ISS Status Report #9 – 4 Apr 2001 – Expedition 2 Crew

The resident crew of the International Space Station – Commander Yury
Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms – spent the last week
conducting experiments and performing routine housekeeping chores and some
maintenance work.

The activation of the station’s Ku-Band antenna remains on hold until a
software update is uplinked to the station’s computers Thursday. This
command is designed to correct an apparent pointing error with the
dish-shaped antenna. The Ku-Band system is used to transmit television,
voice and high-speed data to the ground. Normal communication is being
managed through the S-Band audio system. Any required TV images, in the
meantime, can be accommodated through the use of the laptop computer-based
digital video system.

Also, the crew changed out components of the carbon dioxide removal assembly
system in the Destiny Laboratory in an effort to recover its use.
Troubleshooting work continues as engineers evaluate what appears to be a
sluggish vent valve on the unit. The Zvezda module’s CO2 removal system is
working fine and providing more than adequate capability to cleanse the
cabin air in the meantime.

Oxygen for the crew currently is being provided by supply tanks in the
Progress supply vehicle, which boosted the cabin air yesterday. Without the
Progress, the Russian Elektron in Zvezda provides oxygen generation. Not
presently needed, the Elektron is turned off.

Apart from maintenance tasks and routine housekeeping chores, the crew has
been working with experiments on board. The Human Research Facility rack in
Destiny is managed and operated by a science and operations team from the
Telescience Support Center down the hall from the station’s flight control
room in Mission Control, Houston. All payloads on the station are overseen
from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama where the
Payloads Operations Center is located. For details on the science
investigations ongoing aboard the ISS, visit the following website:

http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/releases/2001/01-105.html

The Progress supply craft currently docked to the aft end of the Zvezda
module is scheduled to be undocked around April 15 in preparation for the
arrival of the next shuttle flight carrying the station’s Canadian-built
robot arm and a second Italian Space Agency supplied logistics module called
Raffaello. The open port allows for the relocation of the Soyuz capsule
around April 17, which will provide clearance for the placement of Raffaello
during the docked phase of the shuttle mission. The Flight Readiness Review
to evaluate the readiness of Endeavour, its crew and the station for the
shuttle’s launch on the STS-100 mission will be held Thursday to select a
target launch date, which currently is around April 19.

Earlier today, a small test firing of the Progress supply ship’s thrusters
was performed to verify command capability of the steering jets via the
Zvezda module’s computers. The brief engine burn resulted in a change in
the velocity of the Station of only one meter per second. It was the first
time the Progress thrusters were commanded from the ground through the
Zvezda module’s computers.

The test sets the stage for another Progress engine firing early next week
designed to refine the orbit of the station relative to the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in preparation for the arrival of a new Soyuz
capsule to replace the one presently docked to the station. Soyuz capsules
routinely are changed about every 180 days. A taxi crew, as it’s called,
will deliver the new capsule and return to Earth in the one launched last
October carrying the station’s first Expedition Crew.

Late Tuesday, a handover of the station’s attitude control from the
electrically driven Control Moment Gyroscopes to the Zvezda module’s
thrusters was performed as a test to verify that the automatic switchover
would occur in the event that the CMGs developed a problem. The test
allowed the system to ‘think’ that the gyros had failed down to one
operational system and the computers automatically switched to the
thrusters. The test verified the system is fully operational.

The International Space Station continues to orbit the Earth in good shape
at an altitude of 238 statute miles (384 km). The next ISS Status Report
will be issued April 11, unless developments warrant.