Out of Orbit (43 page)

Don Pettit snaps a photograph of the P1 truss after he and Ken Bowersox put the finishing touches on its installation.

Columbia
’s lost crew: (left to right) Dave Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson, Willie McCool, and Ilan Ramon.

On February 4, 2003, President George W. Bush speaks at the memorial service for
Columbia
’s crew: “We lost them so close to home.” Sean O’Keefe, NASA’s administrator, is seated to the president’s immediate right.

In April 2003, inside Zvezda. Nikolai Budarin (left) and Ken Bowersox pull on their Russian SOKOL spacesuits, practicing for their return flight to earth on the
Soyuz TMA-1
.

A long fall down: Don Pettit slips out of the Quest Airlock at the start of his second spacewalk, in April 2003, the Earth glowing beneath his feet.

Expeditions Six and Seven, finally united, in Zvezda. Ken Bowersox and Nikolai Budarin are in the back row. Ed Lu, Don Pettit, and Yuri Malenchenko float side by side in front.

As seen through a window on the International Space Station, the
Soyuz TMA-1
capsule—carrying Ken Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin, and Don Pettit—begins its harrowing journey back to earth.

A
Soyuz
capsule attached to the International Space Station’s hull: the spherical orbital module, the bell-shaped descent module, and the cylindrical propulsion module, complete with solar panels.

The full length of the International Space Station; toward the bottom right corner of the photograph, a
Soyuz
capsule is attached to Destiny. The Caspian Sea provides a breathtaking backdrop.