The crew will get the weekend off, but it will be work as usual during the American Thanksgiving Day holiday next Thursday. While several U.S. and Russian holidays will be observed during the crew's stay, Thanksgiving isn't one of them. I think we're doing better at that than we did the first week. But also that first week was a very demanding week because of all the life support systems that had to be outfitted in a relatively short amount of time. The pace we've now settled into here in the second week and on into the third week, I think you'll continue to see a rather even pace for the crew up until the 4A mission.
National flags representing all the international partners run along the bottom.
The crew was informed this afternoon that Russia now formally plans to deorbit the Mir space station next February. They had no immediate reaction. So I have great admiration for the job that they've done. In this 2001 calendar, John Sexton turns the space shuttle into an art form with his unique black and white photographs of the hardware. Read story .