Status Report

NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 27 Jul 2003

By SpaceRef Editor
July 27, 2003
Filed under , , ,
NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 27 Jul 2003
iss

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below.  Day 94 in space for the Expedition 7 crew.  Sunday — second crew rest day of this weekend.  Ahead: Week 13 of Increment 7.

CDR Yuri Malenchenko collected the weekly data readings of the Service Module (SM)’s toilet flush counter readings (with inspection of the SP urine collection and pretreat assembly) and SVO water supply status counter readings, both for calldown to MCC-M/TsUP.

Malenchenko also conducted the periodic inspection of the Elektron oxygen generator’s VM gas/liquid system for obstructing air bubbles.

The CDR then performed the periodic inspection and a functional test of the BRPK-1 air/liquid condensate separator in the SM.

FE/SO Ed Lu prepared the daily delta file for automatic export/import to update the IMS (inventory management system) database.

Malenchenko attended to his regular daily checkup of his BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (“Plants-2”) experiment which investigates growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions in the SM’s Lada-2 greenhouse.

Both crewmembers worked out in their daily 2.5-h program of physical exercise, on TVIS treadmill and RED expander.

The crew had their the weekly PFCs (private family conferences), via S-band/audio and Ku-band/video.

Working off his Russian task list, the CDR today had the second photography session for the Diatomeya ocean observations program.  [Today’s observations again presented an opportunity to investigate bioproductive waters in areas well covered by ship-based observations, namely, the areas in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean featuring pronounced temperature gradients.  Photos were to be taken of sea bloom features and anomalies of the cloud cover over today’s targets, viz., the dynamically active waters in the Indian Ocean along the SE coast of Africa, and the Atlantic around the Antilles.]

Today’s CEO (crew earth observation) targets, no longer limited in the current LVLH attitude and including the targets of the Lewis & Clark 200-year memorial locations, were Chicago, Illinois (CITY AT NIGHT – The windy city lay just left of track as ISS approached from the NW), Salt Lake City, Utah (CITY AT NIGHT – On this nice, clear pass, the city lay just right of track), Dallas, Texas (CITY AT NIGHT – Looking for “Big D” and “Cow Town” to the left of track), Bogotá, Colombia (CITY AT NIGHT – Clouds should have been less of a problem at night.  The crew had a near-nadir pass over the Colombian Capital), Macau, China (CREW SITE – Weather was “iffy” but the crew had a near-nadir pass), Xianggang [Hong Kong], China (weather is slowly improving after Typhoon Imbudo.  ISS had a nadir pass immediately after Macau), Cape Town, South Africa (weather should hold off just long enough for a good view of this historic, coastal city.  Looking just left of track as ISS approached the coast from the SW), Johannesburg, South Africa (fine, dry weather prevails over interior South Africa.  Looking for this large industrial center just left of track), Angolan Biomass Burning (a nice, long clear pass for mapping fire locations and burn scar patterns with near-nadir views), Patagonian Glaciers (this was probably the crew’s last opportunity for a while to document the small, east-slope glaciers of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field under winter conditions.  Trying for nadir views with the long lenses), Shanghai, China (CITY AT NIGHT – This mega city on the south side of the Yangtze Delta lay just left of track as ISS tracked northeastward), High Central Andean Glaciers (this target offers few opportunities because of frequent cloud cover.  Trying for nadir views, with the long lenses, of the small vanishing ice fields and glaciers where visible), Lahore, Pakistan (CITY AT NIGHT  ISS tracked southeastward, directly over the Pakistani capital), and Jakarta, Indonesia (CITY AT NIGHT – ISS approach was from the NW.  Looking just left of track for this large city on the north-facing coast).
CEO images can be viewed at the websites

See also the website “Space Station Challenge” at
http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/

SpaceRef staff editor.