NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 16 January 2005

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. Sunday — second crew off day.

Right after breakfast early in the morning, FE Salizhan Sharipov terminated the bake-out cycle on the BMP micropurification system’s channel 2, moding it back to Purify. This restored both filter beds to Purify mode. Afterwards, the Elektron O2 generator was turned back on. [The regeneration of the air purifier filter beds is repeated every 20 days. Each bake-out to space vacuum takes about 24 hours.]

CDR Leroy Chiao disconnected the UOP/DCP (utility outlet panel/display & control panel) power bypass cable at the RWS (robotics workstation).

Leroy also did the routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh environment control & life support system, including ASU toilet facilities and the weekly routine tasks of collecting SP toilet flush counter and SVO water supply readings in the SM for calldown to TsUP/Moscow.

The crew performed their daily 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on TVIS treadmill, RED exerciser and VELO cycle with bungee cord load trainer. Salizhan’s daily protocol currently prescribes a four-day microcycle exercise with 1.5 hr on the TVIS (today: Day 2 of a new set) and one hour on VELO.

Chiao then transferred the daily TVIS and RED exercise data files to the MEC (medical equipment computer) for downlink, as well as the daily wristband HRM (heart rate monitor) data, followed by their erasure on the HRM storage medium.

Working off the voluntary Russian task list, Sharipov performed the regular daily 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.

Salizhan’s task list also included the downlinking of previous and current BRI (Russian segment OpsLAN/Ethernet SmartSwitch) configuration files for review.

At ~11:20am, Leroy had his weekly PFC (private family conference) via S-band/audio and Ku-band/NetMeeting video.

Yesterday’s station reboost was successfully executed. Actual delta-V performance was 5.2 m/s, which gave the ISS an increase in altitude of 8.9 km, instead of planned 5 m/s (8.5 km). The burn was started at 10:10am EST, with a duration of ~20 min 10 sec. All systems worked nominally, and the slight overburn of ~5% is of no concern. [The main purpose of the burn was to set up the proper trajectory for the launch and rendezvous of Progress 17 in late February. The trajectory is nominal, and the next reboost is not expected until late March.]

The ground has uplinked information on two “lost” CDRA (carbon dioxide removal assembly) CO2 selector valves that are to support possible scenarios regarding contingency Shuttle crew support. The uplink was just a reminder for the crew to “keep a lookout” for them. [The valves were launched on 6S/Soyuz in May of 2003 and stowed at a TBD location.]

Current station attitude is earth-oriented LVLH TEA (local vertical local horizontal, torque equilibrium attitude) Momentum Management, to be maintained until tomorrow (1/17) for the GNC MDM (guidance, navigation & control computer) swap.

A preliminary timeline for the Orlan EVA-12 from the DC1 docking compartment was uplinked to the crew. The spacewalk on 1/26 is currently expected to begin with hatch opening at 2:27am EST and to last for ~5h 24m (hatch closing ~7:51am). [Objectives of the spacewalk are: Installation of the transferable Universal Work Platform (URM-D) with baseplate (FP-20) on Service Module (SM) Working Compartment (RO), installation of a robotic device on URM-D, transfer of MPAC&SEED hardware panel #3 to the location of panel #2, installation of a / S device in place of the MPAC&SEED panel #3, routing of a cable to connect the / S device between the FP30 and FP3 baseplates, routing a cable to connect the robotic device between the FP2 and FP20 baseplates, installation of the BIORISK-MSN payload on the DC1, and Inspection and photography of gas vent nozzle extenders of the Elektron-VM (Zl 204), Vozdukh (SVM 15), and BMP (SVM 39).]

Upcoming Key Events:

• EVA-12 — 1/26/05 (Eastern)
• Progress 16P undocking & destructive reentry — 2/27/05;
• Progress 17P launch — 2/28/05.
• EVA-13 — 3/25/05;
• Soyuz 10 S launch — 4/15/05;
• Soyuz 9S undock — 4/25/05 (after 193 days on orbit, 191 days on board ISS).

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 10 crew visit:

• http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-10/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.

Expedition 10 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.