NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 13 September 2008

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Saturday – off duty day for CDR Volkov, FE-1 Kononenko & FE-2 Chamitoff.

Hurricane Ike: NASA-JSC/MCC-Houston is closed. Control of ISS USOS (US Segment) operations has been transferred to the BCC (Backup Control Center) at MSFC-Huntsville which has voice and command/telemetry capability for the US systems via S-band with single-string capability (no backup) and “cold” sparing (i.e., requiring time for repair turn-around). Columbus and Kibo/JEM are in Safe mode or powered down for the duration of BCC mode. The crew’s timeline for today and the next few days do not include activities that need significant interaction with US ground specialists.

Progress Docking: Progress M-65/30P is currently “holding” in orbit on its Flight Day 4. Docking, originally scheduled yesterday, has been deferred until Wednesday (9/17), see new timeline below.

On-orbit activities today are expected to include the following tasks (pending confirmation of execution):

• Part 1 of Gregory Chamitoff’s fourth session with the NASA/JSC experiment NUTRITION w/Repository, for blood collection only, for which he had to forego exercising and food intake since yesterday for eight hours. Later today, the FE-2 would set up the equipment for the 24-hour urine collections which start with the first void early tomorrow morning. [After performing self-phlebotomy, i.e., drawing blood samples (from an arm vein), the samples are first allowed to coagulate in the Repository for 20-30 minutes, then spun in the HRF RC (Human Research Facility/Refrigerated Centrifuge) and finally placed in MELFI (Minus-Eighty Laboratory Freezer for ISS). No thruster activity is allowed during the blood drawing. The RC will later be powered off after a temperature reset to limit wear on the compressor, and cleaned. The NUTRITION project is the most comprehensive in-flight study done by NASA to date of human physiologic changes during long-duration space flight. It includes measures of bone metabolism, oxidative damage, nutritional assessments, and hormonal changes, expanding the previous Clinical Nutritional Assessment profile (MR016L) testing in three ways: Addition of in-flight blood & urine collection (made possible by supercold MELFI dewars), normative markers of nutritional assessment, and a return session plus 30-day (R+30) session to allow evaluation of post-flight nutrition and implications for rehabilitation.]

• Thorough interior cleaning of the station’s living areas, a 3-hr. job performed regularly every week. ["Uborka", usually done on Saturdays, includes removal of food waste products, cleaning of compartments with vacuum cleaner, damp cleaning of the SM (Service Module) dining table, other frequently touched surfaces and surfaces where trash is collected, as well as the FE’s sleep station with a standard cleaning solution; also, fan screens and grilles are cleaned to avoid temperature rises. Special cleaning is also done every 90 days on the HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) bacteria filters in the Lab.]

• Included in the house cleaning usually is a maintenance inspection & cleaning on fan grilles/screens in the FGB (TsV1), SM (VPkhO, VPrK, FS5, FS6 & FS9), DC1 “Pirs” (V3), as well as in the COL (Columbus Orbital Laboratory).

• Routine daily servicing of the SOZh system (Environment Control & Life Support System, ECLSS) in the SM, including checking the Russian POTOK-150MK (150 micron) air filter unit of the SM’s SOGS air revitalization subsystem, gathering weekly data on total operating time & “On” durations for reporting to TsUP-Moscow. [Regular daily SOZh maintenance consists, among else, of checking the ASU toilet facilities, replacement of the KTO & KBO solid waste containers and replacement of EDV-SV waste water and EDV-U urine containers.]

• Filling out the regular FFQ (Food Frequency Questionnaire) by Chamitoff, his twelfth, on the MEC (Medical Equipment Computer). [On the FFQs, NASA astronauts keep a personalized log of their nutritional intake over time on special MEC software. Recorded are the amounts consumed during the past week of such food items as beverages, cereals, grains, eggs, breads, snacks, sweets, fruit, beans, soup, vegetables, dairy, fish, meat, chicken, sauces & spreads, and vitamins. The FFQ is performed once a week to estimate nutrient intake from the previous week and to give recommendations to ground specialists that help maintain optimal crew health. Weekly estimation has been verified to be reliable enough that nutrients do not need to be tracked daily.]

• Conducting the crewmembers’ regular 2.5-hr. physical workout program (about half of which is used for setup & post-exercise personal hygiene) on the CEVIS cycle ergometer, TVIS treadmill, RED resistive exercise device, and VELO bike with bungee cord load trainer. Exercise data files are later transferred to the MEC laptop by Kononenko for downlink, including the daily wristband HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) data of the workouts on RED, followed by their erasure on the HRM storage medium (done six times a week).

• As generally every day now, starting at ~9:00am and running until 3:00pm, the US CDRA (Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly) is activated intermittently for two half-cycles to control ppCO2 levels. This configuration for the daily ops does not require connecting & disconnecting the ITCS cooling loop. [A forward plan is in work for cycling the CSV (CO2 Selector Valve) to prevent its sticking. CDRA remains “yellow” on the ISS critical systems list.]

