Status Report

ISS On-Orbit Status 15 Feb 2003

By SpaceRef Editor

February 15, 2003

Filed under ISS On-orbit status, NASA HQ, US

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below. Day 84 in space for Expedition 6, and, after a very busy week, another Saturday crew rest day except for regular routine tasks, daily maintenance and optional “job jar” items.

After wake-up (1:00am EST), morning inspection, hygiene and breakfast, it was time again for the regular weekly 3-hr. housekeeping, designed to keep the crew’s orbital outpost spic and span.

FE-2/SO Don Pettit was scheduled to take the daily ppCO2 (carbon dioxide partial pressure) readings in Lab and SM with the CDMK (CO2 monitoring kit), once after breakfast and once again before dinner (3:00 pm).

Pettit also prepared the IMS inventory database update file for auto export/import.

FE-1 Nikolai Budarin completed the daily routine maintenance of the SOSh life support systems, incl. ASU toilet facility.

As part of today’s and Monday’s (2/17) SOSh maintenance, Budarin has been requested to remove and replace two components of the IK0501 gas analyzer in the SM, viz., the O2 data converter (GL5187) and the H2O data converter (ZP1003), using spare units delivered by Progress M1-253 (2P) and M-244 (3P) in 2001.

All crewmembers performed their daily physical exercise program on TVIS (treadmill with vibration isolation and stabilization), RED (resistive exercise device), CEVIS (cycle ergometer with vibration isolation), and VELO (Russian cycle ergometer) with load trainer.

At about 7:10am, on Daily Orbit 4 (DO4), MCC-Moscow/TsUP ran a test of the LKT4B2 local signal switch device (commutator) in the SM which is associated with the newly installed US-21 matching unit in the Progress vehicle. [To conduct the test, the ground first had to inhibit onboard systems such as the SKV-1 air conditioner, BMP microfiltration unit, Elektron O2 generator, BITS telemetry system and VD-SU control system, as well as the Vozdukh and DC-1 SOTR (thermal system) control algorithms. All inhibited systems were subsequently reactivated via pre-set time-tagged commands, again over RGS (Russian ground sites). These RGS opportunities also need to be reconciled with the TsUP’s limited channel availability on the Russian Molniya comm satellite, which Rosaviakosmos is sharing with the Russian Military Forces.]

The Russian onboard program also commanded the regular daily DC-1 smoke detector test.

Among other routine file uploads, which include email synchronization two to three times a day, MCC-Houston uplinked the regular weekly NAV virus definition file to the ISS OpsLAN (operations local area network).

Files scheduled for regular downlink last night included MEC (medical equipment computer) files for the MCC-H Flight Surgeon, covering such recent crew activities as audio dosimetry and SLM (sound level meter) surveys, CEVIS, RED and TVIS workouts, and IFEP (in-flight examination program) records with PHS (periodic health status) evaluation and blood analyses results.

At 10:35am, MCC-H also performed the regular weekly one-hour data dump from the GPS (global positioning system), in support of hardware checks with data not available in the standard telemetry. [The low-priority procedure, which does not preempt higher-priority data dumps, obtains information on GPS oscillator drift and antenna signal-to-noise ratio for long-term trend analyses.]

Crew Earth Observations (CEO): Now that light is returning to the Northern Hemisphere, the extent and rapid seasonal change of winter‚s snow and ice patterns will offer good targets for Earth photography by the ISS crew. Today’s CEO targets were Angolan Biomass Burning (using this pass to take advantage of the fair weather over northern Angola for views of fire burn scars from previous burning seasons. As the crew approached the coast from the SW, they were to look right of track), White Nile Marshes in Glint (as ISS tracked into southwestern Sudan, crew was to begin looking right of track for views of the White Nile River and its major wetlands the Sudd Swamp and the Machar Marshes all in sun glint. Conditions in these wetlands are indicative of variable flow rate of the Nile River system), Western Mediterranean Dust (with a strong cold front approaching the Iberian Peninsula there was good potential for gusty southerly winds over northern Algeria. Looking for clouds of dust in advance of this weather system), Eastern Mediterranean Smog (high pressure persists over both central Europe and the adjacent Mediterranean waters allowing heavy winter aerosol buildup in the atmosphere there. While crossing central Italy, crew was to look left of track toward northern Italy, the Alps and especially the Po River valley to document smog palls), and Nova Scotia Ice (opportunity to document the extent and condition of pack ice located along the northern coasts of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Tracking over the Gaspé Peninsula, target was right of track).
CEO images can be viewed at the website
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 3:38am EST [= epoch]):