NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 12 June 2005

SpaceRef note: This NASA Headquarters internal status report, as presented here, contains additional, original material produced by SpaceRef.com (copyright © 2005) to enhance access to related status reports and NASA activities.

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Sunday — off-duty day for Sergei Krikalev & John Phillips, except for some housekeeping and voluntary tasks. Ahead: Week 8 for Increment 11.

As part of regular morning inspection after wakeup, CDR Krikalev did the weekly checkup behind panel 139 in the Service Module (SM) on a fluid connector of the urine collection system, looking for potential moisture.

The crew completed the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh environment control & life support system, today including the weekly collection of the toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings for calldown to TsUP/Moscow.

At his discretion for today, Sergei Krikalev had three tasks on his “time permitting” work list. The first was another session with the “Uragan” (hurricane) earth-imaging program, focusing the Nikon D1X No. 3 digital camera with 800-mm lens on targets called out on an uplinked list. [Today’s targets included the extensive lake system of the Kumo-Manych depression in Kalmykia and a proximity series of overlapping shots, ‘Berov Mounds’ to the west of Astrakhan and the seaside section of the Volga delta, oil field infrastructure at the root section of Mangyshlak Peninsula, and roads and pipelines following the Caspian sea shoreline to Kara-Bogoz-Gol bay.]

Also off the task list, Sergei conducted another run of the “Diatomeya” ocean observations program, using the DSR PD-150P video camera on SM window #7 and Nikon F5 digital still camera with 24/85-mm lens from window #8 to obtain data characterizing the North Atlantic polar front and largest oceanic upheavals distinguished by high biological productivity of water, showing algae blooms (swirls, bands, spots) and cloud anomalies in the target areas. [Today’s observations of the North Atlantic focused on Newfoundland, the North polar front region, the English Channel, the Canadian coast, the Gulf Stream delta, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the coast of Portugal, the Grand Banks, and offshore areas of Africa.]

As a third “job jar” suggestion, the CDR conducted the regular daily inspection of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 experiment, including filling its water canister as required. [Rasteniya (“plants”) researches growth and development of plants (currently horse radish) under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-7 greenhouse.]

Both crewmembers conducted their regular 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on the TVIS treadmill, RED resistive machine and VELO bike with bungee cord load trainer. [Sergei’s daily protocol prescribes a strict four-day microcycle exercise with 1.5 hr on the treadmill and one hour on VELO plus load trainer (today: Day 4 of a new set).]

No CEO (crew earth observations) photo targets today.

CEO photography can be viewed and studied at the websites:

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

See also the website “Space Station Challenge” at:

• http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/

To view the latest photos taken by the expedition 11 crew visit:

• http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-11/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.

Expedition 11 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 Orbit (as of this morning, 4:29am EDT [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 351.1 km
• Apogee height — 353.9 km
• Perigee height — 348.2 km
• Period — 91.56 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.0004227
• Solar Beta Angle — -3.8 deg (magnitude decreasing)
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.73
• Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 65
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 37492

Some Increment 11 Main Events (not final):

• Progress M-52 (17P) undock — 6/15 (4:13pm EDT);
• Progress M-52 (17P) atmospheric entry — 6/15 (7.51pm EDT);
• Progress M-53 (18P) launch — 6/16 (7:09pm EDT, Baikonur: 6/17, 5:09am)
• Progress M-53 (18P) dock — 6/18 (8:44pm EDT);
• PMA-3 depress — 6/22 (4:50am EDT);
• Reboost — 6/29 (4:21pm, delta-V 2.3 m/s);
• LF-1/STS-114 launch — NET 7/13 (18-day window opens);
• LF-1/STS-114 dock — NET 7/15 (adding 110,713 kg to ISS mass);
• Soyuz TMA-6 (10S) relocate (from DC-1 to FGB) — ~8/16;
• Progress M-54 (19P) launch — 8/24 (dock 8/26);
• ULF1.1/STS-121 launch — NET 9/9 (launch window opens);
• 12A/STS-115 launch — NET 2/16/06;
• 12A.1/STS-116 launch — NET 4/23/06;
• 13A/STS-117 launch — NET 7/13/06.

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.