As RIA Novosti earlier reported, on Friday, April 2, flight engineer Alexander Kaleri told the Mission Control about another noise. He heard a "metallic" sound from the instrumentation compartment of the Zvezda service module which reminded him of the noise about which Michael Foale reported on November 26, 2003. "It resembled the strike of a tin against the board of the station." However, the Russian experts told the crew not to worry. In their opinion, the source of the sounds is one of the station's systems. Though all the equipment on the station continues to work normally, the Russian and American experts continue to look for a possible source of the noise.
The presence of the crew of the 8th main expedition on the ISS is coming to the end. On April 19, at 7:18 a.m., Moscow time, the Soyuz-TMA-4 is planned to be launched from Baikonur. It will bring to the ISS the crew of the 9th main expedition: commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Michael Fincke. The spaceship will also bring to the ISS astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) Andre Kuipers (the Netherlands) who will make scientific experiments for nine days of his flight in accordance with the contract between the ESA and the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation.
The final decision that everything is ready for the flight of the 9th main expedition will be taken this week. At the examinations in the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, the crew of the 9th main expedition confirmed its readiness for the flight, having received excellent marks at the "graduation" examinations.
