ISS On-Orbit Status 2 Dec 2002

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

Start of Week 1 of Expedition 6.  It is the first solo day for Expedition 6 with CDR Ken Bowersox, FE-1 Nikolai Budarin and FE-2/SO Don Pettit having the station all for themselves.  Their tour of duty is slated to last until March ’03 (ULF-1/STS-114), about 100 days.

After final transfers and handovers, crew farewell at 12:20pm, and Shuttle/ISS hatch closing at 12:57pm EST, Endeavour undocked from ISS at 3:05pm EST, after a total docked time of 6d 22h 6min. The Orbiter backed away from the ISS PMA-2 (pressurized mating adapter #2), then performed a quarter-lap flyaround while photographing the Kurs-P antenna on  the SM port solar arrays.  A 3 ft/s separation burn followed at 4:00pm when the Shuttle crossed the -Rbar above the station at 450 ft .  Landing at KSC is set for 12/4 (Wednesday) at about 2:40pm EST.  Expedition 6 will then have spent 182 days in space, with 178 days aboard ISS.

After hatch closing, CDR Bowersox reconfigured the PMA-2 for Shuttle departure and closed its inner hatch to the Lab.  After undocking tonight, he will depressurize the adapter and conduct a leak check

Shortly before separation, at 2:35pm, the Orbiter maneuvered the stack to undocking attitude (yaw/pitch/roll = 0/0/0) in a four-minute turn, then set it in free drift at 2:02pm for the undocking event.  Afterwards, the CMGs will rotate the station slowly (0.01 deg/s) to LVLH TEA (local vertical/local horizontal torque equilibrium attitude) at -10/-9.1/0 degrees and resume momentum management control mode.

Early this morning, CDR Valery Korzun and FE-2 Sergei Treschev completed their final session with the Russian experiment ÌÎ-22 (sanitary-epidemiological status monitoring), using test tube kits with cotton swabs to collect microflora samples on themselves and selected hard surfaces.

Also in the morning, Don Pettit finished the EVA cleanup step of terminating the Metox regeneration in the Airlock bake-out oven.

The crew swapped out the Service Module (SM) printer with the Orbiter printer.  The latter was installed in the SM, the former transferred to Endeavour for return to Earth.

After STS-113 departure, FE-2/SO Don Pettit disconnected the UOP (utility operations panel) bypass cable to the Lab RWS DCP (robotic workstation/display & control panel), which supported the EVA robotics operations.

Don and Peggy Whitson were thanked once again for their troubleshooting of the MSG (microgravity science glovebox), with regrets to Don that the MSG won‚t be up and running for him during Increment 6.  After the return of the PDC (power distribution controller) and ESEM3 circuit breaker unit, the ground will be working hard with ESA/Astrium to get new parts ready to return to ISS as soon as possible.

Later tonight, Pettit is scheduled to assist in the remote deactivation of the CDRA (carbon dioxide removal system) which has worked nominally since the air selector valve package replacement on 11/27.

Another task timelined tonight for Bowersox is to load the MEC (medical equipment computer) with new software, which “recognizes” the new station crewmembers.

Meanwhile, Budarin conducts the routine BRPK-2 water condensate separator inspection in  the SM as well as the daily routine maintenance of the SOSh life support system and the preparation of the IMS inventory delta file for downlinking.  Don Pettit has already completed the regular status checkup of autonomous Lab payloads.

For a while last night the MCOR (medium-rate communications outage recorder) was not responding to commands.  A power cycling recovered proper communication and functionality.

Total altitude gained by the three 11A reboosts was 10.5 km (6.5 s.mi.).  Final orbital data see below.

U.S. and Russian Segment Status (as of 4:45am EST).

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

• Elektron O2 generator is powered On (32 Amp mode). Vozdukh CO2 scrubber is On (manual mode 5, cycle time 10 min). U.S. CDRA CO2 scrubber is On.  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) — 25.0; ppO2 (mmHg) — 140.7; ppCO2 (mmHg) — 2.6.
• SM Transfer Compartment:  Pressure (mmHg) — 761; temperature (deg C) — 19.9.
• FGB Cabin:  Pressure (mmHg) — 756; temperature (deg C) — 22.3.
• Node:  Pressure (mmHg) — 754.70; temperature (deg C) — 23.3 (shell); ppO2 (mmHg) — n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) — n/a.
• U.S. Lab:  Pressure (mmHg) — 756.63; temperature (deg C) — 24.0; ppO2 (mmHg) — n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) — n/a;
• Joint Airlock (Equip. Lock):  Pressure (mmHg) — 756.63, temperature (deg C) — 24.5; shell heater temp (deg C) — 24.2, ppO2 (mmHg) — 162.0; ppCO2 (mmHg) — 3.8.
• PMA-1:  Shell heater temp (deg C) — 23.0
• PMA-2:  Shell heater temp (deg C) — 20.0

(n/a = data not available)

Propulsion System (PS):  

• Total propellant load available (SM + FGB + Progress) — 3808 kg (8395 lb) [as of 11/21/02].

Electrical Power Systems (EPS):

• Both P6 channels fully operational.  Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA) 2B and BGA 4B both in Autotrack (following the Sun).
• SM batteries:  All batteries (8) are in “Partial Charge”: mode.  Data are static.
• FGB batteries:  Batteries #4 is off line; all other batteries (5) are in “Partial Charge” mode.
• Plasma Contactor Unit PCU-1 is in Standby; PCU-2 is in Standby.

Thermal Control Systems:

• Air conditioner SKV-1 is On; SKV-2 is Off.

Command & Data Handling Systems:

• C&C-1 MDM is prime, C&C-2 is back-up, and C&C-3 is in standby.
• GNC-1 MDM is prime; GNC-2 is Backup (new patches loaded on both).
• EXT-2 is On (primary), EXT-1 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): 2 redundant lanes (of 3) operational. Lane 1 is down.
• SM Central Computer (TsVM): 3 redundant lanes (of 3) operational.

Attitude Source:

• 3 CMGs on-line.
• State vector — U.S. SIGI-1
• Attitude — Russian segment (RS)
• Angular rates — U.S. RGA-1 (from RS attitude)

Communications & Tracking Systems:

• FGB MDM-1 failed; FGB MDM-2 is operating.
• All other 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 based at Lab PDGF with Keep Alive (KA) power on both strings.
• MBS: KA power on both strings.  MT: at WS7, with KA power. POA: KA power on both strings.
• RWS (robotics workstations): Lab RWS is Off; Cupola RWS is Off.

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

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 00:22am EST [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 397.2 km
• Apogee — 399.3 km
• Perigee — 395.1 km
• Period — 92.5 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.0003111
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.57
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 23017
• Current Flight Attitude  LVLH TEA (local vertical/local horizontal = “earth-fixed”: z-axis in local vertical, x-axis in velocity vector [yaw: -10 deg, pitch: -9.1 deg, roll: 0 deg]).

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