NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 6 February 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.   Light-duty day for Bill McArthur and Valery Tokarev.  Underway: Week 18 for Expedition 12.

The crew’s sleep cycle today shifted farther back to the left, with wake-up at 3:30am and sleep time tonight at 4:30pm.  By tomorrow, onboard day/night schedule will have returned to the normal schedule of 1:00am – 4:30pm (all times EST).

With the Elektron oxygen (O2) generator still off and O2 being supplied from Progress 19 tankage as required, FE Tokarev serviced the Russian Harmful Impurities Removal System (BMP), terminating the “bake-out” cycle to vacuum on absorbent bed #1 of the regenerable dual-channel filtration system and starting the regeneration on bed #2. [Regeneration of each of the two cartridges takes about 12 hours and is conducted only during crew awake periods.  The BMP currently still uses the same vacuum vent valve for regeneration as the Elektron (the latter for venting hydrogen).]

At ~5:05am EST, the crew tagged up with ground specialists via S-band/audio for ~1.5 hrs. to debrief on the EVA-15 spacewalk.

At ~11:03am, the crew had a communications pass scheduled over NASA VHF (very high frequency) sites at Dryden, White Sands and Wallops Island for the periodic VHF1 emergency comm check, talking with Houston/Capcom, MSFC/PAYCOM (Payload Operation & Integration Center Communicator) and Moscow/Glavni (TsUP Capcom) in the normal fashion via VHF radio from a handheld microphone and any of the U.S. segment ATUs (audio terminal units).   [The test, from 11:04 – 11:18am, was to verify signal reception, link integrity, and to ensure minimum required link margin during emergency events.  Last time done: 12/7/05.]

FE Tokarev performed the daily routine maintenance of the Service Module (SM)’s environment control & life support system (SOZh), including its toilet system (ASU).

CDR/SO McArthur conducted the daily atmospheric status check for ppO2 (Partial Pressure Oxygen) and ppCO2 (pp Carbon Dioxide), using the CSA-O2 (Compound Specific Analyzer-Oxygen sensor) and CDMK (CO2 Monitoring Kit).

The crew completed 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 4 of the first set).]

Tokarev conducted his daily check of 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 still on Valery’s discretionary “time available” task list for today is the regular servicing of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (“Plants-2”) experiment, consisting of the daily status check and the periodic recharging of its water tank.   [Rasteniya researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-8 greenhouse.  The regular maintenance of the experiment (each Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) involves monitoring of seedling growth, humidity measurements, moistening of the substrate if necessary, topping off the water tank if ~20-25% of the total amount (4 liters) remains, and photo/video recording.  Once weekly, data from the Lada greenhouse control unit are recorded on floppy disk for weekly downlink via REGUL-Packet or the new BSR-TM at a suitable occasion

A new task on McArthur’s “job jar” task list, starting yesterday, was the transfer of three 0.5 CTBs (Crew Transfer Bags) containing CHeCS (Crew Health Care Systems) items from Progress 20 and stow them below the Cupola RWS (Robotics Workstation) in the Lab.  [The CTBs contain items that the crew will need to perform some sampling activities over the next month.  The CDR was invited to provide with alternate suggestions if desired.]

Another new addition to Bill’s task list is the periodic checkout of ePCS laptops.   [Since the PCS (Portable Computer System) Rev. 9 software is now on the newer A31p laptops, engineers want a regular checkup of the two remaining ePCS (early PCS) IBM 760XD laptops to ensure they are operating nominally.  This will also become a requirement for future Increments.  One of the ePCS laptops (S/N 6064) is the laptop that had an unexpected noise coming from the speakers when McArthur did OCA Router troubleshooting on 1/7/06.  If there are problems booting up either of these laptops and time allows, the ground has identified a spare 760XD laptop to swap out.  If there is a problem with the hard drive, it can be “reghosted” per onboard procedure.]

TsUP/Moscow is preparing for the upcoming ISS test reboost during the night of 2/11-2/12 (Russian time) using Progress-355/20P at the DC1 Docking Compartment by having Valery Tokarev install the standard US-21 matching unit in the cargo ship on 2/8, a 50-min. task.  An electrical test will then be conducted during RGS (Russian ground stations) coverage.   [The US-21 matching unit connects the SM with the Progress motion control and DPO thrusters systems, so that they can be commanded by the SM computer system (BVS).]

The “RadioSkaf” SuitSat, deployed early in the EVA-15 and activated on time 16 min. after deployment, continues to transmit, although much weaker then predicted (which led at first to speculation that that the batteries had died prematurely).  Schools in Japan reported successfully receiving the signal from orbiting “Ivan Ivanovich” during the first orbit and since then hundreds of reports from all over the world have been received as well (see http://www.suitsat.org for details).   [The weak signal may be due to an antenna problem, but SuitSat is reportedly still operating and transmitting.  Worldwide interest in this experiment is high with nearly 2 million internet hits per day at Suitsat.org.]

On 2/4, the crew replaced a failed LHA (Lamp Housing Assembly, OS1) in the Lab.  They also reported failure of a Lab GLA (General Luminaire Assembly).   [The fault indication LED (light-emitting diode) of the latter was illuminated and the lamp power switch was turned off, indicating that the failure was in the LHA and not the BBA (Baseplate Ballast Assembly).  There is no impact to ISS operations from this failure.  After the replacement of LHA OS1, there are five spare LHAs remaining on orbit.]

No CEO (Crew Earth Observation) photo targets uplinked 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 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, 11:17am EST [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 345.9 km
• Apogee height — 351.9 km
• Perigee height — 339.8 km
• Period — 91.45 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.0009022
• Solar Beta Angle — -11.5 deg (magnitude decreasing)
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.74
• Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 70 m
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 41259

Events Ahead (all dates Eastern & tentative):

• 02/11/06 — ISS reboost (by 20P; maneuver to XPOP after burn)
• 02/22/06 — ISS reboost (by 19P; mvr. back to XPOP after burn)
• 03/03/06 — Progress M-54/19P undocking & reentry (mvr. to LVLH XVV after undock)
• 03/10/06 — ISS reboost (by SM thrusters; mvr. back to XPOP after burn)
• 03/30/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S launch (Pavel Vinogradov/Russia, Jeffrey Williams/US, Marcos Pontes/Brazil)
• 04/01/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S docking (DC1; mvr. to LVLH XVV after dock)
• 04/09/06 — Soyuz TMA-7/11S undocking & reentry (mvr. to XPOP after undock)
• 04/16/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S relocation (DC1 to FGB nadir port)
• 04/24/06 — Progress M-56/21P launch
• 04/26/06 — Progress M-56/21P docking
• 05/03/06 — ULF1.1 launch (NET, not earlier than)
• 06/15/06 — U.S. EVA (under review)
• 06/19/06 — Progress M-55/20P undocking & reentry
• 06/28/06 — Progress M-57/22P launch
• 06/30/06 — Progress M-57/22P docking
• 07/01/06 — 12A launch (under review)
• 08/01/06 — Russian EVA-16 (under review)
• 09/13/06 — Progress M-56/21P undocking & reentry
• 09/14/06 — Soyuz TMA-9/13S launch
• 09/16/06 — Soyuz TMA-9/13S docking (DC1)
• 09/24/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S undocking & reentry
• 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.