NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 6 February 2005

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All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Sunday, second weekend rest day for the crew. Ahead: Week 16 of Increment 10.

Early in the morning, FE Salizhan Sharipov again activated the PK-3/N turbopump of the Russian/German TEKh-20 Plasma Crystal-3 (PK-3) science payload in the Service Module (SM), to maintain the vacuum inside the ZB work chamber for tomorrow’s experiment. The turbopump will be deactivated tonight at ~4:25pm before crew sleep. As a new item on the Russian discretionary task list, Salizhan also upgraded the PK-3 software with a new load from diskette.

Afterwards, the FE completed the weekly routine SOZh/ECLSS maintenance tasks of collecting toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings in the Service Module for calldown to TsUP/Moscow.

The crew performed their regular daily 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on TVIS, RED exerciser, CEVIS cycle and VELO cycle with bungee cord load trainer. [Salizhan’s daily protocol currently prescribes a four-day microcycle exercise with 1.5 hr on the TVIS set on the treadmill and one hour on VELO (today: Day 3 of a new set).]

The crew was thanked again for watching over the EarthKAM operations that were concluded last Friday evening. During last week’s session, 1932 images were taken and downlinked over a 97-hour operational period, a record yield. The total for Increment 10 is 2913 images downlinked.

At ~5:50am EST, the FE had his weekly PFC (private family conference), today via S-band/video and Ku-band/NetMeeting video relayed from MCC-Houston to TsUP/Moscow.

Later today, at 3:30pm, the CDR is scheduled for his weekly PFC (private family conference), via S-band/video and Ku-band/NetMeeting video. [Since some delays were noticed recently by the ground in MS/NetMeeting transmissions, today’s PFC events served for troubleshooting, checking whether the slowdown is caused by having too many programs run on the SSC laptop.]

Working off the voluntary Russian task list, Salizhan performed the regular daily inspection of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (“Plants-2”) experiment, which researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-5 greenhouse.

Besides Rasteniya-2 and the PK-3 software upgrade, a number of other routine tasks were added to the Russian task list for Salizhan’s attention, at his discretion. These were led by a new session with the Russian “Uragan” (hurricane) earth-imaging program that had the FE focus the Kodak DCS760 digital camera with 800-mm lens on targets called out on an uplinked list. [Targets for today were the northern and northeastern coast of Taiwan (nature and industrial environment in the area affected by natural cataclysm), the city of Bishkek, the bank of Lake Issyk-Kul at nadir and to right of track, the shoreline of the Volga river (water/ice borderline), and industrial and oil production infrastructure on the Caspian Sea’s East coast.]

Also on Sharipov’s task list today was another session of the “Diatomeya” ocean observations program, using the DSR PD-150P video camera and Nikon F5 digital still camera with 24/85-mm lens to collect photo and video data characterizing the impact of seasonal factors on the bio-production processes in the oceans and adjacent seas, as well as hydro-environment and condition and above water atmosphere in earthquake and typhoon areas of World ocean. [Uplinked suggested targets today specified the South-China Sea and other seas west of the Philippines (area of high bio-production, typhoons and vast number of coral islands), the Northern Atlantic (high bio-production area of Golf stream currents; iceberg drift area; Straight of Gibraltar), and the Indian Ocean (bio-production areas of Bay of Bengal; earthquake and typhoon areas of the ocean).]

A fourth item in the Russian “job jar” was Salizhan’s fourth session with the biomedical MBI-9 “Pulse” experiment, preceded by setting up the equipment. [Execution of the medical cardiological assessment is controlled from the Russian payload laptop, using a set respiration rate (without forced or deep breaths) and synchronizing respiration with computer-commanded “inhale” commands. First, arterial blood pressure is measured with the “Tensoplus” sphygmomanometer, followed by the “Pulse” test to record the ECG (electrocardiogram) and a report to TsUP in the next comm pass.]

The “job jar” also included the periodic transfer of new accumulated Matryoshka data tables from the BSPN Matryoshka server via the ISS Wiener laptop to a PCMCIA flash card for subsequent downlink on OCA comm, to clean out the BSPN folder for the upcoming installation of the ROCKVISS experiment. [The Matryoshka payload automatically takes measurements in the Service Module (SM) and DC-1 docking compartment for studies of on-orbit radiation and long-term dose accumulation, using six SPD dosimeters deployed throughout the Russian segment as well as in a spherical body-simulating Matryoshka-R phantom and a human torso model outside on the SM hull, mounted there during EVA-9 on 2/27/0/4. Note: Matryoshka is the name for the traditional Russian set of nestling dolls.]

A station reboost is planned for 2/15 (~8:22pm EST), for about 1.8 m/s delta-V, to set up orbital phasing for the Progress 17 launch on 2/28.

No CEO (crew earth observations) photo targets today.

CEO photography can be viewed and studied at the websites:

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

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-10/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:

• ISS Reboost — 2/15 (~8:22pm EST, ~1.8 m/s; phasing for 17P launch);
• Progress 16 (16P) undocking & destructive reentry — 2/27;
• Progress 17 (17P) launch — 2/28;
• EVA-13 — 3/25;
• Soyuz 10 (10S) launch — 4/15 with Expedition 11 (CDR Sergei Krikalev, FE/SO John Phillips);
• Soyuz 9 (9S) undock — 4/25 with Exp. 10 crew (after 193 days on orbit, 191 days on board ISS);
• Progress 18 (18P) launch — 6/10;
• Progress 19 (19P) launch — 8/24;
• Soyuz 11 (11S) launch — 9/27.

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 11:10am EST [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 357.2 km
• Apogee height — 363.7 km
• Perigee height — 350.6 km
• Period — 91.68 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.0009703
• Solar Beta Angle — -60.0 deg (magnitude decreasing)
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.70
• Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 60 m
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 35516

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.