The Expedition Four crew -- Bursch, Onufrienko and Walz -- will set up home aboard the space station for their five-month voyage. Photo: NASA

The next two days will be devoted to unloading Raffaello, repacking it with equipment and material bound for Earth, boosting the station's altitude using Endeavour's steering jets and continuing the Expedition Three-Four handover activity.

Bursch said Expedition Two flight engineer James Voss explained handover as the exchange of three sets of notes between the two crews.

"One set is kind of an ongoing set of items that the ground keeps track of, maybe a system we're operating in a different mode than we've been trained or ... it's had a failure so this is how we're operating it instead," Bursch said. "So that is one set of notes or questions.

"Another set might be just personal notes that Frank and Mikhail or Vladimir will have (about things) they've seen that maybe surprised them when they got on station, that they didn't realize that were different, or different from what they trained, or maybe tips that they can give us. ... So that's the second thing.

"And then after we can see maybe those first two notes, we'll probably come up with our own questions," Bursch said.

But some questions can't be answered except through personal experience. Like coping with four months in space cooped up in what amounts to a small three-bedroom home with the same three people, day after day. Mir-veteran Onufrienko has experience with long-duration spaceflight, but it will be a new experience for Bursch and Walz.

"We've got a lot of friends around who are going to take good care of our families while we're up there and we are very fortunate that we've got good communications with email, we have the new internet phone up there and also we will get updates of news items," Walz said.

"So we'll be informed and we'll be in communication. But then again, when terrible things happen it'll still be difficult to comprehend. Expedition Three's been up there and all these things have happened, the Sept. 11th attacks, so they'll come down to a tremendously different world. I'm hoping that things don't change so radically for us."

Walz is bringing books and a five-octave Yamaha electronic keyboard that will remain aboard the station for use by future crews. Walz is a church accompanist and lead singer with the astronaut band Max Q.

Walz jokingly referred to the keyboard as a "psychological support device."

"We actually have a keyboard that we can play up there," he said. "So we look forward to bringing that out and playing some music. We also have a guitar up there. I play the piano and this'll give me a chance to relax a little bit and maybe we'll have a little space concert down the line."

For his part, Onufrienko plans to read a bit when he can find a spare moment and to craft new fishing lures. He lists cooking as a hobby and leaves no doubt about who will be in charge of the station's kitchen.

"I am going to cook on the station every day," he joked in an interview. "After maybe two months - this is my goal - the American astronauts Carl and Dan will like to eat Russian food. This would be the best for me!"

Bursch also plans to bring books to the station, along with supplies for perhaps the most unusual hobby of any astronaut to date: Basket weaving. To be precise, Shaker basket weaving.

"Probably somebody's going to shoot me for mentioning this, because somebody's going to say we're sending astronauts up into space to weave baskets," he said. "Actually I'll be thrilled if I even get to touch the materials up there."

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