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The Expedition 15 crew aboard the International Space Station completed its first week of station orientation as the crew worked with experiments and hardware maintenance.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams began the week with a couple light duty days after the busy handover operations with the former crew. Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian crewmate Mikhail Tyurin, accompanied by spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, returned to Earth on Saturday, April 21, and are at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, for several weeks of post-mission debriefing and rehabilitation.

This week, the station crew members participated in several drills to maintain their medical and emergency proficiency. Yurchikhin and Kotov began sessions throughout the first two weeks of their residence to orient themselves with the station's operating systems. Williams, who served as an Expedition 14 crew member, is aiding Expedition 15 with their station orientation.

On Thursday, Williams was told that she will return to Earth aboard space shuttle Atlantis, targeted for launch June 8. That shuttle mission, STS-117, will carry astronaut Clay Anderson to the station to join Expedition 15 in progress. This rotation originally was planned for STS-118, targeted for launch Aug. 8.

Complete report at http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/apr/HQ_SS0723_station_status.html