International Space Station Has Routine Weekday

The international space station has a weekday like any other, Mayday or no Mayday, says a NASA spokesman to the Russian mission control centre. A guest crew which came yesterday is starting research and technical experiments. Spaceman Yuri Baturin, for one, is working at Plasma Crystal to study the distribution of charged specks of dust in weightlessness. The experiment is expected to demonstrate crystal formation patterns on Earth without an electronic microscope as opposite-charged atoms are assumed to form the solid substance crystal lattice similarly, whether on Earth or in space. Dennis Tito told CNN about the trip to the station and his plans--in particular, to make photographs and video footages of the Earth surface, and snapshots of the station crew. When Novosti asked the NASA officer whether Mr. Tito would be allowed to visit the US station units, he explained that the world's first space tourist had not been trained to work there and had not studied safety rules, so it is reasonable to keep him off for precaution's sake. "We'll wait and see just how it all works out," he said.