Status Report

NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 30 Jan 2004

By SpaceRef Editor

January 30, 2004

Filed under ISS, ISS On-orbit status, NASA HQ, US

NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 30 Jan 2004 — iss

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below. At 9:16am EST today, in commemoration of Columbia and her crew, NASA/JSC observed a moment of silence with a missing-man fly over.

Progress 13P (M1-11 or No. 260) is closing in for tomorrow morning’s rendezvous and docking. Capture at the Service Module (SM) aft end port is scheduled for 8:18am EST. [Maneuver burn DV3 was performed this morning at 7:49am. Maneuver burn DV4 burn will be at 6:08 am, followed by Progress Kurs-A activation and self-test at 6:32am, and DV5 burn at 6:54am. As Kurs-A and Kurs-P (on SM) confer and “compare notes”, three successive braking burns lead into flyaround mode (400 m), stationkeeping (170 m), final approach (11:30p), and docking (8:18am).]

In preparation for the critical arrival, at 3:15am this morning the crew conducted a 3-hr. training course on the TORU teleoperated control system for Progress. [With the manual TORU mode, FE Alexander Kaleri can perform necessary guidance functions from the SM via two hand controllers in the event of a failure of the “Kurs” automated rendezvous and docking (AR&D) of the Progress. 92 min after the failed docking, Sasha would control the cargo ship’s motions from a control panel, viewing the approach to the ISS on the Simvol-TS screen as seen by the Klest-M television camera mounted on the Progress. Remote TORU control from the ground is not available at this point. Today’s training covered a review of the applicable data files, math modeling of the rendezvous, and a consultation with a ground instructor via UHF and S-band. Simulated were all phases of rendezvous, flyaround, final approach and docking, plus off-nominal situations like no comm in the SM-to-12P or 12P-to-SM channels, loss of TV feed, display format hang-up on the SM’s Simvol-TS screen, and docking failure in TORU before capture.]

FE Alexander Kaleri conducted his regular weekly IMS (inventory management system) tagup with IMS specialists at MCC-M, discussing open issues concerning identification of equipment and storage locations for the IMS databases.

CDR/SO Michael Foale activated the MSG (Microgravity Science Glovebox) and performed the first three steps of setting up the PromISS-2 (Protein Crystal Growth Monitoring by Digital Holographic Microscope 2) experiment. MSG was then deactivated again. [He installed the PromISS Experiment Box, Electronics Box, MSG Camera, and made the cable connections. The remainder of the setup and activation is scheduled for Sunday, 2/1. An additional 20 minutes was added to today’s activity and the remainder of Mike’s PromISS activities has been increased.]

Kaleri conducted the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh life support system and prepared the daily IMS (inventory management system) “delta” file for automatic export/import to update the database, while Foale completed the regular routine status checkup of the autonomous Increment 8 payloads in the Lab.

In preparation for the arrival of Progress 13P with ESA experiments, the FE activated the AKVARIUS (AQUA-A) incubator equipment.

Also in preparation of the docking, CDR Foale set up the TV system, linked from the Russian segment (RS) to the U.S. assets for downlink of the video imagery via Ku-band.

Yesterday, the ground completed an external video survey of the ISS with the SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System). The survey was recorded on board and will be downlinked. Ground specialists will assess the video.

Sasha took the periodic reading of the cabin air’s current CO2 partial pressure in the SM, using the U.S. CDMK (CO2 monitor kit), for calldown to MCC-Houston (along with the battery status) for use in trending analyses. The CDMK was then restowed at the SM Central Post.

A 6-page list of Progress 13P cargo items, with stowage information and a detailed unloading sequence, was uplinked to the crew.

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:17am EST [= epoch]):