ISS On-Orbit Status 23 Oct 2002

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

Right after wakeup (4:30am EDT) and before breakfast, all crewmembers completed another session with the medical assessment MO-9 of the Russian crew health-monitoring program.  MO-9 is biochemical urinalysis, conducted regularly every 30 days (and also before and after Russian EVAs in Orlan spacesuits) with the Urolux equipment set up last night by Treschev, who also stowed it later today.  It is one of five nominal Russian medical tests that were adopted by NASA for US crewmembers for the PHS (periodic health status) evaluation.

About two hours later, PHS, without blood labs, was performed on all crewmembers.  First FE-1/SO Peggy Whitson acted as CMO for Korzun and Treschev, then Korzun assisted Whitson with her own test. Today’s was the last PHS exam for Expedition 5.  [The PHS, guided by the IFEP (in-flight examination program) software on the MEC (medical equipment computer), is performed once every 30 days for each crewmember and two weeks before landing and as clinically indicated.  The PHS evaluations alternate between the one with blood labs and the one without.  The tests are recorded on the MEC (medical equipment computer), and physical exercise should then follow.]

Peggy Whitson terminated the Metox (metal oxide) CO2 absorption canister regeneration in the Airlock (A/L) started yesterday and reconfigured the CCAA (common cabin air assembly) air duct through the hatch, now open again.  The second regen activity is scheduled for 10/25 (Friday).

Peggy also terminated discharge of EMU battery #2026 in the BSA (battery stowage assembly).

CDR Valery Korzun and FE-2 Sergei Treschev worked several hours on the SM internal thermal loop #2 (KOB-2), to remove and replace one of two exchangeable pump panels (4CPN1).  This required them first to deactivate SM life support equipment such as the SKV-1 air conditioner, BMP micropurification unit and Elektron O2 generator, then disconnect the involved BITS2-12 internal telemetry connectors, and later reverse these steps to reconnect BITS2-12 and reactivate the life support elements.  [The two KOB internal thermal loops control the heat generated on board by crew and equipment and maintain specific temperature conditions in the cabin.  The excess heat passes through a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger (ZhZhT) into one of two external thermal loops (KOKh) for subsequent radiation into open space.  Each KOB has two replaceable pump panels, each of which contains two pumps in series.  When the pumps reach their service life of 5000 hours, they are replaced.]

Peggy Whitson performed another EVARM (EVA radiation monitoring) badge reading of the background radiation environment in the cabin, the first in a series of weekly data collections in preparation for the three 11A spacewalks.

Whitson transferred the T+5 data from the microbial sample growth test started on 10/18 into the MEC.

Daily routine tasks were performed by Korzun (Rasteniya-2 plant growth status verification), Treschev (SOSh life support system maintenance), and Whitson (autonomous Lab payload status checkup).

All crewmembers completed their regular daily physical exercise program.

Tonight shortly before dinner time, FE-2 Sergei Treschev will set up the equipment for tomorrow’s scheduled Russian MedOps biochemical blood test MO-11, consisting of the Reflotron IV analyzer, with accessories, power supply and Reflotron IV kit.  [Korzun and Treschev will perform the tests on each other, preceded by imbibing 250 ml of warm water or plain (unsugared) tea 20 minutes before taking the blood samples.]

Launch preparations at Baikonur continue for Soyuz launch at 10:11pm EST on 10/29 (next Tuesday).  The ISS currently remains XPOP (sun-oriented) flight attitude.  This will be interrupted on 10/31 (10:19pm EST) for two hours when station attitude will be switched to inertial mode for the Soyuz 5S docking at 11:56pm (briefly in free drift).  

Preliminary investigation of the Soyuz-U launch mishap at Plesetsk on 10/15 indicates that the failure was caused by loss of thrust in one of the booster’s side blocks due to off-nominal operation of the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) feed to the engine’s turbopump unit.

Today’s targets for CEO (crew earth observations) were Lower Amazon River Basin (crew was to look left for possible smoke from widespread fires and to try to document margins of the smoke pall), Costa Rica cloud patterns (Dynamic event.  Very high mountains of Costa Rica generate their own air circulation and hence cloud masses.  Crew was to look right for on- and offshore cloud patterns), Guadalajara, Mexico (viewing right for a general view of this city.  ESC [electronic still camera] requested), Tigris-Euphrates, Turkey (right of track for views of the new series of lakes in southern Turkey. Of interest for photography: agricultural patterns in the valleys bottoms alongside the lakes), Western Mediterranean Dust (of interest: looking right for dust plumes exiting Tunisia in advance of a major storm tracking across Western Europe and the Mediterranean basin.  Smoking Etna volcano should have been visible in the foreground).

