NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 14 November 2004

SpaceRef note: This NASA Headquarters internal status report, as presented here, contains additional, original material produced by SpaceRef.com (copyright © 2004) to enhance access to related status reports and NASA activities.

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. >>Sunday, with the crew largely off duty. Ahead: Week 4 of Increment 10.

FE Salizhan Sharipov completed the regular daily maintenance/inspection of the Service Module (SM)’s environment control & life support systems (SOZh), including routine toilet system (ASU) servicing. Additions to the FE’s SOZh job today were the weekly inspection of the BRPK air/liquid condensate separator apparatus, and data collection of the ASU’s flush counter readings, with inspection of the urine collection (SP) & pretreat assembly and water supply status (SVO) counter readings, both for calldown to TsUP/Moscow.

At ~8:45am EST, Sharipov downlinked a TV greeting addressed to farmers observing Ukrainian Farmers Day at Kiev next week (11/17). [“We have been aboard this space vehicle for a month already. We are eating space food that was lovingly prepared for us by people on the ground but bread is still our most favorite food… Holding this very small brick of bread is very emotional for me. I am breathing in its special aroma that reminds me of Earth, home, fields. This bread was grown by simple farmers’ hands. We very well know bread from Ukraine that was at one time the great granary of the Soviet Union. We offer our deepest gratitude to the farmers of Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus for their hard work”.]

Later, at ~10:20am, the crew participated in a Russian-sponsored “telebridge” event between the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) in Noordwijk/Holland. [The event, which was attended on the ground by Dutch astronaut André Kuipers and hundreds of European high school and college students, was for broadcast on BBC television, and the direct TV downlink from the ISS, with about 10 minutes of Q&A, was the main highlight of it.]

The crew performed their regular daily 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on TVIS treadmill, RED exerciser, and VELO cycle with bungee cord load trainer.

A task item on Sharipov’s discretionary “job jar” list for today was the periodic inspection of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (“Plants-2”) experiment that researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-5 greenhouse.

At about 2:00pm, Salizhan is to unstow and set up the gear for his second session with the periodic Russian MO-10 “Hematokrit” testing scheduled for tomorrow. [MO-10 measures the hematocrit (red cell mass) value of the blood (as a well-known phenomenon of space flight, red blood cell mass {normal range: 30-45%} tends to go down over time).]

Later, before turning in, CDR Chiao will have his weekly PFC (private family conference) via S-band/audio and Ku-band/MS-NetMeeting video.

After its upgrade with GPS-2 firmware on 11/11, the #2 SIGI (space integrated GPS/inertial navigation system) has not provided the Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) computer (MDM/ multiplexer/demultiplexer) with a valid attitude. In preparing for troubleshooting, ground specialists are currently collecting data.

Also on the ground’s priority list for the next one/two days is failure analysis of the “ghosting” problem with the PCS HD 6106 (portable computer system/hard drive #6106) encountered yesterday by Leroy Chiao.

Memorable Events Category: In celebration of the 1000th IMS (Inventory Management System) “Delta” update file exported by station crews, a party was thrown by the NASA and Russian IMS teams, with subsequent uplink of pictures of the event, which featured a large IMS cake complete with an edible Delta file on top.

CEO images can be viewed at these websites:

• http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
• http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

See also the website “Space Station Challenge” at:

• http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/

To view the latest photos taken by the expedition 10 crew visit:

• http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-9/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.

Expedition 10 Flight Crew Plans can be found at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/timelines/

Previous NASA ISS On-orbit Status Reports can be found here. Previous NASA Space Station Status Reports can be found here. Previous NASA Space Shuttle Processing Status Reports can be found here. A collection of all of these reports and other materials relating to Return to Flight for the Space Shuttle fleet can be found here.

Upcoming Key Events:

• Current station attitude of sun-pointing XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane) will be maintained until 11/17.
• Station reboost will follow on 11/17 (backup opportunity 11/18).
• Soyuz relocation is scheduled for 11/29 (“no earlier than”), preceded by a hot-fire test of its thrusters on 11/27.
• Progress 15P is scheduled for undocking and destructive reentry on 12/22.
• Progress 16P launch: 12/23; docking: 12/25 (GMT).

ISS Altitude History

Apogee height — Mean Altitude — Perigee height

For more on ISS orbit and worldwide ISS naked-eye visibility dates/times, see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html. In addition, information on International Space Station sighting opportunities can be found at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ on NASA’s Human Spaceflight website. The current location of the International Space Station can be found at http://science.nasa.gov/temp/StationLoc.html at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Additional satellite tracking resources can be found at http://www.spaceref.com/iss/tracking.html.