NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 30 July 2004
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.
At the station, Progress M-49/14P undocked this morning on schedule at 2:05am EDT, with the crew monitoring its departure from the Service Module (SM)’s aft compartment. Separation burn was completed nominally at 2:09am. Later the cargo drone performed its deorbit burn on time (6:39am) for splashdown at 7:25am and now is history.
Today’s crew activities centered on the Russian Orlan-M suit training. After breakfast (2:10am), the crew removed the ventilation air duct extending from the SM through the DC1 docking compartment/airlock to make room for the subsequent suited exercise, and then set up communications links for it.
Donning of the EVA gear began at ~4:30am, after Orlan systems checks and testing of the BSS interface system, with the crewmembers assisting each other during the ingress in the Orlans and closure of their backpacks. [The CDR again is using Orlan #25 (red markings) with BRTA radio telemetry unit #13 installed, while the FE’s suit is #26 (blue markings) with BRTA #18.]
Next came functionality & leak checking of the suits and their BSS controls, preliminary fit checks at 0.4 at (5.9 psi) suit pressure, and one hour of testing/training of suited mobility and translation. Egress from the Orlans was around 6:30am, followed by a two-hour period of post-training closeout activities. [To evaluate Orlan sizing for Mike Fincke during translation exercise in the DC1, TsUP had recommended him to perform specific EVA-10 operations, such as removing the Kromka-3 tablet from the KPU tool carrier, positioning himself along one of the DC1 and unstow a winged knob from the Kromka container in the KPU.]
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Previous Reports ISS On-orbit Status [HQ] |
FE/SO Mike Fincke continued preparations for the spacewalk by starting (later terminating) charging of four NiMH (nickel metal hydride) batteries for the helmet lights (batteries ##1009, 1016, 1018, 1020). His EVA preps today also involved unstowing and configuring the Nikon F5 digital still camera to be used during the spacewalk.
Later, CDR Padalka is to perform the periodic replenishing of the Elektron’s water supply for electrolysis, filling the KOV thermal loops’ EDV container with purified (deionized) water from the BKO multifiltration/purification column unit. [The procedure was specially designed to prevent air bubbles from getting into the BZh liquid unit where they could cause micropump impeller cavitation and Elektron shutdown, as numerous past times. In the procedure, the EDV water is drawn from the BKO and the air/liquid separator unit (GZhS) while the crewmember checks for any air bubbles in the EDV (and, if visible, estimates their number).]
At about 10:00am, the crew is scheduled for their weekly teleconference with the ISS Flight Director at MCC-H.
Mike Fincke will perform the regular once-a-week maintenance power-cycle (reboot) on the operational PCS laptops and also restart the U.S. OCA comm router laptop (every two weeks).
The CDR is to conduct the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh environment control & life support system as well as the preparation of the daily IMS inventory “delta” file, while the FE will do the regular status checkup of the autonomous Lab payloads.
At ~11:40am, Gennady will take the periodic CO2 partial pressure measurements in the SM and Lab using the U.S. CDMK (CO2 monitor kit), for calldown to MCC-Houston (along with the battery status) for use in trending analyses.
Padalka and Fincke will conduct the full regimen of physical exercise on VELO with force loader, RED (resistive exercise device) and TVIS (treadmill with vibration isolation and stabilization).
At ~12:50pm, the crew will entertain an amateur (ham) radio session with VIPs at the Russian Aerospace festival “Let’s Give the Planet to the Kids” at ARTEK International Children’s’ Center. [For today’s event, a gala concert, the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, UNESCO’s Deputy Director General, Mr. Barboza, members of diplomatic corps from over 20 countries, and other high-ranking dignitaries have been invited. Ground contacts include Cosmonaut Anatoly Artsebarsky.].
At ~2:40pm, Mike is also scheduled for a discussion with the ground of the “Saturday Science” program being anticipated for tomorrow.
Major upcoming events:
- EVA timeline review — 8/1;
- OpsLan reconfig, etc. — 8/2;
- Orlan EVA-10 from DC-1 — 8/3 (hatch open: 2:50am EDT);
- EVA debrief, etc. — 8/4;
- Progress 15P launch — 8/11 (1:01am EDT);
- Progress 15P docking — 8/14 (2:05am EDT).
Expedition 9 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.
Today’s CEO photo targets, in the current LVLH attitude no longer limited by flight rule constraints on the use of the Lab nadir/science window, except for the shutter closure and condensation-prevention plan (limited to 90 min. in 24 hours), were Hurricane Darby, E Pacific (looking left about 1.5 degrees towards this Category 1 storm with lightning near the center), Aurora, Australia (looking right), Persian Gulf cities (another pass along the Iranian side of the gulf allowed views of an array of larger and smaller city targets on the Saudi side, right of track. Smaller, low intensity targets are indeed the objects to concentrate on), Muscat, Oman (nadir pass), and Alexandria, Egypt (looking left for the coastal cities. Less than one minute later the Nile valley cities appear left, right and at nadir).
CEO images can be viewed at these websites:
See also the website “Space Station Challenge” at:
To view the latest photos taken by the expedition 9 crew visit:
- http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-9/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.
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ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 12:48am EDT [= epoch]):
- Mean altitude — 357.6 km
- Apogee height — 361.8 km
- Perigee height — 353.4km
- Period — 91.7 min.
- Inclination (to Equator) — 51.63 deg
- Eccentricity — 0.0006206
- Solar Beta Angle — -6.1 deg
- Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.70
- Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 100 m
- Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 32507
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.
