NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 29 January 2006

  SpaceRef note: This NASA Headquarters internal status report, as presented here, contains additional, original material produced by SpaceRef.com (copyright © 2006) 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 Bill McArthur and Valery Tokarev, except for housekeeping and voluntary work. Ahead: Week 17 for Expedition 12.

Onboard sleep cycle continues to be shifted a total of 7 hours to the right (wake up 8:00am EST, sleep at 11:30pm), to prepare the crew for next week s EVA-15 spacewalk (which begins at ~5:26pm EST).

FE Tokarev performed the daily routine maintenance of the Service Module (SM)’s environment control & life support system (SOZh), including its toilet system (ASU), as well as the weekly collection of the toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings for calldown to TsUP/Moscow.

Valery also worked on his Orlan suit #27, restoring its white arm lacing ( shnur ).

CDR/SO McArthur ran another periodic atmospheric status check for ppO2 (Partial Pressure Oxygen) and ppCO2 (pp Carbon Dioxide), using the CSA-O2 (Compound Specific Analyzer-Oxygen Sensor).  [Over the last month, ground engineers have noticed a discrepancy between the SM GA (Gas Analyzer) ppCO2 reading and that of the MCA (Major Constituents Analyzer). In order to help assess the situation, TsUP-Moscow had the Soyuz GA powered on to get another sensor’s readings. McArthur used the CDMK (CO2 Monitoring Kit) for the same reasons. In addition to the ppCO2 issue described above, there appears to be also a trending apart of the MCA ppO2 value and the CSA-CP O2 sensor value. Therefore, starting on 1/26, the CDR also is taking daily CDMK and CSA-O2 readings to assist in evaluating these trends. Both MCC-H and TsUP are evaluating these issues. Despite the discrepancies, the atmosphere on ISS is considered in a safe configuration.]

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

Later today, the FE will check the operation of the Japanese experiment GCF-JAXA (Granada Crystallization Facility) in the Russian TBU incubator, maintained at 20 degC, including a temperature check on its ART (automatic temperature recorder).  [This daily monitoring/temp checking, carried on the Russian voluntary “time available” task list, will continue until 4/30.]

A second discretionary task on the Russian work list for Tokarev today is to perform the daily status check and the regular periodic download of data & imagery collected of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (“Plants-2”) experiment to the computer for subsequent downlink to the ground.  [Rasteniya researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-8 greenhouse. The regular maintenance of the experiment (each Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) involves monitoring of seedling growth, humidity measurements, moistening of the substrate if necessary, topping off the water tank if ~20-25% of the total amount (4 liters) remains, and photo/video recording. Once weekly, data from the Lada greenhouse control unit are recorded on floppy disk for weekly downlink via REGUL-Packet or the new BSR-TM at a suitable occasion

No CEO (Crew Earth Observation) photo targets uplinked today.

Over 177,000 of CEO (Crew Earth Observation) images have been taken in the first five years of the ISS.

Events Ahead (all dates Eastern; tentative):

• 01/31/06 — Orlan spacesuit dry run
• 02/03/06 — Russian EVA-15
• 02/11/06 — ISS Reboost Test (in MMOD avoidance mode)
• 03/03/06 — Progress M-54/19P undocking & reentry
• 03/30/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S launch (Exp. 13 + Marcos Pontes/Brazil)
• 04/01/06 — Soyuz TMA-8/12S docking (DC1)
• 04/24/06 — Progress M-56/21P launch
• 04/26/06 — Progress M-56/21P docking
• 06/19/06 — Progress M-55/20P undocking & reentry.

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.