NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 20 July 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.   Crew rest day after yesterday’s successful Soyuz TMA-6/10S relocation, for which the ground uplinked words of thanks. 

Station day began at the regular 2:00am EDT, and sleep time will also return to the regular 5:30pm.

With all Russian segment (RS) systems and the OpsLAN network yesterday restored to nominal operation, FE/SO Phillips today reconfigured the ITCS (internal thermal control system) in the U.S. segment (USOS) to manned mode, disassembling and restowing rack jumpers and jumper plugs, then switching the ITCS to single LTL (low temperature loop) configuration.

John Phillips also set up the hardware of EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, EK) at the U.S. Lab’s science window for another run.  At last count, about 25 schools have signed up to participate, but doing the experiment earlier than originally planned may affect some.   [The FE connected an SSC (station support computer) laptop to the EK’s electronic still camera (ESC) and to the OpsLAN via Ethernet cable and readied the automated/remote-controlled process.  The payload will run without crew intervention.  EK is using a Kodak ESC 460C electronic still camera with 50mm (f/1.4) lens, now powered by 16Vdc 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 760XD SSC laptop which then activates the camera at specified times and receives the digital images from the camera’s storage card on its hard drive, for subsequent downlink via OpsLAN.] 

In the Russian segment (RS), Sergei Krikalev reactivated the TEKh-25 payload hardware, consisting of the “Skorpio” and “Spika-S” experiments that he had powered off yesterday prior to the Soyuz relocation.   [Skorpio’s objective is to monitor environmental radiation parameters with dosimeters inside station compartments at various places and to characterize environmental conditions for conducting scientific and technical experiments.  To operate, Skorpio requires about 6 W of energy.  The Spika-S payload investigates the influence of the space environment, primarily radiation, on selected commercial electronic next-generation components.  Early Spika experiments on the Mir space station go back as far as 1992.  Its electronics unit, located in the SM working compartment (panel 417), uses about 7 W power, running either in Acquisition or Monitoring mode, and storing its data on a PCMCIA (portable computer memory card international adapter) card.]

The CDR did the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s environment control & life support system (SOZh), including its toilet system (ASU).  Today, he also conducted the weekly routine checkup of the IP-1 airflow sensors in the various RS hatchways and FGB-to-Node tunnel.

Both crewmembers conducted their regular 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on the TVIS treadmill, RED resistive machine and VELO bike with bungee cord load trainer.   [Sergei’s daily protocol prescribes a strict four-day microcycle exercise with 1.5 hr on the treadmill and one hour on VELO plus load trainer (today: Day 2 of a new set).]

Afterwards, John transferred the exercise data files to the MEC (Medical Equipment Computer) for downlink, as well as the daily wristband HRM (heart rate monitor) data of the workouts on RED, followed by their erasure on the HRM storage medium (done six times a week).

An 8.7 mmHg (11 lb) repress of oxygen from the Progress was completed today.

Working off his voluntary “time available” task list, Sergei had another session with the “Uragan” (hurricane) earth-imaging program, focusing the Nikon D1X digital camera with f400 or 800 mm lens from an SM window on targets specified by an uplinked list.  [Today’s targets included the Baikal Perimeter Railway, a unique engineering feat of the 20th Century connecting the village of Sliudianka at the extreme west of Lake Baikal to Port of Baikal at Angara outlet; a forest area inside the triangle formed by Angara River, Lake Baikal bank, and the railway line connecting Irkutsk to Selenga Estuary; the city of Ulan-Ude; logging sites in Buriatia; the city of Chita; logging and forest fire sites in the Taiga; detailed imagery of a mountain reserve in Armenia, contiguous from north to extreme west of Lake Sevan; detailed imagery of Katun River valley; the northern and eastern banks of Teletskoye Lake; the city of Kyzyl; and mapping imagery with frame overlap of agricultural fields south of Kursk.]

Today’s CEO (crew earth observations) photo targets, in the current LVLH attitude no longer limited by flight rule constraints on the use of the Lab nadir/science window, were Dara Battlefield, Turkey (weather was clear over southeastern Turkey and provided an opportunity for detailed mapping of this ancient battlefield.  Variations in vegetation pattern and density are of particular interest; these variations may mark the locations of camps and trenches), Northern Temperate Lakes, Wisconsin (this nadir pass provides an opportunity for context mapping of the southern portion of this LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) site. This site monitors the ecology of lakes in relation to relevant atmospheric, geochemical, landscape and human processes.  Overlapping frames along track will be most useful), Fires, Northern Nevada (Dynamic Event. Dry conditions in Nevada have set the stage for the Wilson and Esmeralda fires.  Caused by lightning strikes, the fires are still burning, and smoke plumes should have been visible at nadir as ISS passed over northern Nevada.  If smoke plumes were not visible, the crew was to look for burn scars on the landscape), and Yellowstone NP, Wyoming (clear weather was predicted over the Yellowstone region.  Overlapping frames along track were desired to map the location and extent of vegetation types in the Park).

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/

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.

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.