NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 21 June 2009

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below.   Sunday – off-duty day for CDR Gennady Padalka (Russia), FE-1 Michael Barratt (USA), FE-2 Koichi Wakata (Japan), FE-3 Roman Romanenko (Russia), FE-4 Robert Thirsk (Canada) and FE-5 Frank DeWinne (Belgium). Ahead: Week 4 of Increment 20.   Happy Birthday, Gennady!

DeWinne finished up his second session with the NASA/JSC experiment NUTRITION w/Repository, ending his urine collection this morning (on or after 6:00am EDT), with samples stored in the MELFI (Minus-Eighty Laboratory Freezer for ISS) for return to Earth.  Frank’s next Nutrition activity is the FD60 session. [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.]

FE-3 Romanenko performed the routine daily servicing of the SOZh system (Environment Control & Life Support System, ECLSS) in the SM, including the weekly collection of the toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings for calldown to TsUP-Moscow.

Roman also checked up on 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.]

In addition, FE-3 did the periodic checkup behind ASU panel 139 in the SM on a fluid connector (MNR-NS) of the SM-U urine collection system, looking for potential moisture.

FE-5 DeWinne mated the ITCS MTL (Internal Thermal Control System Moderate Temperature Loop) return umbilical with QD (Quick Disconnect) at the Lab CHeCS (Crew Health Care System) rack UIP (Utility Interface Panel) to provide cooling to the rack.

Padalka completed the frequent status check on the Russian BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 ("Plants-2") experiment, verifying proper operation of the BU Control Unit and MIS-LADA Module fans (testing their air flow by hand). The CDR also performed the frequent photos of the plants in the greenhouse, using the Nikon D2Х photo camera with F=17-55 mm lens for subsequent downlink via OCA. [Rasteniya-2 researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions in the LADA-15 greenhouse from Moscow’s IBMP (Institute of Bio-Medical Problems, Russian: IMBP).]

The CDR also performed the regular inspection of the 4GB4 hydraulic unit of the KOB-2 (Loop 2) of the Russian SOTR Thermal Control System, checking for presence of coolant fluid. [On 5/19, the CDR had replaced a pump unit of the 4SPN1 replaceable pump panel at this location.]

All crewmembers had their weekly PFC (Private Family Conference), via S-band/audio and Ku-band/MS-NetMeeting application (which displays the uplinked ground video on an SSC laptop), Gennady at ~6:10am, Roman at ~7:35am, Bob at ~10:25am, Koichi at ~12:45am, Mike at ~3:30pm, Frank at ~5:05pm EDT.

The crew completed their regular daily 2.5-hr. physical workout program on the CEVIS cycle ergometer (FE-1, FE-2, FE-4, FE-5), TVIS treadmill with vibration isolation (CDR, FE-3), ARED advanced resistive exercise device (FE-1, FE-2, FE-4, FE-5) and VELO cycle ergometer with bungee cord load trainer (CDR, FE-3).   [On the CEVIS, the actual loads remain slightly lower than the commanded loads, but this was expected. A manual correction of the pertinent calibration coefficient via the control panel touch screen will be done at a later time when the new value has been determined.]

No CEO photo targets uplinked for today.

CEO photography can be studied at this “Gateway” website:
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov (as of 9/1/08, this database contained 770,668 views of the Earth from space, with 324,812 from the ISS alone).

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 4:57am EDT [= epoch])
Mean altitude — 347.8 km
Apogee height – 353.6 km
Perigee height — 342.0 km
Period — 91.49 min.
Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
Eccentricity — 0.0008656
Solar Beta Angle — 1.9 deg (magnitude bottoming out)
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.74
Mean altitude loss in the last 24 hours — 76 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 60661