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Good morning.

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This is Mission Control Houston.

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Thank you for joining us for today's
ISS Update this Thursday, December 22.

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Aboard the orbiting complex,
station Commander Dan Burbank

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and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov
and Anatoly Ivanishin now rounding

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out their sixth week in space continue to
conduct science experiments that take advantage

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of their microgravity environment, perform
regular maintenance to their orbital home

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and prepare for the arrival of three new
crew members who are scheduled to arrive

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at the space station tomorrow
morning at 9:22 a.m. Central time.

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Yesterday, NASA astronaut Don Pettit,
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko

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and European Space Agency astronaut Andre
Kuipers launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-03M

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from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan at 7:16 a.m. Central time.

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They have begun their two day chase on orbit to
catch up with the International Space Station.

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Ascent and the first two rendezvous
burns were all nominal yesterday.

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The Soyuz performed another
rendezvous maneuver today

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and all systems aboard the Soyuz
spacecraft continue to check out nominally.

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The Soyuz is slated to link up to the
International Space Station tomorrow morning

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when it docks to the Rassvet module.

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Live coverage of the Soyuz docking
will begin here on NASA Television

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at 8:45 a.m. Central time with docking
scheduled to occur at 9:22 a.m. Central time.

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Meanwhile, the Expedition 30 crew now aboard the
International Space Station began their morning

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with the first of two daily planning conferences
a couple of hours after wakeup at Midnight.

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Commander Dan Burbank is busy now
gathering and setting up hardware required

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for the EPIC card installation
and testing and preparation

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for the station's onboard computer architecture
upgrade to increase its performance.

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Meanwhile, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly
Ivanishin are conducting the BAR experiment

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that tests and validates methods

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to detect pressure leaks onboard the
station to improve space flight safety.

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And later Shkaplerov will photograph the
ongoing geophysics experiment known as URAGAN

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that tests an experimental ground-based
system that uses Earth observations

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from the space station's
vantage point to classify

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and predict natural disasters
such as hurricanes.

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Earlier this morning after performing a Reaction
self-test that monitors the daily effects

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of fatigue on performance during long-duration
space flight and his regular morning inspection

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of the station, COmmander Dan Burbank began his
workday on the Microgravity Science Glovebox.

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He also did some work on the
Compound Specific Analyzer.

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Burbank then set up the KUBIK, which is a small
temperature controlled incubator, or a cooler,

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that is used to study biological samples
in preparation for the science payload

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that studies the function of substances
produced within the body and regulation

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of the immune processes and cell
cycle under microgravity conditions.

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That science payload launched aboard the
Soyuz spacecraft yesterday morning that is now

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on its way to the International Space Station.

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Also, earlier this morning Commander Burbank
participated in a live in-flight interview

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with WDIV-TV in Detroit, Michigan.

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Flight Engineer Anton Shakplerov spent some
time earlier this morning with a variety

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of maintenance tasks of the service
module including some circuitry checkout,

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a coolant leak and a control and
atmosphere monitoring sensor check