NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 4 January 2006

SpaceRef note: This NASA Headquarters internal status report, as presented here, contains additional, original material produced by SpaceRef.com (copyright © 2006) to enhance access to related status reports and NASA activities.

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below.

After adjusting their gain settings yesterday, CDR/SO McArthur today, before breakfast, deployed two acoustic dosimeters on Valery and himself, to be worn for 24 hours (with a microphone on the shirt collar). A third dosimeter was deployed in the Lab for a 24-hr. static data take (last time done: 11/10/05).  [Tonight, after about 15 hours of measurements, dosimeter data will be recorded and the hardware power-cycled, for another data take tomorrow morning after 8.5-hr. sleep. At that point, the crew will deploy the dosimeters statically in the station for the duration of the day, record measurements tomorrow night and stow the instruments. Acoustic data must be taken twice per Increment, each time for the duration of the 16-hour crew workday.]

FE Tokarev worked on the European/Russian Matryoshka-R Phantom experiment, a human torso model designed for radiation studies.  [Valery equipped the torso s individual horizontal slice-like layers with 356 thermoluminescent detectors (TLDs) and five nuclear radiation tracking detectors (NTDPs). The human torso mannequin was then reassembled, covered with poncho and hood and then installed in the DC-1 Docking Compartment for studies of on-orbit radiation and long-term dose accumulation. The installation was photo-documented. Note: Matryoshka is the name for the traditional Russian set of nestling dolls.]

CDR McArthur performed his first dry run of the electromyography (EMG) calibration exercises that will precede the FOOT (Foot/Ground Reaction Forces during Space Flight) experiment activities next week. [The LEMS (Lower Extremity Monitoring Suit) was not required as yet, and McArthur used the HEAs (handrail extender assemblies) set up beforehand. During the actual experiment, the CDR will wear the specially instrumented garment and shoes as he goes through several typical on-orbit days while reaction forces against the ISS structure are recorded passively to determine how much stress his legs and feet endure. This provides better understanding of the bone loss and loss of muscle mass experienced by astronauts in zero-G (on Mir, for example, cosmonauts lost as much bone mass in a month as post-menopausal women do in a year).]

After yesterday s OpsLAN (Operations Local Area Network) telecon with ground specialists, McArthur worked today on the reconfiguring of the OpsLAN SSC (Station Support Computer) laptops.  [The job involved installing new batteries, power supplies and cables, brought up on Progress 20, on the OpsLAN File server, SSC-5, SSC-4 and SSC-7 laptops to upgrade them to a certified configuration. Additionally, Bill configured two A31P shells with failed display backlight as a dedicated SSC Router and a K-band File Transfer (KFX) machine.]

The CDR performed the daily routine maintenance of the Service Module (SM)’s environment control & life support system (SOZh), including its toilet system (ASU), as well as the weekly inspection of the air/liquid condensate separator apparatus (BRPK), while the FE updated/edited the standard IMS (Inventory Management System) delta file , including locations, for the regular weekly automated export/import to its three databases on the ground (Houston, Moscow, Baikonur).

Bill also completed the regular monthly maintenance of the CEVIS (Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation), which deals mostly with an examination of the wire rope isolators for damage.

As new standard early-morning task, Valery checked the operation of the Japanese experiment GCF-JAXA (Granada Crystallization Facility) in the Russian TBU incubator, maintained at 20 degC, including a temperature check on its ART (automatic temperature recorder).  [This daily monitoring/temp checking, carried on the Russian voluntary “time available” task list, will continue until 4/30.]

Also suggested on Tokarev s voluntary “time available” task list, was the search for a power supply unit (BP) for the Russian SKV air conditioner, reported as “lost” in the IMS.  [Due to the unstable operation of SKV-2, TsUP/Moscow plans to have its BP replaced in case of SKV-2 failure.]

Both crewmembers worked out in their regular 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on the TVIS treadmill, RED resistive exerciser and VELO bike with bungee cord load trainer.  [Valery s daily protocol prescribes a strict four-day microcycle exercise with 1.5 hr on the treadmill in unmotorized mode and one hour on VELO plus load trainer (today: Day 3 of the first set).]

Afterwards, McArthur 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.

Current station flight attitude is LVLH XVV (local vertical local horizontal/x-axis in velocity vector), to be maintained until 1/13 next week.

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 El Paso-Night, Texas (Dynamic Event. The ISS orbit track provided a near-nadir nighttime view of the El Paso/Juarez, Mexico metropolitan area. Looking to the right of track for the NW-SE oriented lights of the metropolitan area), and Muglad Basin fans, SW Sudan (this nadir pass provided an excellent opportunity for mapping individual fan boundaries. Looking for contorted drainage patterns and wetland regions as indicators of fan location).

To date, over 177,000 of CEO images have been taken in the first five years of the ISS.

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 12 crew visit:

• http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-12/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.

Expedition 12 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 Orbit  (as of this morning, 6:27pm EST [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 348.1 km
• Apogee height — 355.4 km
• Perigee height — 340.8 km
• Period — 91.50 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.65 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.0010811
• Solar Beta Angle — 4.7 deg (magnitude decreasing)
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.74
• Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 100 m
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 40736

Events Ahead (all dates Eastern; tentative):

• 01/09/06 — 100 days for Expedition 12
• 02/02/06 — Russian EVA-15
• 03/03/06 — Progress M-54/19P undocking & reentry
• 03/22/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S launch (Exp. 13 + Marcus Pontes/Brazil)
• 03/24/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S docking (DC1)
• 04/01/06 — Soyuz TMA-7/11S undocking & return (Exp. 12 + Marcus Pontes)
• 04/06/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S relocation (DC1 to FGB nadir port)
• 04/09/06 — Progress M-55/20P undocking & reentry
• 04/10/06 — Progress M-56/21P launch
• 04/12/06 — Progress M-56/21P docking
• 06/28/06 — Progress M-57/22P launch
• 06/30/06 — Progress M-57/22P docking
• 09/12/06 — Progress M-56/21P undocking & reentry
• 09/13/06 — Soyuz TMA-9/13S launch
• 09/15/06 — Soyuz TMA-9/13S docking
• 09/23/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S undocking & reentry
• 09/28/06 — Soyuz TMA-9/13S relocation (DC1 to FGB nadir port)
• 10/18/06 — Progress M-58/23P launch
• 10/20/06 — Progress M-58/23P docking
• 12/19/06 — Progress M-57/22P undocking & reentry
• 12/20/06 — Progress M-59/24P launch
• 12/22/06 — Progress M-59/24P docking.

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.