Status Report

ISS On-orbit Status 2 Oct 2002

By SpaceRef Editor
October 2, 2002
Filed under , ,

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously
or below. The crew is not getting much sleep.

MCC-Houston has been shut down at 4:00am EDT this morning, and Hurricane
Lili contingency operations are in place and running. [The power-down
overnight was done in a slow, carefully deliberate process to minimize
the time that will be required for reactivating Mission Control (perhaps
by tomorrow night). Johnson Space Center itself, currently at Hurricane
Prep Level 3, has not been evacuated (this would be required by Level
2). ISS operational control has been temporarily transferred to BCC (backup
control center) in Moscow, with HSG (Houston Support Group) at TsUP/MCC-M
maintaining US contingency telemetry and command contact with the ISS
crew via Russian VHF assets during the limited Russian comm passes. VHF
comm (voice only) can be acquired over the continental US via Dryden,
White Sands and Wallops. POC (Payload Operations Center) in Huntsville
is receiving S-band return link through White Sands. The onboard Ku-band
antenna is parked to protect it from excessive cold.]

The crew’s onboard schedule has been modified as called for by the contingency
situation. Due to the lack of S-band and Ku-band command comm, the P6
solar arrays are now "parked" in Directed Position (no pointing/tracking),
producing 12.5 kW. The reduced available power necessitated "load
shedding" (powerdown) of about half of the Lab [e.g., one CCAA air
conditioner, six lights, the TCCS (trace contaminant control subassembly),
EXPRESS Racks 1 and 2 (ER1 and 2), the MSG (microgravity science glovebox),
etc. ER4 continues to run on low power.]
Some Node and Airlock systems
are also shut down. Before closing down, MCC-H also reenabled a large
number of onboard C&W (caution and warning) sensors that were suppressed
as long as the ground fulfilled their function. In the event any of these
cautions annunciate, the crew must take action.

Procedures were uplinked for the crew to monitor and support attitude
control activities, i.e., CMG desaturation by the Russian thrusters, and
control authority handovers between the US and Russian segments if required.
The ISS is currently controlled by CMG momentum management, and switchover
to Russian thrusters would be automatic if more than one CMG fails.

RSC-Energia has cancelled a Progress thruster firing planned for today
(to dynamically test the US-21 matching unit installed yesterday) and
also a reboost by 9P scheduled for Friday.

Main activity on board today was continued unloading and inventorying
of Progress 9P cargo by CDR Valery Korzun and FE-2 Sergei Treschev.

Sergei transferred the Russian TEX-25 Skorpion payload from the Progress
to the Service Module (SM) and installed its SKR-05 hardware in the SM
"floor" underneath the TVIS. Skorpion has flown before during
Expedition Four. [Skorpion’s objective is to monitor environmental radiation
parameters with dosimeters inside station compartments at various places
and to characterize environmental conditions for conducting scientific
and technical experiments. Skorpion requires about 6 W of energy and is
supported by photography of the deployed hardware.]

A second Russian experiment transferred by Valery from the Progress was
BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 ("plants-2"), to research growth and development
of plants under spaceflight conditions. Korzun installed the hardware,
planted seeds and configured the payload for cultivation.

Yesterday’s PFMI (pore formation and mobility investigation) run with
sample PFMI-08 went very well. Like PFMI-07, it also was "alloyed"
with water, but it was processed slower than PFMI-07. Because of the deactivation
of the MSG, the sample will remain in the PFMI thermal chamber until science
ops resume.

Peggy Whitson performed the periodic collection of potable water for
chemical and microbial analysis, first from the SRV-K hot tap, then from
the EDV container of the water supply system (SVO-EhV). From each port,
she collected one chemical archive sample and one microbio archive sample.
The four archive water bags were then stowed for return on 9A. The standard
sampling procedures are Russian, but U.S. water samplers are being used.

Korzun and Whitson performed initial tool configuration for the 9A EVAs.
Final configuration will be done by the 9A spacewalkers (Wolf and Sellers)
themselves.

All crewmembers completed their daily physical exercise program on TVIS,
CEVIS and VELO with load trainer.

The daily routine maintenance of the SOSh life support system in the
SM as well as the preparation of the IMS update file were conducted by
FE-2 Treschev, while Whitson did the regular autonomous payload status
checkup in the Lab (PCG-STES008 and ADVASC).

Peggy was also scheduled for setting up the amateur radio equipment and
participating in a ham pass with St. Mark’s Lutheran School in Hacienda
Heights, CA.

Today’s evening DPC (daily planning conference) will be conducted from
BCC/HSG in Moscow.

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:20am EDT [= epoch]):
Mean altitude — 385.6 km
Apogee — 397.1 km
Perigee — 374.0 km
Period — 92.3 min.
Inclination (to Equator) — 51.63 deg
Eccentricity — 0.0017116
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.61
Altitude decrease — 300 m (mean) in last 24 hours
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 22076
Current Flight Attitude — XVV (x-axis in velocity vector, 5.0 deg roll
bias [yaw: -10 deg, pitch: -7.8 deg, roll: 0 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

SpaceRef staff editor.