust (dust should have been visible offshore of western Algeria and Morocco, in advance of the approaching storm), Chicago, Illinois(nadir pass; ESC), and Karachi, Pakistan (nadir pass; ESC).

CEO images can be viewed at the websites http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov and http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 6:50am EDT [= epoch]):
Mean altitude -- 393.1 km
Apogee -- 397.6 km
Perigee -- 388.7 km
Period -- 92.42 min.
Inclination (to Equator) -- 51.63 deg
Eccentricity -- 0.0006584
Orbits per 24-hr. day -- 15.58
Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours -- 100 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. '98) -- 25074
For more on ISS orbit and worldwide naked-eye visibility dates/times, see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html