Committed to the International Space Station since 18 April, officially in command some eleven days later, Expedition 9 mission deserves a round of applause. A week ago commander Gennady Padalka and science officer Mike Fincke successfully restored power to one of the station's gyroscopes. Though ISS was never in serious danger even had a third critical gyro failed, mission controllers must be breathing a sigh of relief now with only one down, scheduled to be replaced as the shuttles resume duty.

Informed by the extravehicular experience gathered from Expedition 8, Padalka and Fincke temporarily left their orbital home to work on the outdoor repairs. Their initial spacewalk ended abruptly into the shortest in history, aborted by a tricky switch on Fincke's oxygen supply. (Easy way out of rookie status, he was reported to remark!) Only a blink in space-time later came a second attempt; on this try they worked ahead of schedule completing the assigned tasks some twenty minutes shy of six hours. Over the next day or so the re-powered gyro was brought up to usual speed, tested for proper operation, then restored into service keeping the station on station.

For the moment then the official priorities of the mission revert to daily and weekly tasks monitoring oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. However plenty more work remains. Two additional spacewalks are scheduled, one to install more equipment outside the Zvezda service module and the other to set up cameras and related gear for the arrival of ESA's Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle set to launch later this year. (The crew is slated to conduct all three spacewalks from the Pirs Docking Compartment wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits.) Further, having already handled the arrival of the resupply vessel Progress 14 they must also prepare for Progress 15 in about a month.

But it's not all high-tech either. On the human side comes the birth of Fincke's daughter, the first such happy occasion to occur while a US astronaut parent was too (upwardly!) far away to participate in person. Father's Day came early and impressively to this particular father! And despite all that, speaking of baby steps, they still found the time to pass along a message of welcome to the sub-orbital hop of SpaceShipOne. By being there when the going got tough, Expedition 9 highlights one of the better reason for humans to occupy space. In a world where our grasp reaches to our satellites, natural or otherwise, people return things to normal when they spin a little out of control.


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