ISS On-Orbit Status 24 Feb 2002
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below. Start of Week 11 for Expedition 4.
The crew (and ground) had a quiet day. But the discretionary “job jar” task list on board has indeed shrunk considerably since Friday. Current items listed pertain only to the upcoming ADVASC (advanced astroculture) maintenance, which consists of taking samples of the nutrient solution, condensate water and gas in the growth chamber.
Thanks to the crewâs reconfiguring the parallel power cables in the two DDCU (dc-to-dc converter unit) racks, the power converters were successfully activated by the ground and checked out. They are now ready for 8A.
Flight Control also extended thanks to the station residents for their troubleshooting activities on the PCS hard drive (which doesnât fit in the Cupola RWS [robotic workstation] computer), and on the recalcitrant Lab video camcorder. The latter effort appears to have been successful since the ground was able to downlink video from the Lab.
FE-2 Bursch checked on the status of the autonomous payloads running in the Lab, while CDR Onufrienko took SVO water supply readings and SP water flush system counter data for calldown to MCC-Moscow. He also continued his monitoring of the IK0501 gas analyzer in the SM.
Bursch and FE-1 Walz performed their daily physical exercise regimen.
Next Tuesday, 2/26, the crew is scheduled to participate in a live-televised interview conducted by two TV stations,- WICZ-TV Vestal, NY, and WOIO-TV, Cleveland, OH.
On Thursday, 2/28, Shuttle mission STS-109/Columbia is scheduled for launch on the Hubble Servicing Mission. Public attention will undoubtedly shift from the ISS to this complex expedition, which will feature five EVAs from the Columbia, two of which are unprecedented in regards to timeline planning.
The CEO (crew earth observations) program today had the following optional target areas: ÊNile River Delta (despite the possibility of a few high clouds around, this was an excellent pass over the Nile River delta providing nadir views to document the details of land use ecological changes in coastal wetlands here), Tigris-Euphrates, Turkey (crew was to use this pass to document the winter lake levels of the numerous reservoirs under construction here), European Smog (after crossing southern France, this pass tracked along the Alps. Of interest: looking to the right of track over northern Italy for evidence of aerosol build up over the Po Valley and the Adriatic Sea), Eastern United States (as ISS tracked along the Appalachians, crew was to try for oblique views of aerosols over the Ohio River valley to the left of track), Gulf of St. Lawrence (as improving weather from the southwest permitted, crew was to use this pass to acquire nadir views of the northern coast of Nova Scotia and the southern coast of Newfoundland), European Smog (this second pass today tracked along the eastern coast of Italy. Of interest: looking to the left of track over the Adriatic for aerosol plumes spreading over this basin), Lakes of the Eastern Sierra Watershed (a fine pass for near-nadir shots of Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake), Gulf of St. Lawrence (second pass provided an excellent view of the ice buildup on the northwest coast of Newfoundland and the Strait of Belle Isle to the north. On a third pass, light was getting low but should have sufficed for nadir views of ice surrounding Prince Edward Island), Eastern United States (if high pressure persisted, this pass provided good views of aerosols in oblique views either side of track from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast).
ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:59am EST):
- Mean altitude — 384.8 km
- Apogee — 392.3 km
- Perigee — 377.3 km
- Period — 92.2 min.
- Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
- Eccentricity — 0.001107
- Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.61
- Altitude decrease — 260 m (mean) in last 24 hours
- Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. â98) — 18646
- Current Flight Attitude — XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane [yaw: ~0 deg, pitch: 5 deg., roll: 0 deg])
For more on ISS orbit and naked-eye visibility dates/times, see
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html
