NASA
MONITORS SOLAR FLARE ACTIVITY
DURING SPACE STATION MISSION
NASANews@hq.nasa.gov
RELEASE:
03-347
All systems remain go for a
return to Earth Monday for the seventh International Space Station crew, as
recent solar activity levels are
not anticipated to pose a concern. The
solar flare activity should not affect Space Station operations or be harmful to
the crew.
Russian cosmonaut Yuri
Malenchenko and NASA astronaut Ed Lu will undock from the orbiting complex
Monday at 6:18 p.m. EST. They will fire the descent engines aboard their Russian
Soyuz spacecraft at about 8:47 p.m. EST and land in Kazahkstan at approximately
9:41 p.m. EST.
Flight controllers in the U.S.
and Russia have been closely monitoring the predicted effects of recent solar
activity and anticipate no change to any of the landing plans. NASA flight
control personnel have determined no additional radiation exposure to the Space
Station crew is expected as a result of the solar activity.
"As part of our normal
support of International Space Station operations, we continually monitor solar
activity levels," said Mike Golightly, Manager of the Space Radiation
Analysis Group at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. "To date the recent
eruptions, or coronal mass ejections, have not resulted in any additional
radiation exposure to the crew, nor is any increase expected from these
events," he said.
Increased solar activity is
forecast for the next few weeks, and the control team will continue to monitor
the progress of events with support from the NOAA Space Environment Center,
Golightly added. Lu and Malenchenko have been in space since April 26. For more
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