Life in space
"We get up and we eat breakfast and we clean up. We may do a little cleaning house, and then we go to work. And we do the normal kind of work that we do in space -- it's a little bit of science, a little bit of maintenance, a little bit of continuing the assembly and construction of the space station, and every day is a little bit different for us," he said.
"Then towards the end of the day, we eat dinner together, and then we probably do a little more work, and once in a while, we'll do some recreational things like looking out the window, or reading a book, or listening to some music, or maybe even watching a movie on rare occasion."
By far the most popular way to relax after a long day's work is to peer out station windows as the 17-story complex cruises 240 miles (384 kilometers) above the planet.
The station crew recently beamed back stunning photos of the volcanic eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily, the lava flow from which destroyed buildings, shut down an airport and crept into a ski area. But even the more mundane can provide a spectacular from space.
"Even the cloud patterns are very unique from space, and they change all the time," Voss said.
"It's like a kaleidoscope. We're passing over different parts of Earth and they're either brown or red or green or gray -- and then the beautiful blues of the oceans. There are even different colors to the different oceans," he said.
"So it's like a constant changing photograph or screen looking out your window, and it is truly beautiful looking down on the Earth.
That's not to say, however, that the station crewmates don't long for a reunion with family and friends, and in fact, they miss some of the simple things that people might take for granted during the course of everyday life on Earth.
"We've been talking about that quite a bit around the dinner table, and I think it's really strange not to see animals for such a long period of time. I hadn't realized what an important part of our lives animals are," Helms said.
"I miss the smells and the sounds of Earth," added Voss. "Here, we always hear fans running. It's never really quiet, and you don't hear the little things that maybe you don't notice, or you ignore, every day. The sound of birds, or insects or different things like that -- conversations in the background -- those are the kind of things that you miss a little bit."
Still, the two U.S. astronauts say they adapted well, and quickly, to living and working in weightlessness for a long period of time -- a new an unusual experience for both.
"One of the things I didn't expect was how thoroughly I've been enjoying the experience," said Helms, a veteran of four shorter missions aboard relatively cramped space shuttles.
"I have just been really awakened to the experience of actually living in space instead of just visiting space for a couple of weeks, and I'm going to recommend that to a lot of people when we get back on the ground."
Helms and her crewmates are due back on Earth on Aug. 21. Their replacements will remain at the station until early December.
Voss and Usachev, a 43-year-old who flew two long stints on Russia's Mir space station, expect to hang up their space helmets after the Expedition Two mission.
"This is a long hard road to get to a long duration flight," said Voss, 52, who trained four years for the flight, "and I'm not sure that I'll be able to do it a second time at this point in my life."
Helms, 43, is keeping her options open.
"I've made a decision to make no decision," she said.
NASA and its international partners already have selected several future station crews, so any opportunity to return to the outpost would be years away.
"I think that if I wanted to get back at the end of the line, I'm looking at probably at least three years before I end up getting a chance to come back to the station," Helms said.
"I'm just going to come back and see how things are and get past the post-flight stage - get reacquainted with living back on Earth and working in the office," she added. "Then I'll probably look around and see what I'd like to do next."
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