U.S. and Russian Segment Status (as of 2:11 pm EDT):

Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLSS) and Thermal Control (TCS):

• Elektron O2 generator is powered On (32 Amp mode, on backup pump).  Vozdukh CO2 scrubber is ON in MANUAL cycle mode #5, i.e., 10-min. cycle time (vacuum pump failed).  U.S. CDRA CO2 scrubber is offline. TCCS is operational.  BMP Harmful Impurities unit: Absorbent bed #1 in Purify mode, bed #2 in Purify mode.

• SM Working Compartment:  Pressure (mmHg) — 762, temperature (deg C) — 27.8, ppO2 (mmHg) — 159.2, ppCO2 (mmHg) — 2.5.
• SM Transfer Compartment:  Pressure (mmHg) — 761, temperature (deg C) — 20.7.
• FGB Cabin:  Pressure (mmHg) — 756, temperature (deg C) — 22.0.
• Node:  Pressure (mmHg) — 754.70, temperature (deg C) — 24.6 (shell); ppO2 (mmHg) — 165.5; ppCO2 (mmHg) — 4.6.
• U.S. Lab:  Pressure (mmHg) — 756.23, temperature (deg C) — 24.7, ppO2 (mmHg) — 167.0; ppCO2 (mmHg) — 5.3;
• Joint Airlock (Equip. Lock):  Pressure (mmHg) — 756.23, temperature (deg C) — 25.4; shell heater temp (deg C) — 23.6, ppO2 (mmHg) — n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) — n/a.
• PMA-1:  Shell heater temp (deg C) — 24.0
• PMA-2:  Shell heater temp (deg C) — 12.4

(n/a = data not available)

Propulsion System (PS):  

• Total propellant load available (SM + FGB + Progress) — 4118 kg (9079 lb) [as of 10/17/02].

Electrical Power Systems (EPS):

• Both P6 channels fully operational.  Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA) 2B and BGA 4B in Autotrack mode (solar-tracking).
• SM batteries:   Battery data not available.
• FGB batteries:  Battery #1 is offline; all other batteries (5) are in “Partial Charge” mode.
• Plasma Contactor Unit PCU-1 in Standby mode; PCU-2 in Standby mode.

Thermal Control Systems:
Air conditioner SKV-1 is On; SKV-2 is Off.

Command & Data Handling Systems:

• C&C-3 MDM is prime, C&C-2 is back-up, and C&C-1 is in standby.
• GNC-2 MDM is prime; GNC-1 is Backup.
• EXT-1 is On (primary), EXT-2 is off.
• LA-1, LA-2 and LA-3 MDMs are all operating.
• PL-1 MDM is On (primary); PL-2 MDM is off (diagnostic
• APS-1 (automated payload switch #1) and APS-2 are both On.
• SM Terminal Computer (TVM): 3 redundant lanes (of 3) operational.
• SM Central Computer (TsVM): 3 redundant lanes (of 3) operational.

Attitude Source:

• 3 CMGs on-line.
• State vector  Russian segment
• Attitude — Russian segment
• Angular rates — Russian segment

Communications & Tracking Systems:

• All Russian communications & tracking systems are nominal.
• S-band is operating nominally.
• Ku-band is operating nominally.
• Audio subsystem operating nominally.
• Video subsystem operating nominally.
• MCOR (medium-rate communications outage recorder) is operating nominally.

Robotics:

• SSRMS/Canadarm2 at MBS PDGF3 (mobile base system/power & data grapple fixture 1) and PDGF2, with Keep Alive power on both strings (based on PDGF3 [LEE A, derigidized] and mated to PDGF2).
• MBS: Keep Alive power on both strings.  POA: Keep Alive power on both strings.
• RWS (robotics workstations): Lab RWS is Off; Cupola RWS is Off.

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 5:57am EDT [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 395.9 km
• Apogee — 406.1 km
• Perigee — 385.6 km
• Period — 92.48 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.63 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.00151
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.57
• Solar Beta Angle — -61.4 deg (magnitude increasing)
• Altitude loss — 190 m (mean) in last 24 hours
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 22397
• Current Flight Attitude — XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane = “sun-fixed” [yaw: -5.0, pitch: -8.6 deg., roll: 0.4 deg]),with CMG/Thruster Assist Momentum Management).

For more on ISS orbit and worldwide naked-eye visibility dates/times, see
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html