NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 7 May 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.   Sunday — off-duty day for Pavel Vinogradov & Jeff Williams, except for housekeeping and voluntary work.  Ahead: Week 5 of Increment 13.

CDR Vinogradov performed the daily routine maintenance of the Service Module’s environment control & life support system (SOZh), including its toilet system (ASU) and the weekly collection of the toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings for calldown to TsUP/Moscow.

FE/SO Williams conducted the daily atmospheric status check for ppO2 (Partial Pressure Oxygen) and ppCO2 (pp Carbon Dioxide), using the CSA-CP (Compound Specific Analyzer-Combustion Products), CSA-O2 (CSA-Oxygen Sensor) and CDMK (CO2 Monitoring Kit).

Both crewmembers worked out in their regular 2.5-hr. physical exercise program (about half of which is used for setup & post-exercise personal hygiene) on the TVIS treadmill (FE, CDR), RED (CDR) and VELO bike with bungee cord load trainer (FE).   [Pavel Vinogradov’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).]

Working off his discretionary “time as available” task list, the CDR conducted his first session with the Russian “Diatomeya” ocean observations program.  Using the Nikon F5 digital still camera with 400mm-lens from window #9 and the DSR PD-150P camcorder from window #8, Pavel obtained imagery describing the geography of highly productive ocean waters.   [Targets of interest were color blooms in coastal and open ocean waters, water dynamics in areas of sun glint, ocean surface level anomalies, prominent ocean floor contour patterns, hydrothermal activity manifestations, and structural irregularities in ocean cloud cover.  Uplinked targets in the South and Tropical Atlantic Ocean were: gulfs and sea shelf of Argentina, the La-Plata estuary, the Falkland and Brazil stream joining point, the equatorial area, and the West Africa shoreline; in the East Pacific and North Atlantic: water areas south of Easter Island, Pacific coast of Panama, Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic coast of North America, Newfoundland Island, and the area of the Northern Polar front.]

The Russian segment  task list also continued to show the rolled-over task to monitor the hard disk drives (HDDs) of the RSK1 and RSE1 laptops using a specific logging application for producing commensurate log files for downlink to TsUP.

A third item on the task list for Pavel Vladimirovich continued to be the photographing of a section of the Progress M-55/20P air duct to help evaluate the performance of intermodular ventilation through the DC1 Docking Module.

In addition, the CDR was asked to conduct, at his discretion, another search-and-gather tour for hardware, specifically for items and tools required for a test of SOTR (Thermal Control System) hydraulics. [Currently, according to TsUP/Moscow, coolant circulation in the SOTR’s secondary thermal control loop (KOB-2) is disrupted, probably caused by presence of free air in the hydraulic lines which can partially or fully block the nominal operation of the ENA pump packages, as has happened before.  A test of the SOTR will be scheduled in the near future to check the volume of free air (bubble) in KOB and its location in the loop.]

At ~3:00pm EDT, Jeff held his weekly PFC (private family conference) via S-band/audio and Ku-band/MS-NetMeeting video.

No CEO (crew earth observations) photo targets uplinked today. 

To date, more than 186,000 of CEO images have been taken in the first five years of the ISS, almost one third of the total number of images taken from orbit by astronauts.

  CEO photography can be viewed and studied at the websites:

• http://exploration.nasa.gov/programs/station/CEO.html
• 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 13 crew visit:

• http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-13/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.

Expedition 13 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, 5:51am EDT [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 344.4 km
• Apogee height — 351.0 km
• Perigee height — 337.8 km
• Period — 91.42 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.0009834
• Solar Beta Angle — 6.1 deg (magnitude decreasing)
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.75
• Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 100 m
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 42673

Significant Events Ahead (all dates subject to change):

• 05/20/06 — Progress M-56/21P loading complete; hatches closed
• 06/01/06 — Russian EVA-16
• 06/08/06 — ISS reboost
• 06/19?/06 — Progress M-55/20P undocking (DC1) & reentry
• 06/24/06 — Progress M-57/22P launch
• 06/26/06 — Progress M-57/22P docking (DC1)
• 07/01/06 — NET STS-121/ULF1.1 launch
• 07/03-11/06 — NET STS-121/ULF1.1 docked mission w/ISS
• 07/??/06 — US EVA-5
• 08/28/07 — NET STS-115/12A launch
• 08/30-09/06 — NET STS-115/12A docked mission w/ISS
• 09/13/06 — Progress M-56/21P undocking (SM aft port) & reentry
• 09/14/06 — Soyuz TMA-9/13S launch (Expedition 14 + VC11)
• 09/16/06 — Soyuz TMA-9/13S docking (SM aft port)
• 09/24/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S undocking (FGB nadir port) & reentry
• 09/??/06 — Soyuz TMA-9/13S relocation (SM aft port to FGB nadir port)
• 10/18/06 — Progress M-58/23P launch
• 10/20/06 — Progress M-58/23P docking (SM aft port)
• 11/??/06 — Russian EVA-17
• 12/14/06 — NET STS-116/12A.1 launch
• 12/16-23/06 — NET STS-116/12A.1 docked mission w/ISS
• 12/19/06 — Progress M-57/22P undocking (DC1) & reentry
• 12/20/06 — Progress M-59/24P launch
• 12/22/06 — Progress M-59/24P docking (DC1)
• 01/22/07 — US EVA-6
• 01/26/07 — US EVA-7
• 01/31/07 — US EVA-8
• 02/06/07 — Progress M-59/24P undocking (DC1) & reentry
• 02/07/07 — Progress M-60/25P launch
• 02/09/07 — Progress M-60/25P docking (DC1)
• 02/22/07 — NET STS-117/13A launch
• 02/24-03/03/07 — NET STS-117/13A docked mission w/ISS
• 03/08/07 — Progress M-58/23P undocking (SM aft port) & reentry
• 03/09/07 — Soyuz TMA-10/14S launch (Expedition 15 + VC12)
• 03/11/07 — Soyuz TMA-10/14S docking (SM aft port)
• 03/19/07 — Soyuz TMA-9/13S undocking (FGB nadir port)
• 03/22/07 — NET STS-117/13A launch
• ??/??/07 — Soyuz TMA-10/14S relocation (SM aft port to FGB nadir port)
• 06/11/07 — NET STS-118/13A.1.

    (NET = no earlier than)

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.