NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 21 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. >>>Today Expedition 10 completes its 100th day in space, – reason for a great celebration at the legendary “Outpost” near JSC. Congratulations to the crew!<<<

Both crewmembers engaged in a session of MO-5 MedOps/”Cardiovascular Evaluation During Graded Exercises” on the VELO cycle ergometer. Each crewmember in turn assisted the other as CMO (crew medical officer). [The assessment uses the Gamma-1 ECG equipment with biomed harness, skin electrodes and a blood pressure and rheoplethysmograph cuff wired to the cycle ergometer’s instrumentation panels. For the graded exercise, the crewmember works the pedals after a prescribed program at load settings of 125, 150, and 175 watts for three minutes each. All measurements are recorded for downlink to TsUP. As usual, today’s sessions were timed such that they could be supported by tagup with specialists during Russian comm passes via VHF (11:30am/Daily Orbit 13 & 12:05pm/DO 14).]

Onboard, preparations continued for the Orlan EVA-12 on 1/26, all of them normal up to now:

CDR/SO Leroy Chiao and FE Salizhan Sharipov performed another set of pressure leak and valve checks of the Orlan systems, of the BSS spacesuit interface units in the DC1 and PkhO, and of the four BK-3 oxygen repressurization tanks in the DC1.

After setting up communications links, the crew performed checks on Orlan and BSS telemetry, voice, and biomedical parameter transmission, testing the Russian BETA-08 ECG (electrocardiogram) lead cable belts, worn under the Orlan-M suits, for their function, using the Gamma-1M medical complex. Testing of communication links included VHF/voice and biomedical electrode belt and telemetry hookups via the BSS (later by the wireless in-suit Tranzit-B radio telemetry system) for vital signs and equipment monitoring. All activities were supported by tagup with ground specialists.

The crew also mounted US detachable equipment on the Orlan-Ms and conducted an EVA ops sequence review with ground specialists via S-band.

A list of photo targets for the external EVA activities was uplinked by TsUP/Moscow.

Chiao did the routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh environment control & life support system, including ASU toilet system service and replacements.

At ~3:55pm EST the crew is scheduled for their regular (nominally weekly) teleconference with the ISS Flight Director at MCC-H.

Yesterday at ~4:00am EST the ground team monitored another SPE (solar particle event), with radiation levels exceeding 100 pfu (particle flux units) at the 100 MeV energy level. The flux of 100 MeV particles peaked at 652 pfu. During this timeframe the ISS was shielded from the high radiation levels by the Earth’s geomagnetic field. Due to the alignment of this field with the ISS orbital plane, the station is only susceptible to radiation events when it transverses high latitudes (near the poles). The crew was instructed to sleep in the shielded volumes as a precautionary measure in the event the radiation levels increase unexpectedly overnight. [As defined by flight rules, an energetic SPE is one where the >100 MeV protons exceed 1 pfu.]

In preparation for the deployment of the Russian payload ROKVISS on the exterior of the SM during EVA-12, TsUP/Moscow performed the first of two tests of the ROKVISS On Board Computer (OBC). The purpose of the test is to verify redundant command paths. Yesterday, one command path was successfully tested; the second command path will be tested at a later date.

The CMG-2 wheel speed test is continuing. Yesterday, vibration and motor spin current data were collected for several hours at 6723 RPM. The test is going as expected. It will be completed today.

Today’s CEO (crew earth observations) photo targets, no longer limited in the current LVLH attitude, were Tsunami Damage, Eastern Seychelles (Dynamic Event. This overpass provided an opportunity for nadir and oblique (to the left of track) photography of the easternmost islands in the chain. Looking for standing water inland, sediment plumes, and regions of bare soil along the coastlines. Identification of ponded salt water inland is particularly important for assessment of potential groundwater contamination), Nairobi, Kenya (weather was predicted to be clear for urban mapping. Overlapping swaths along the urban-rural fringe are useful for investigation of ecological disturbance resulting from land use change. Mt. Kilimanjaro may also have been visible to the south of Nairobi; a mapping swath from the volcano to Nairobi would be useful for assessment of eruptive hazards associated with Kibo, a relatively young cone located at the top of Kilimanjaro), Glacial features – South Libya (this nadir overpass provides an opportunity for mapping swaths across this region. An ice sheet covered this portion of Libya [and the following target site to the north] approximately 450 million years ago when northern Africa was located at the South Pole. Meltwater from the ice sheet produced channels and deposits that have been exposed by weathering. These relict subglacial river channels are expressed as subtle sinuous features on the landscape. We suggest an overlapping series of images as you pass over the target area; the relict river channels have proven to be difficult to identify in oblique photography), Glacial features – North Libya (the description and science objectives for this site were similar to the preceding target list entry), Internal waves, New Zealand (this overpass provided an opportunity for photography of internal waves. Looking to the right of track; optimal sunglint should be visible along the eastern coastlines of both South and North Island).

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.

Upcoming Key Events:

• EVA-12 — 1/26/05 (hatch opening 2:27am EST)
• 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).

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 6:54am EST [= epoch]):

• Mean altitude — 358.5 km
• Apogee height — 364.7 km
• Perigee height — 352.4 km
• Period — 91.71 min.
• Inclination (to Equator) — 51.65 deg
• Eccentricity — 0.0009095
• Solar Beta Angle — -21.8 deg (magnitude decreasing)
• Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.70
• Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 150
• Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 35262

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.