ISS On-Orbit Status 30 Mar 2003

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below.  Another Sunday of a quiet weekend, with the crew largely off duty.

Ground payload personnel sent up thank-yous for Science Officer Don Pettit’s science talk yesterday with Utah State University.  The conference went off extremely well, and participants reportedly were “ecstatic”.  (Some of Dr. Pettit’s demos can be found at
 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/video/station/expedition6/ndxpage1.html )

FE-1 Nikolai Budarin started the day off with his regular daily inspection of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2/Lada-2 (“Plants-2”) experiment which researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions.

Later, the Russian flight engineer conducted the weekly routine tasks of collecting SP toilet flush counter and SVO water supply readings in the Service Module (SM) for calldown to TsUP, followed by the periodic inspection of the Elektron oxygen generator’s VM gas/liquid system for the air bubble that may linger after IFMs (in-flight maintenances).

Nikolai also completed the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh life support system (including ASU toilet facilities), and Don Pettit readied the IMS inventory system for the daily automated export/import of updates.

All crewmembers enjoyed their weekly PFCs (private family conferences), CDR Ken Bowersox and Pettit via S-band, Budarin via S- and Ku-band relay Houston-Moscow.

Bowersox and Pettit also had their periodic PPCs (private psychological conferences), via S-band.

The crew performed their regular daily physical exercise regimen (2.5 hrs.) on RED resistive exerciser, TVIS treadmill, and VELO ergometer with load trainer.

Flight attitude mode continues to be XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane) momentum management, until 4/3 when MCC-M will maneuver the station to a different XPOP attitude for the periodic SM/FGB solar array efficiency test (last conducted: 11/6/02).

Today’s CEO (crew earth observations) targets, currently restricted by flight rule constraints limiting the use of the science window in the Lab, were Industrialized SE Africa (industrial and biomass-burning aerosol is accumulating.  Looking right of track), Congo-Zimbabwe Biomass Burning (good pass along the subcontinental escarpment: coastal plains right of track and the plateau to the left.  Wind directions, air masses and hence density of aerosol differ in each region), Kuwait City, Kuwait (nadir pass; looking left for oblique views of southern Iraq), and High Central Andean Glaciers (crew was to shoot obliques of small ice fields on the top of the highest Andean volcanoes).
CEO images can be viewed at the websites
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov and
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

ISS Orbit  (as of this morning, 7:46am EST [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 389.5 km
• Apogee — 395.2 km
• Perigee — 383.7 km
• Period — 92.35 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.63 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.000847
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.59
• Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 200 m
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. í98)  — 24873
• For more on ISS orbit and worldwide naked-eye visibility dates/times, see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html