NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 28 February 2005

SpaceRef note: This NASA Headquarters internal status report, as presented here, contains additional, original material produced by SpaceRef.com (copyright © 2005) to enhance access to related status reports and NASA activities.

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below.  Underway: Week 19 of Increment 10.

Progress M-52 (17P) launched on time (2:09pm EST) with resupply from Baikonur/Kasakhstan.  After normal separation of the first, second and third stage of the Soyuz-U rocket, antennas and solar arrays were nominally deployed at orbit insertion (2:18pm).  With that, the new cargo ship, of 7200 kg mass, with over 2000 kg of cargo, is on its way to rendezvous with ISS.   [At orbit insertion, Progress unfolded two solar arrays, four Kurs antennas, one TORU/Rassvet-M antenna and one telemetry antenna.  Later, the SSh docking probe was extended, to be followed at 3:46pm by a 6-min long self-test of the Kurs-A MCS (motion control system) including the Klest TV system.  Two major orbit adjustment burns will be executed today, DV1 (16.66 m/s) at 5:49pm and DV2 (8.74 m/s) at 6:22pm.  DV3 is scheduled for tomorrow at 8:54am followed by Progress Kurs-A activation and self-test on Wednesday (7:41am).  As Kurs-A and Kurs-P (on SM) confer and “compare notes” at ~7:43am, Klest TV camera & floodlight are turned on at 8 km (~2:38pm) and three successive braking burns lead into flyaround mode (400 m), stationkeeping (170 m, ~3:04pm), and final approach (~3:06pm).   After the two-day “chaser” flight, 17P will dock at the SM aft end Wednesday afternoon at ~3:15pm.  Its 2.5 tons of cargo includes supplies for the ISS crew (food, batteries, office supplies, and clothes), water, oxygen, air, new spares, a replacement heat exchanger for the US EVA systems, software upgrades on CD-ROMs, gear for 22 US & Russian science experiments, propellants, and other critically required items that “made” it onboard the manifest.]

CDR/SO Leroy Chiao conducted the monthly potable water microbial sampling for in-flight chemistry/microbiology analysis, collecting samples from the SRV-K hot outlet and the SVO-ZV water supply system EDV container, to be used on the ground as chemical archive specimens.   [Last time done: 1/4/05.]

With the Elektron O2 generator still off, FE Salizhan Sharipov worked on the Russian BMP harmful impurities removal system, starting the “bake-out” cycle to vacuum on absorbent bed #1 of the regenerable dual-channel filtration system.  Before sleep time today, the bake-out will be terminated.   [Regeneration of each of the two cartridges takes about 12 hours and is conducted only during crew awake periods.  The BMP is currently still using the same vacuum vent valve for regeneration as the Elektron (the latter for venting hydrogen).]

The Elektron system will be reactivated on Wednesday (3/2).  Until then, the crew still uses the atmospheric oxygen released from Progress 16 storage last week.

On the control panel (PU1, for pult [= console]) of the ASU toilet system in the SM, Sharipov replaced the failed usage counter of the water flush subsystem (SP) with a spare unit.

Leroy Chiao worked on the TVIS treadmill, performing its weekly maintenance.   [Weekly maintenance generally checks the condition of the SPDs (subject positioning devices) and records time & date.]

The crew conducted 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 treadmill and one hour on VELO (today: Day 3 of a new set).]

Leroy then transferred the daily TVIS & RED exercise data files to the MEC (medical equipment computer) for downlink, as well as the daily wristband HRM (heart rate monitor) data, followed by their erasure on the HRM storage medium.

Working off the discretionary 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.

At 12:05pm, Chiao and Sharipov engaged in an educational interactive PAO TV event with approximately 250 college and area high-school students, dignitaries and faculty at South Plains College, Levelland, TX.   [The 20-min. exchange was one of a series of educational opportunities which are an integral part of NASA s Teaching from Space Program that builds partnerships with the education community.]

At ~11:30am, Leroy set up the Sputnik-SM Kenwood D700 amateur radio station in the SM and conducted a 10-min. ham radio session with students at Bentley School, Oakland, CA (a Leroy Chiao crew pick ).   [Bentley School has served its Oakland community in the San Francisco Bay area, since 1920, following the inspiration of its motto, Scire Disidero (I desire to know).  It has currently 640 students.]

Ground analysis of the results of last week s successful SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System) ground control commissioning is underway.  There were no issues.  The next step will be to execute an actual grapple of a PDGF (power & data grapple fixture) from the ground, but not until after the Russian EVA-13 (3/25).

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:

• Progress M-52 (17P) docking Wednesday, 3/2 (3:15pm EST), see timeline below;
• EVA-13 — 3/25;
• Soyuz TMA-6 (10S) launch — 4/15 with Expedition 11 (CDR Sergei Krikalev, FE/SO John Phillips);
• Soyuz TMA-5 (9S) undocking — 4/25 with Exp. 10 crew (after 193 days on orbit, 191 days on board ISS);
• LF1 (STS-114) — NET 5/12;
• Progress M-53 (18P) launch — 6/10;
• ULF1.1 (STS-121) — NET 7/10;
• Progress M-54 (19P) launch — 8/24;
• Soyuz TMA-7 (11S) launch — 9/27.

Progress 17P (all times EST):

• Launch — 2/28, 2:09pm;
• Midcourse correction burn DV1:  2/28, 5:49pm;
• Midcourse correction burn DV2:  2/28, 6:22pm;
• Midcourse correction burn DV3:  3/1, 2:54pm;
• Kurs-A/P system acquisition:  3/2, ~1:43pm;
• Video link activation (at ~8 km):  ~2:38pm;
• Flyaround mode start (at ~400 m):  2:55pm;
• Stationkeeping (at ~170m, in darkness):  3:04pm;
• Final approach start (in sunlight):  3:06pm;
• Local sunset:  3:12pm;
• Docking (in darkness, w/floodlights): 3:15pm. (If the automated Kurs rendezvous fails, there remain ~20 min. for manual TORU ops, until next day).
• Hatch opening — 3/2, 6:28pm.

ISS Orbit  (as of this morning, 7:18am EST [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 357.9 km
• Apogee height — 360.8 km
• Perigee height — 354.9 km
• Period — 91.70 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.0004384
• Solar Beta Angle — 37.7 deg (magnitude increasing)
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.70
• Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 100 m
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 35859

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.