For the next two days we pretty much just hung out and did periodic systems checks while we were catching up to the Station. Our routine was eat; snooze; check systems; repeat, with the occasional monitoring of an engine burn. I gave up trying to figure out what day or time of day it was. Between Baikonur time, Moscow time, Greenwich Mean Time, and Houston time, I was thoroughly confused. I count myself among the fortunate who are not particularly bothered by being in space for the first time. Actually my first feeling upon the final separation was that I was hungry. I am sure that will come as no surprise to those that know my eating patterns. After all, it had been several hours since my last meal. Like most people, my head felt full as I had no gravity pulling the fluids down into my lower body.
The one thing that was really noticeable was our spin. For most of the two days we were in what is termed the solar spin attitude. In order to keep power to the systems and its batteries charged, the Soyuz must point its solar arrays at the sun. That is easy enough to do, but to keep the arrays stable with respect to the sun the Soyuz is put into a spin. Unfortunately, the spin is such that the Soyuz is rotating as if it were a stick tossed end over end. We would do one full revolution about every three minutes. What it felt like to us was that there was a pull towards the top of the Soyuz. If you were in the upper part of the Soyuz, it felt like there was a force on your head. If you were down in the capsule part, you would float up out of your seats. After two days it got to be pretty annoying. Before my launch some folks told me that one way to combat the feeling of the spin is to spend time and/or sleep upside down with your head closer to the center of rotation. That way you do not feel the spin as much. While that is true, Wheels and I decided that our preferred position was floating perpendicular and face down (if you can imagine that). Due to the force on our bodies it was more like we were swinging in a hammock (well, swinging only one way).
Our rendezvous and docking went like clockwork. The engine burns were interesting as you could feel the jet rumble more than you could hear anything. It was very obvious when it started and stopped, though. You got a little kick each time. There are two windows in the capsule area of the Soyuz. Unfortunately, you cannot see much out of the windows when you are strapped into your seat. So, it was impossible for us to see the Station as we were approaching. But, as we got fairly close I could just see the very tips of the U.S. Segment solar arrays. That was pretty nifty.
After docking we had to do leak checks to ensure our hatches were secure. These checks take a couple of hours. But as soon as they were done, we opened all the hatches and joined our friends in our new home. It was wonderful to finally be on the Station. After the big group hug and video session with the ground was done, we had a required safety briefing. We had a quick run through of all the safety gear in the Station. Then we had some free time in which we did a lot of yakking and catching up with our third American compadre, Tracy. She gave us the basic tour of the Station, went over the number one most important thing to know in a practical sense - how do you REALLY use the toilet? There is what you are told in class and then there are the subtle operational nuances due to reality of being in space. If I thought I was confused as to what day/time it was on the Soyuz, it was even worse on the Station. It felt like it should have been Saturday, but it was only very early Friday morning since we docked at something like 1:30 a.m. After the Tour de Station, I gathered a few items for my sleeping quarters and went to bed. I believe that it was now about 7:00 am. We all slept a few hours then got up to it still being Friday. I spent the day just trying to sort things out. Where are the clothes I am to wear? Where are the toiletries I am to use? How do meals work? Etc. I then went to bed for the second time on Friday and got up at the normal waking time for a Saturday - 6:00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time.
Usually Saturdays on the Station are half duty days where most of the required duties are housekeeping tasks. But, because Friday was taken up with the docking and strange sleep shifts, there were a few real things that had to be done. There was nothing too much for us new folks to do, but the others had some science activities. Just before bed, I decided it was time to try one of the more challenging hygiene activities for women - washing your hair. We have "no rise" shampoo but it actually needs to be rinsed. With no running water, rinsing your hair is not easy. I am very lucky to have another female here who can pass along her lessons learned.
Sunday ended up being our cleaning day, since Saturday was a work day. We got the brief on how to clean the filters, handrails, and walls. Yes, the walls need to be cleaned each week because there are the inevitable drops of drinks that seem to find their way all over the Station. It took the three of us a good three and a half hours to clean the U.S. side of the house.
When we were done with cleaning I spent the rest of my day organizing my stuff. I wanted to get all my clothing and other personal items squared away so I did not have to worry about it later. I took the time to go through and locate all my things that are allegedly on board. In some cases it took some digging since most of it came up on the last two Shuttles and was buried in the back of storage areas.
Being new to space and the Station I feel like I should be bubble wrapped and issued a helmet. I do reasonably well getting from point A to point B, but it can be difficult to gracefully get to the spot I want to go. Maneuvering in space is definitely a learned skill. In the meantime, I am learning firsthand that the Station is indeed built out of metal and it has a lot of protuberances just waiting for you to run into them. At the end of the day I gathered up some equipment that I will need for work first thing in the morning and then I hit the sack early. I was tired.
