ISS On-Orbit Status 24 Mar 2002

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

It is Day 110 of the Expedition 4 crew, whose stay time has now been extended by the launch delay of UF-2/STS-111 mission to 189 days (breaking Astronaut Shannon Lucid’s record stay on Mir by one day).

The crew had a busy and long Sunday today, extended five hours by Progress 7P docking activities: Wakeup at the regular 1:00 am EST, and begin of sleep period tonight at 9:30 pm (instead of 4:30). In compensation, tomorrow’s wakeup call will come five hours later,- at 6:00 am.

Progress M1-8 (7P) docked smoothly and nominally at 3:58 pm EST in automatic KURS mode, with CDR Yuri Onufrienko standing by ready to take over with the TORU (“teleoperatorniy reshim upravleniya”) backup system. Live video of the event was transmitted to the ground on Ku-band, starting at about 3:15 pm, converted from Russian TV format to the U.S. NTSC format by an SSC (space station computer) laptop. [Earlier: 7P’s active KURS-A radio rendezvous system was activated at 2:08 pm EST, its passive KURS-P counterpart transponder in the SM at 2:11 pm. At 3:07 pm, Progress was approximately 1.6 km aft, 1.5 km to port and 900 m below of the ISS. Nine minutes later these distances had shrunk to 280 m, 80 m to starboard and 550 m below. Flyaround began at 3:19 pm, until the vehicle was aligned with one of the KURS-P omnidirectional antennas on the SM solar array tips. After stationkeeping at 150-200 m distance, final approach began over Russian ground stations at 3:46 pm, with docking and SM KURS-P deactivation over Central Asia at 3:58 pm.]

After capture and docking hooks closed, ISS attitude was moded from free drift back to XPOP, and the P6 solar arrays were switched from “feathered” (to protect against Progress thruster plumes) to Autotrack. The next crew activities are Progress/SM leak checks (at about 6:10 pm), opening of the two hatches, and installation of QD (quick disconnect) screw clamps (by 7:40 pm). Onufrienko will then collect air samples in the Progress with the AK-1M sampler, deactivate the cargo ship,Ê install air ventilation ducts from the SM and switch the cargo ship to common station power.

Earlier today the crew completed the weekly 2-hr. cleanup of their home, deferred from yesterday.

Dan Bursch then performed regular daily SVO (water supply) and SP (toilet/urine system) counter data reading for calldown to the ground, followed by UF-1 payload status checks, while Carl Walz did the routine SOSH life support system maintenance.

At about 1:15 pm., Dan Bursch had set up the IWIS (internal wireless instrumentation system) to record structural dynamics of the station during the 7P docking process. [IWIS uses a number of accelerometers and strain gauges in the Node and Lab, each of the modules with their own RSUs (remote sensing units). The latter include a small transmitter and antenna to radio the measurements to the central station for eventual downlinking to the ground. Dan made sure that both Node and Lab RSUs had fresh batteries installed. Activation timer was then set to 15 minutes prior to docking. After the docking, Bursch finished data recording and downloading. The RSUs remain installed for future IWIS operations.]

CDR Onufrienko and FE-1 Walz had their private family conferences today (Bursch’s PFC had been scheduled yesterday).

All crewmembers performed their daily physical exercise on TVIS and IRED, with Yuri also scheduled for a workout on the VELO (cycle ergometer).

Optional target areas for the U.S. crew earth observations (CEO) program today were Angolan Biomass Burning (ISS intercepted the coast just N of the city of Benguela [left of track]; of interest: documenting any agricultural burning — both clearing of the higher plateau and burning of stubble in the lower country. Patterns of smoke movement and individual fires are both of interest), Congo-Zimbabwe Biomass Burning (the dark fan-shaped wetlands of the Okavango inland river delta were just left of track. From there northward, fires and smoke palls were to be recorded. The bright reflective Sua salt pan, with red and/or green salt-evaporation ponds, was just beyond the Okavango delta), Industrialized Southeastern Africa (Pretoria, Johannesburg and Durban, major urban-industrial centers of South Africa, contribute large volumes of aerosols to the atmosphere in this region. Crew was to record any concentrations of smog, as well as any movement of aerosol masses out over the southern Indian Ocean. Oblique views of the edges of smog palls are needed. The Vredefort meteor impact structure in on track just south of Johannesburg, though ISS attitude may have precluded the crew’s being able to see it), Patagonian Glaciers (weather conditions appear good for photographing the Northern Patagonian Ice Field, the least-photographed portion of the Patagonian glacier field. Crew was to focus on glaciers descending the eastern Andean flanks and feeding the large lakes. Views of the southernmost, south-trending glacier of the northern ice field are particularly needed), and Tuamotu Archipelago (most of the atolls of the northwestern Tuamotu Archipelago were left and parallel to the ISS track. Crew was asked to begin with a context shot down the axis of the chain, then document individual reefs and central lagoons to the extent possible while in XPOP).

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 6:56 am EST):

• Mean altitude — 391.7 km
  
• Apogee — 393.9 km
  
• Perigee — 389.4 km
  
• Period — 92.4 min.
  
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
  
• Eccentricity — 0.0003355
  
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.59
  
• Altitude decrease — 300 m (mean) in last 24 hours
  
• Solar Beta Angle: +48.0 deg (magnitude increasing)
  
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 19082
  
• Current Flight Attitude — XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane = “sun-fixed” [yaw: ~180 deg, pitch: -6 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