• In addition, routine uplinks & comm exchanges from TsUP-Moscow with the ISS RS (Russian Segment) during RGS (Russian Groundsite) comm passes are continuing. On a daily basis, they include –
  • SM power bus checks,
  • SD (Smoke Detector) tests,
  • IP-1 Air Flow Sensor tests,
  • Onboard time check & synchronization via Regul uplink,
  • State Vector update,
  • Activation/deactivation of KOB1(2) if temperatures on any of the SM batteries exceed op limits,
  • Activation/deactivation of FGB UPLU (program-logic control assembly),
  • TVM (terminal computer system) checks via data dumps,
  • Soyuz BILU (linear accelerometer) test, and
  • Uplinks to the Russian SPP (automated timeline sequencer) and other sequencers for special events such as SM & FGB battery moding.

Timeline for Progress 30P Rendezvous & Docking on 9/17 (all times EDT):

• Correction burn DV5 (4.00 m/s) 3:22pm (9/16)
• ISS attitude handover to RS 11:10am (9/17)
• ISS mnvr to dock attitude 12:20pm
• Progress Kurs-A Activation (T1) 1:08:30pm
• SM Kurs-P Activation (T1) 1:10 :30pm
• Good Kurs-P data at 80 km 1:34:24pm
• Kurs-A/Kurs-P Short Test @ 15km 1:55pm
• Range = 9km – VHF-2 activation 2:00pm
• Range = 8km – Progress TV act . 2:00:44pm
• AR&D Flyaround mode start 2:17:17pm
• AR&D Stationkeeping start 2:26:17pm
• AR&D Final Approach start 2:34pm
• Local Sunrise 2:35:46pm
• RGS AOS 2:41pm
• 30P Docking at SM aft port 2:43pm
• Local Sunset 3:04pm
• ISS attitude handover to USOS 4:30pm.

No Weekly Science Summary available yet for Week 21.

No CEO (Crew Earth Observations) photo targets uplinked for today.

CEO photography can be studied at this “Gateway” website:
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov (as of 3/1/08, this database contained 757,605 views of the Earth from space, with 314,000 from the ISS alone).

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 8:53am EDT [= epoch]):
Mean altitude — 353.0 km
Apogee height — 357.7 km
Perigee height — 348.3 km
Period — 91.60 min.
Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
Eccentricity — 0.0006989
Solar Beta Angle — 49.2 deg (magnitude increasing)
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.72
Mean altitude loss in the last 24 hours — 35 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 56243

Significant Events Ahead (all dates Eastern Time, some changes possible.):
09/17/08 — Progress M-65/30P docking (~2:43pm EDT)
09/29/08 — ATV de-orbit (nighttime re-entry for observation from 2 NASA planes; 9:12pm)
10/01/08 — NASA 50 Years (official)
10/10/08 — STS-125/Atlantis Hubble Space Telescope Service Mission 4 (SM4) 12:33am
10/11/08 — Progress M-65/30P undocking (from SM aft)
10/12/08 — Soyuz TMA-13/17S launch (~3:03am EDT; Lonchakov, Fincke, Garriott)
10/14/08 — Soyuz TMA-13/17S docking (FGB nadir port, ~4:51am)
10/23/08 — Soyuz TMA-12/16S undocking (DC1 nadir) & landing
11/12/08 — STS-126/Endeavour/ULF2 launch – MPLM Leonardo, LMC
11/14/08 — STS-126/Endeavour/ULF2 docking
11/20/08 — ISS 10 Years
11/25/08 — Progress M-65/30P undocking & deorbit
11/26/08 — Progress M-66/31P launch
11/30/08 — Progress M-66/31P docking
02/09/09 — Progress M-66/31P undocking & deorbit
02/10/09 — Progress M-67/32P launch
02/12/09 — Progress M-67/32P docking
02/12/09 — STS-119/Discovery/15A launch – S6 truss segment
02/14/09 — STS-119/Discovery/15A docking
02/24/09 — STS-119/Discovery/15A undocking
02/26/09 — STS-119/Discovery/15A landing (nominal)
03/25/09 — Soyuz TMA-14/18S launch
03/27/09 – Soyuz TMA-14/18S docking (DC1)
04/05/09 — Soyuz TMA-13/17S undocking
04/07/09 — Progress M-67/32P undocking & deorbit
05/15/09 — STS-127/Endeavour/2J/A launch – JEM EF, ELM-ES, ICC-VLD
05/25/09 — Soyuz TMA-15/19S launch
05/27/09 — Six-person crew on ISS (following Soyuz 19S docking)
07/30/09 — STS-128/Atlantis/17A – MPLM(P), last crew rotation
10/15/09 — STS-129/Discovery/ULF3 – ELC1, ELC2
12/10/09 — STS-130/Endeavour/20A – Node-3 + Cupola
02/11/10 — STS-131/Atlantis/19A – MPLM(P)
04/08/10 — STS-132/Discovery/ULF4 – ICC-VLD, MRM1
05/31/10 — STS-133/Endeavour/ULF5 – ELC3, ELC4 (contingency).