"Wednesday is a day-off for Salizhan Sharipov and Leroy Chiao who will be able to do whatever they like and talk to their relations during communication sessions," he said.
However, both Russians and the ISS crewmen will have to return to work on Thursday. The latter will resume loading the Progres M-51 cargo spacecraft with rubbish.
"Loading the unnecessary equipment in Progres with the help of the onboard inventory system must take an overall of 19 hours 30 minutes of the crew's labor hours," said the Mission Control.
The used Progres M-51 will undock from the station on February 27, the day before a new cargo ship will be launched from Baikonur. However, this time the space "rubbish truck" will not be dumped in a non-navigable area in the Pacific, but will be used for experiments.
"After undocking Progres M-51 will be placed at a safe distance from the ISS, and a series of technological experiments will be conducted on it within 10 days," said the Mission Control.
On March 9, the cargo ship will share the destiny of its predecessors, i.e. it will burn in Earth's atmosphere and its fragments will fall into a calculated area in the Pacific.
Progres M-52 will be launched from Baikonur on February 28, while its docking to the ISS has been scheduled for March 2.
