ISS On-Orbit Status 27 Oct 2002
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below.
For the crew a Sunday to savor, before next week’s “invasion” by the “taksisty” trio.
FE-1/SO Peggy Whitson worked on the MSG/PFMI (microgravity science glovebox/pore formation and mobility investigation) in her off-duty time, as a “bonus” to the science investigation.
For CDR Valery Korzun and FE-2 Sergei Treschev, Moscow has added some HDTV (high-definition TV) videotaping sessions of ISS crew activities for NASDA/Japan to their optional task list, to be performed as time permits. [The NASDA script specifies scenes, after a crew introduction, of food, meals and work in space, SM hardware, monitoring SM safety systems, SM experiments, crew actions in an emergency, leisure activities such as private family conference, acrobatics and gymnastics in weightlessness, personal hygiene, and a look into the sleeping cabins.]
Korzun completed his daily task of inspecting the Rasteniya-2 plant growth payload, followed by the regular inspection of the BRPK condensate water separator and the checkup of the VR fan of the active SKV-1 air conditioner for accumulated humidity.
He also performed the weekly collection of SP toilet flush and SVO water supply counter data for calldown to the ground.
Treschev meanwhile completed the daily routine inspection of the SOSh life support system, and Whitson did the off-day status check of autonomous Lab payloads.
All crewmember conducted a full workout program of physical exercise on TVIS (treadmill), RED (resistive pulley exerciser), CEVIS (cycle ergometer) and VELO (cycle with load trainer).
The station residents also had their weekly PFCs (private family conferences), via S-band/audio.
All instructions for tomorrow’s extensive TVIS SDTO (station development test objective) have now been uplinked. The SDTO will measure structural dynamics of the station during treadmill exercise.
Soyuz 5S and STS-113/11A launch and arrival times continue to be as follows (all EST):
- 5S launch: 10/29 (Tuesday) at 10:11pm;
- 5S docking: 11/1 (Friday) at 12:00am midnight;
- 4S undocking: 11/9 (Saturday) at 3:43pm;
- 4S landing: 11/9 at 7:03pm;
- 11A launch: 11/11 (Monday) early in the morning.
Today’s optional targets for the CEO (crew earth observations) program were Ganges River Delta (as ISS approached this target region from the NW, the crew was to try for oblique context views of the delta, mostly to the left of track. They were to note particularly the color and extent of sediment plumes in the Bay of Bengal), Eastern Mediterranean Dust and Smog (best bet to document aerosols in this region lingered to the left of track over the northern Balkan Peninsula and the Aegean Sea), Western Mediterranean Dust and Smog (although the timing of the next cold front is critical to this event, the crew was to look right of track as pass over SE Spain for Saharan dust moving northward from Morocco and Algeria in advance of the front).
ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:36am EST [= epoch]):
- Mean altitude — 395.2 km
- Apogee — 405.4 km
- Perigee — 385.0 km
- Period — 92.46 min.
- Inclination (to Equator) — 51.63 deg
- Eccentricity — 0.0015068
- Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.57
- Altitude loss — 190 m (mean) in last 24 hours
- Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 22461
- Current Flight Attitude — XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane = “sun-fixed” [yaw: -5.0, pitch: -8.6 deg., roll: 0.4 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
