NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 20 March 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. Sunday, second rest day for the crew. Today Expedition 10 completes 158 days in space (156 aboard ISS), with 36 days to go. Ahead: Week 22 of Increment 10.

Salizhan Sharipov performed the daily routine inspection of the SOZh life support system in the Service Module (SM) and completed the weekly task of collecting toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings for calldown to TsUP/Moscow.

At ~9:40am EST, the FE had his weekly PFC (private family conference) via S-band/audio and Ku-band/NetMeeting video. For the CDR, today’s PFC is scheduled for 4:15pm.

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 4 of a new set).]

Working off the voluntary Russian task list, Salizhan performed the regular daily inspection of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (“Plants-2”) experiment, including filling its water canister as required. [Rasteniya researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-5 greenhouse.]

Four other work items were added to the Russian task list for Salizhan’s choice. The first consisted of another run of the Russian Environmental Protection Service’s Ekon (KPT-3) experiment, using the Nikon D1X camera with f800 lens for photo imagery of the Persian Gulf.

As second task, Salizhan completed another session of the “Diatomeya” ocean observations program, using the DSR PD-150P video camera on ASM window #8 and Nikon F5 digital still camera with 24/85-mm lens from window #7 to obtain data about the developing hydro-biological processes in the dynamic regions of the Indian and Atlantic oceans coinciding with early spring in the Northern Hemisphere. [Today’s observations focused on the Western island province in the Indian Ocean (Madagascar, Camorras, Seychelles, Arabian Sea), and the South Atlantic (Argentina offshore areas and the Equator zone, NW African coastal areas, the Eastern island province of Gibraltar plus the Western sector of the Mediterranean sea).]

A third new item in Sharipov’s “job jar” was the long-term recurring task of imaging the externally mounted PKZ-1V Kromka 1-3 contamination experiment tablet. [The Kromka tablet, deployed on handrail 2614 of the DC-1 “Pirs” docking compartment, collects thruster plume effluents. The pictures are taken with the Kodak 760 digital still camera (DSC) from the EVA hatch 1 “illyuminator” (window) in the DC-1.]

Also working off the Russian discretionary task list, the FE completed the regular transfer of “Matryoshka” payload data from the BSPN payload server via the ISS Wiener laptop to a PCMCIA flash card for subsequent downlink on OCA comm, controlling the process with a program called ShellForKE on the Wiener. [Matryoshka automatically takes radiation measurements in the 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 2/27/04.]

Elektron is currently off. After it shut down again on Thursday evening (4:55pm EST), the crew attempted to restart it on Friday (3/18) without success. [TsUP/Moscow plans are to attempt to reactivate the oxygen generator system one more time after the BMP (Micropurification Unit) regeneration scheduled for next week (both systems still use the same vacuum vent valve/line). No other troubleshooting is planned until after EVA-13. There is sufficient O2 onboard Progress 17 for replenishing if necessary to allow troubleshooting and repair activities with Elektron off)]

No CEO (crew earth observations) 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:

• Reboost — 3/25 (5:00am EST; ~1.65 m/s, for 10S rendezvous & 9S landing phasing);
• EVA-13 — 3/28;
• Soyuz TMA-6 (10S) launch — 4/15 with Expedition 11 (CDR Sergei Krikalev, FE/SO John Phillips & VC8 cosmonaut Roberto Vittori/ESA-Italy);
• Soyuz TMA-6 docking – 4/17;
• Soyuz TMA-5 (9S) undocking — 4/25 with Exp. 10 crew (after 193 days on orbit, 191 days on board ISS) and VC8 cosmonaut Vittori;
• 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.

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:38am EST [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 355.5 km
• Apogee height — 357.8 km
• Perigee height — 353.2 km
• Period — 91.65 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.65 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.0003433
• Solar Beta Angle — -3.4 deg (magnitude increasing)
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.71
• Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 132 m
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 36173

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.