NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 5 August 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. Flight Day 11 of the STS-114/LF-1 mission.
MPLM Raffaello is safely back in the Discovery payload bay and ready for return.
Crew day started an hour earlier, at ~10:40pm last night, to get ready for undocking tomorrow morning (~3:20am EDT). As usual, wakeup was followed by morning inspection, post-sleep hygiene, breakfast plus DPC (daily planning conference) via S-band. The Shuttle Seven had a 30-min. earlier wake up call.
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MPLM (Multipurpose Logistics Module) egress, deactivation and vestibule (hatch tunnel) reconfiguration/depressurization by CDR Krikalev and Shuttle crewmembers preceded Node CBM (Common Berthing Mechanism) demating, during the period from ~3:00-6:30am.
Raffaello was transferred with the SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System) to the Shuttle payload bay and latched down at 9:03am, with the REU (remotely-operated electrical umbilical) connected at 9:11am. [Transfers to the ISS amounted to an estimated total of approximately 15,000 lbs. Returns from ISS totaled approximately 8600 lbs. These figures are subject to update when available.]
The SSRMS then released the MPLM and subsequently accepted the OBSS (Orbiter Boom Sensor System) in a hand-over from the SRMS (Shuttle Remote Manipulator System) for its reberthing in the cargo bay.
FE/SO Phillips and STS crewmembers disassembled and removed the N2 (nitrogen) transfer system that had been installed from the Shuttle to transfer 28 lbs of N2 to the station.
Phillips and Krikalev also assisted in the continuing middeck transfers, dealing particularly with the EMU (extravehicular mobility unit) equipment brought up or used by Robinson and Noguchi, and the PCG-STES (Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System) payload transfer from the Lab to a Shuttle middeck locker, powered to a “survive” state. [Of four EMUs delivered on LF-1, two are remaining on ISS and two (#3005, #3011) are returning on the Shuttle. The autonomous PCG-STES010 payload in EXPRESS Rack 4 (ER4) has accumulated 990 days of continuous powered operation onboard the ISS. This is unprecedented for this experiment hardware, which has delicate crystals growing inside. Its previous run time onboard Mir did not exceed 200 days.]
The CDR completed the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh environment control & life support system, including its toilet system (ASU). He also worked on the relatively newly installed GANK-4M gas analyzer in the Service Module (SM) to troubleshoot its failure cause, supported by ground specialist tagup as required.
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Both ISS crewmembers conducted their regular 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on the TVIS treadmill, RED resistive machine and VELO bike with bungee cord force loader. [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).]
As a voluntary entry on his “time available” task list, Krikalev recharged the battery of his Russian DVCAM digital camcorder and again gathered imagery of joint STS-114/ISS crew operations to update RSC-Energia’s ISS assembly stage chronicles. The photo coverage will also include Discovery’s undocking and station flyaround tomorrow morning.
At ~11:00am EDT, the crew engaged in a PAO exchange with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Congressman Tom Delay.
During this mornings MPLM unberthing with the SSRMS, the CMGs (control moment gyroscopes) saturated, and the mated stack remained in free drift for eight minutes until the Shuttle took over attitude control. Following completion of the Robotics ops, ISS resumed control with CMGs (RS thruster assisted).
Due to the Orbiter MCS (motion control system) impulses in the current novel -XVV attitude (minus x-axis in velocity vector, i.e., ISS flying backwards with Shuttle underbelly trailing for MOD protection), ISS altitude has benefited from “parasitic” reboosting sufficiently to probably obviate the need for a reboost by Progress 18 in early September for its undocking (9/7) and launch of Progress 19 (9/8). It also appears that if the station’s atmospheric drag is increased slightly (by flying the P6 solar array wings in “parachute” mode, i.e., in XPOP [x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane] and without “night glider” feathering) the station’s ballistic number (mass over drag) could be decreased enough to support Soyuz 11S rendezvous and 10S return altitude constraints without prop expenditure.
After ISS egress & hatch closing tonight at ~12:30am, Shuttle/ISS undock time is set for tomorrow (FD12, Saturday) at 3:20 am EDT, for a landing at KSC on FD14 (Monday, August 8), with deorbit burn at 3:35am and touchdown at 4:37am EDT).
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:
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.
