NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 25 April 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 1 for Increment 11. On their first day alone, the new station crew of CDR Sergei Krikalev and FE/SO John Phillips was off-duty today, after yesterday s demanding schedule.

Soyuz TMA-5/9S, carrying the Expedition 10 crew and ESA/VC8 Roberto Vittori, landed successfully last night at 6:08pm EDT, with the crew in excellent condition. However, post-landing ops were off-nominal due to the wet & muddy ground conditions around the 9S Descent Module (BO), causing recovery forces to pick up the crewmembers, still in their Sokol suits, and fly them in the first MI-8 helicopter for ~85km to the township of Arkalyk, arriving there at ~7:15pm for the regular program of suit doffing and medical checkups. Later, the crew and their RKA/ESA/NASA welcome escorts returned to Star City by RKA airplane.  [Earlier in the day, ISS/Soyuz hatches were closed at ~11:34am, with undocking nominal at 2:44pm, after a temporary problem with the pressure integrity of Vittori s Sokol suit had been dealt with. For Tyan-Shan s return (=Soyuz 9S call sign, a mountain range between China & Kyrgyzstan), the backup battery in the BO, active during reentry, worked nominally. Soyuz TMA-6/10S ( Basalt ) remains at the station as new CRV (crew return vehicle).  During his Eneide mission, Roberto Vittori carried out 22 on-orbit experiments in the fields of biology, human physiology, technology and education. During their mission, Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov racked up 192d 19h in space (liftoff to landing) and ~190d aboard ISS. Vittori spent 9d 21h 22m in space.]   

John Phillips installed the EarthKAM hardware (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, EK) at the U.S. Lab s science window for another run, the 18th on the ISS, with excellent lighting conditions for Earth imagery.  [The FE/SO connected the selected A31p SSC (Station Support Computer) laptop to the digital camera and to the OpsLAN via broadband Ethernet cable. EK is using the Kodak DCS 760 with 50mm (f/1.4) lens, now powered by 7.2 Vdc from a 28 Vdc adapter, taking pictures by remote operation from the ground, without crew interaction. It is available for students who submit image requests and conduct geographic research. The requests are uplinked in a camera control file to the IBM A31p laptop which then activates the camera at specified times and receives the digital images from the cameras storage card on its hard drive, for subsequent downlink via OpsLAN (operations local area network). For this week-long session, students at 114 schools have registered for EK imaging operations.]

Sergei Krikalev performed the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh environment control & life support system, including replacing ASU toilet system inserts.

The new Science Officer ran a data transfer program that copied the ADUM OPE (Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity/On-board Proficiency Enhancer) folder from the HRF (Human Research Facility) laptop to the OpsLAN for later downlinking to the ground via OCA comm.

Later, John swapped the hard disk drive of the HRF PCS (Portable Computer System) laptop, replacing its #1009 drive with the new #1010.  [This gets the laptop ready for new science data to be collected during Increment 11.]

Both crewmembers conducted their regular 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on the TVIS treadmill (aerobic), RED resistive exerciser (anaerobic) and VELO ergometer cycle with bungee cord load trainer (combination aerobic/anaerobic). For the TVIS exercise, they are using the SLDs (subject loading devices) for holding the subject down, plus newly delivered TNK-U-1 training loading suits, to create, typically, a 54 kg load.    [As was the case for Salizhan Sharipov, Sergei s daily protocol prescribes a four-day microcycle exercise with 1.5 hr on the treadmill and one hour on VELO plus load trainer (today: Day 1 of a new set).]

John then transferred the daily TVIS and 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.

At ~11:55am EDT, MCC-Houston performed the periodic zero calibration on the MCA (Major Constituents Analyzer).

The ISS is currently in LVLH YVV attitude (local vertical/local horizontal, y-axis in velocity vector), i.e., flying sideways in Barbecue mode, until 5/11 (reboost).

The US CDRA (carbon dioxide removal assembly) failed briefly last Friday, probably due to command interference with a vacuum valve testing activity done on at that time. CDRA ran nominally afterwards and was deactivated after E10 crew departure.

Update on Elektron: RSC-Energia plans to reactivate the Elektron O2 generator tomorrow in 50 amps mode. Another repressurization from the 17 Progress oxygen tank was performed yesterday to prevent oxygen partial pressure (ppO2) from dropping below the flight rule limit. The repress increased ppO2 by approximately 5mmHg.

Update on RS air conditioners: Both SKV air conditioners remain off at this time. A troubleshooting session with the crew is in planning. Meanwhile, the US segment s CCAA (common cabin air assembly) keeps humidity levels down.

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

• Mean altitude — 354.4 km
• Apogee height — 359.4 km
• Perigee height — 349.4 km
• Period — 91.63 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.0007412
• Solar Beta Angle — 39.6 deg (magnitude increasing)
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.71
• Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 120 m
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 36739

Return to Flight:

• LF1 (STS-114)/Discovery launch windows (all times EDT), for FD3 docking:
• 5/22: 1:03 – 1:08pm;
• 5/23: 12:36 – 12:46pm;
• 5/24: 12:15 12:20pm;
• etc.

Note: For the May/June launch period, the daily 10-minute planar launch window (i.e., in ISS orbit plane) starts an average 23 minutes earlier each day, extends into early June and closes due to current constraints of Daylight Launch (6/7) or ET umbilical photo opportunity (6/3). Figures are approximate. There are additional opportunities for docking on FD4 (Flight Day 4), not planned.

Other Increment 11 Main Events:

• Progress M-52 (17P) undock — 6/16.
• Progress M-53 (18P) launch — 6/17;
• ULF1.1 (STS-121) launch — NET 7/12;
• Progress M-54 (19P) launch — 8/24;
• Soyuz TMA-7 (11S) launch — 9/27;
• Soyuz TMA-6 (10S) return — 10/7.

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 11 crew visit:

• http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-11/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.

Expedition 11 Flight Crew Plans can be found at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/timelines/

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.