NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 10 October 2004

SpaceRef note: This NASA Headquarters internal status report, as presented here, contains additional, original material produced by SpaceRef.com (copyright © 2004) to enhance access to related status reports and NASA activities.

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below.   Penultimate Sunday for the crew aboard ISS and off duty for the day.  Ahead: Week 24 of Increment 9.  Day 174 in space for Expedition 9; also Day 1408 of permanent human station residency, and Day 2153 since first ISS launch (FGB/Zarya)

CDR Gennady Padalka conducted the routine inspection of the SM’s environment control & life support system (SOZh), with the weekly data collection of toilet flush counter readings, inspection of the SP urine collection and pretreat assembly, and SVO water supply status counter readings, all for calldown to TsUP/Moscow.

Afterwards, Padalka set up the equipment for the Russian MedOps biochemical blood test MO-11, consisting of the Reflotron IV analyzer, with accessories,  power supply and Reflotron IV kit.  He also prepared equipment for blood collection and dosing as well as test strips for investigating blood components such as hemoglobin, glucose, bilirubin, aspirate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and glutamiltransferase.  After connecting it to the power supply and performing a calibration run, he deactivated the instrument and left it fully configured at the work site until tomorrow morning.   [Gennady will undergo the 2.5-hr. tests tomorrow (10/11), preceded by imbibing 250 ml of warm water or plain (unsugared) tea 20 minutes before taking the blood samples.]

The regular Russian pre-return bio experiment MBI-4 “Farma” is scheduled for 10/12.  Because of this, the CDR was asked to temporarily stop ingesting any pharmacological substances that could distort the assessment.   [Farma (“pharma”) researches particulars of pharmacological effects under long-duration space flight conditions, involving onboard analysis of blood and saliva samples after taking specific drugs, e.g., Efferalgan from the Saliva-F kit].
 

FE/SO Michael Fincke held a private family conference (PFC) via S-band/audio and Ku-band/NetMeeting video.
 

Working off the Russian task list, Padalka conducted the periodic inspection of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (“Plants-2”) experiment which researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-5 greenhouse.

A second task-listed job for Gennady was another run of the Uragan earth-imaging program, using the Kodak 760 DSC (digital still camera) with 800mm-lens.  [Today’s task featured imagery of the Karaganda-Temirtau area at nadir, dust storms over the Aral Sea, the Toktogul reservoir, the cities of Cardiff, Bristol and London, plus the Thames River estuary, in Great Britain, the cities of Makhachkala and Kaspiisk, and the environment of the Khazar oil field.]
 

Both crewmembers completed their daily 2.5-hr. aerobic/anaerobic workout program on TVIS treadmill, RED exerciser and VELO cycle with bungee cord load trainer.
 

Yesterday, the U.S. CDRA (carbon dioxide removal assembly) in the Lab experienced a hardware failure.  Preliminary analysis shows that a check valve for bed #2 did not seat correctly.  The FDIR (failure detection, isolation & recovery) system took correct action by failing the CDRA when the valve did not operate properly.  Currently, the plan is to start up the CDRA using only one of the two beds, then run the system in this configuration for 24 hours as a test.  Since CDRA will be used during the upcoming docked operations, its performance is of prime interest.
 

Soyuz 9S (Expedition 10+1) flight plan (Leroy Chiao, Salizhan Sharipov, Yuri Shargin):

• Launch — 10/13 (Wed), 11:06pm ET;
• Start Flyaround — 10/16 (Sat), 11:58pm;
• Final Approach — 10/17 (Sun), 00:15am;
• Docking — 10/17 (Sun), 00:25am.

 
Soyuz 8S (Expedition 9+1) flight plan (Gennady Padalka, Michael Fincke, Yuri Shargin):

• Undocking from FGB — 10/23 (Sat), 5:12pm ET;
• Sep Burn #1 — 10/23, 5:15pm;
• Deorbit Burn — 10/23, 7:39pm;
• Atmospheric Entry — 10/23, 8:08pm;
• Landing — 10/23, 8:32pm.

CEO images can be viewed at these websites:

• http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
• http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

See also the website “Space Station Challenge” at:

• http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/

To view the latest photos taken by the expedition 9 crew visit:

• http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-9/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.

Expedition 9 Flight Crew Plans can be found at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/timelines/

Previous NASA ISS On-orbit Status Reports can be found here. Previous NASA Space Station Status Reports can be found here. Previous NASA Space Shuttle Processing Status Reports can be found here. A collection of all of these reports and other materials relating to Return to Flight for the Space Shuttle fleet can be found here.

ISS Altitude History

Apogee height — Mean Altitude — Perigee height

For more on ISS orbit and worldwide ISS naked-eye visibility dates/times, see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html. In addition, information on International Space Station sighting opportunities can be found at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ on NASA’s Human Spaceflight website. The current location of the International Space Station can be found at http://science.nasa.gov/temp/StationLoc.html at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Additional satellite tracking resources can be found at http://www.spaceref.com/iss/tracking.html.