RUSSIAN COSMONAUTS AND AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS CONTINUE TO WORK ABOARD INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION








MISSION CONTROL CENTRE (Moscow region), March 12, 2001. /RIA Novosti correspondent Eduard Puzyrev/. The crew of the U.S. shuttle Discovery and the ISS are preparing to perform a space walk for the second time on Tuesday, March 13. This was disclosed to RIA Novosti today in the Russian Mission Control Centre.


	It is planned that the astronauts of the shuttle, Andrew Thomas and Paul Richards, will perform an EVA at 7.32, Moscow time, and will spend there four hours. They will check the fastening of the new module Leonardo which docked with the station on March 11. They will also prepare the place for the construction manipulator-crane which will be delivered by the next shuttle.


	Today, the heads of the first and the second permanent expeditions to the ISS - American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonaut Yury Usachev - will enter the American lab module Unity and will decide what should be done to tote the equipment from the Leonardo cargo module there. The transportation of the cargo will start tomorrow afternoon, reported the Mission Control Centre.


	Today Russian cosmonauts Yury Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev will start moving to the shuttle from the ISS their records and research equipment which has completed its work under the mission programme aboard the ISS. On March 18, the crew will leave the ISS where they have worked since November 2, 2000. The second permanent expedition, consisting of Russian cosmonaut Yury Usachev (commander) and American astronauts Susan Helms and James Voss, will remain on the station. It is supposed that they would work on the station till September. -O-   (kos/nog) 12/03/01    15:56