"We've been working together for a very long time. I try to ask questions in English and Don and Ken try to answer back in Russian. So it certainly is not a barrier to our communication. We communicate in sort of a mixture of languages," Budarin said, using an interpreter during a pre-flight interview. "The most important is to exhibit partience and respect towards each other and everything else will come together."

If there is any sort of language barrier, most passive observers would consider that to be a potential problem during an emergency. But Bowersox said than in case of trouble, the language skills they need are few and simple.

"Let's say we had a depressurization on the station," Bowersox said. "The first thing we all do is meet at a specified location in the Service Module. That all happens without any speaking at all. Then we pull out the procedures -- the procedures are written in English and Russian. Nikolai can pick either side that he wants to read from and Don and I can pick either side that we want to read from."

"At that point, because we're going down through the steps, and looking at these books, we really don't have to say a lot to each other to communicate what the actions are. We just say 'Do step seven, do step eight, do step nine.' Those are very simple words no matter which language we're using."

"At some point if the situation gets really, really bad, the only words we have to use are that we need to go to the Soyuz. Once we're in the Soyuz, we're very, very happy to have someone who is fluent in Russian along," Bowersox said, speaking of Budarin. "At that point Don and I have to keep up with Nikolai and follow his commands as we go through again a whole set of written procedures that tell us what to do."

The major complication would come if something happens for which there are no written procedures.

"We feel that our language level is good enough to talk about those subjects," Bowersox said. "In the technical areas that we worry most about in emergencies, my vocabulary is really good. I think Don's is pretty good, and Nikolai's is good in English."

On Sunday the ten humans now in space spent the day cleaning up from the third spacewalk completed on Saturday, raising the station's orbital altitude another 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers) and continue packing for the scheduled undocking on Monday. They also were given a half-day of off duty time.

On Monday the Expedition Six crew will say good bye to their colleagues and close the hatches at 12:15 p.m. EST (1715 GMT). That will be followed by undocking, which is planned for 3:05 p.m. EST (2005 GMT).

Endeavour pilot Paul Lockhart will be at the controls as the spaceplane is backed a few hundred feet away. He will then fly the shuttle in a quarter-lap loop until Endeavour is above the station. At that point Lockhart will fire the shuttle's steering jets to move Endeavour a safe distance from the station and set the spaceplane on a course to land back at the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, weather permitting.

Also on Sunday, members of the STS-113 crew took time to talk with news media on the ground. Attention was focused on John Herrington, a member of the Chickasaw Nation who is considered to be the first Native American in space.

A rookie, the mission specialist's principal job during Endeavour's flight was as one of the two spacewalkers who helped outfit the P1 truss segment. That gave him an incredible view through his helmet as he worked outside, an average of some 245 miles (394 kilometers) above the planet.

He couldn't help but think: ``That's a loooong way down.''

Herrington said he was somewhat intimidated by the fact that at any moment, he might find himself in uncontrollable motion and break away from the space station, which would be "a bad thing.''

"So I was always constantly on guard that I was maintaining the best control I could and that I had my proper tether protocol,'' he said. "But it was very awe-inspiring. It's a beautiful sight to look down and see the Earth from this altitude.''

In an interview with Indian Country Today, Herrington said the first time he looked out Endeavour's windows after blasting off Nov. 23, he was amazed at how massive the Earth was -- and how minute the atmosphere. It made him realize "how insignificant we are in the great scheme of things.''

"In the spiritual sense, it makes me appreciate how grand the grand scheme is of Mother Earth,'' he said.

Herrington said he carefully chose a variety of American Indian objects to take into space -- eagle feathers, wooden flutes, arrowheads, braided sweet grass -- "that I think represents a lot of the spiritual sense that we all feel.''

He said wanted to take tobacco, too, because of its purifying value, but NASA said no. The 44-year-old astronaut, a Navy pilot, said he recognized NASA's position on banning tobacco aboard spacecraft, but noted: "A lot of folks don't realize that we do use it in a spiritual sense.''

The Associated Press contributed to this report.