NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 14 September 2008

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Sunday – off-duty day for CDR Volkov, FE-1 Kononenko & FE-2 Chamitoff. Ahead: Week 22 of Increment 17.

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

Gregory Chamitoff starting out on Part 2 of his session with the NASA/JSC experiment NUTRITION w/Repository. This is an all-day session, the fourth for Greg, of collecting urine samples several times for 24 hrs through first void tomorrow morning, labeling each sample and storing it in the MELFI (Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for the ISS), Dewar 1/Tray B. [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.]

Sergey Volkov performing the routine daily servicing of the SOZh system (Environment Control & Life Support System, ECLSS) in the SM (Service Module), including the weekly collection of the toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings for calldown 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.]

Checkups by the CDR today also include 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.

For Oleg Kononenko, the Russian discretionary “time permitting” task list called for another run of the Russian DZZ-2 "Diatomeya" ocean observations program on, using the NIKON-F5 DCS still camera with f85mm lens and the HDV camcorder from SM window #7 to record color field patterns in target water areas and current atmospheric conditions above them. [Uplinked target zones in the Atlantic Ocean were the Argentine shelf to the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) and in the Pacific Ocean the area west of the Peru-Chile coast.]

Also on the at-crew’s-discretion task list for the FE-1 was the regular status check of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 ("Plants-2") experiment which researches growth and development of plants (barley) under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-13 greenhouse from IBMP (Institute of Bio-Medical Problems {Russian: IMBP}).

The crew completed their regular daily 2.5-hr. physical workout program (about half of which is used for setup & post-exercise personal hygiene) on the TVIS treadmill (CDR, FE-1, FE-2), RED resistive exercise device (CDR, FE-1, FE-2), and VELO bike with bungee cord load trainer (CDR, FE-1).

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.]

Progress Docking: Progress M-65/30P is currently “holding” in orbit on its Flight Day 5. Docking, originally scheduled on 9/12, has been deferred until Wednesday (9/17), see new timeline below.

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 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, 9:12am 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 — 0.0006988
Solar Beta Angle — 51.4 deg (magnitude increasing)
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.72
Mean altitude loss in the last 24 hours — 22 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 56259

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).