NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 4 June 2005
SpaceRef note: This NASA Headquarters internal status report, as presented here, contains additional, original material produced by SpaceRef.com (copyright © 2005) to enhance access to related status reports and NASA activities.
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Saturday — off-duty day for Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips, except for some housekeeping and voluntary work.
The crew performed the regular weekly 3-hr task of thorough station cleaning, wearing protective garment. [“Uborka”, done every Saturday, includes removal of food waste products, cleaning of compartments with vacuum cleaner, damp cleaning of the Service Module (SM) dining table, other surfaces and the CDR’s sleep station with “Fungistat” disinfectant and cleaning fan screens to avoid temperature rises.]
Later, the CDR did the daily routine maintenance of the Service Module (SM)’s SOZh environment control & life support system, including its ASU toilet system and today also the BRPK air/liquid condensate separator apparatus.
FE/SO Phillips completed the regular weekly maintenance reboot on the operational PCS (Portable Computer System) laptops and the bi-monthly restart of the OCA comm router SSC laptop.
On Sergei’s regular schedule today was a new run of the “Diatomeya” ocean observations program. [During a specific overflight “window”, he took color photography of the dynamic area of the Black Sea with light cloud cover, focusing the Nikon D1X camera with an F=400 mm lens on the delta and runoff area of the Danube River, as well as vortex and mushroom-shaped configurations in Black Sea plankton fields.]
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Working off his voluntary task list, Krikalev conducted another session with the “Uragan” (hurricane) earth-imaging program, focusing the Nikon D1X digital camera with f400 or 800 mm lens from SM window #9 on targets specified by an uplinked list. [Today’s targets included the city of Kaluga and the Oka River, general views of Central Russia, the city of Penza and farm lands to the south of it, the Volga River, Uralsk and oil field infrastructure in nadir, Dzheskazgan quarries, Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan, farm land on the eastern bank of Lake Issyk-Kul, the largest glaciers of Tien-Shan, Minsk, marked by two circular highways, Byelorussia, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the alluvial plain of the Volga after water discharge from reservoirs is completed, Astrakhan, Mangyshlak, Amudaria, and scenic shots when passing over the Himalayas.]
Also on the task list was for Sergei to conduct his second run of the regular monthly sessions of the ETD experiment (Eye Tracking Device, to investigate the coordination of eye and head movements in zero-G). [After a calibration with the calibrating unit, the experiment investigates horizontal eye and head movement coordination, measured Listing’s plane, and determined the orientation of the vestibulo-ocular coordinate system, using five target marks on the horizontal plane. Each step required another prior calibration run, using visual target cues or the calibration unit.]
At ~9:10am EDT, the crew engaged in the regular weekly planning conference (WPC) with the ground, discussing next week’s “Look-Ahead Plan” (prepared jointly by MCC-H and TsUP/Moscow timeline planners), via S-band/audio, reviewing upcoming activities and any concerns about future on-orbit events.
At ~11:05am, John Phillips held his regular weekly private conference with his family (PFC) via S-band/audio and Ku-band/NetMeeting video.
Both crewmembers conducted their daily 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on the TVIS treadmill, RED exerciser and VELO bike with bungee cord load trainer. [After evaluation of data from his exercise run on 6/1, John was cleared for unlimited motorized use of TVIS under elevated load (four-clip bungee config). Speed still should not exceed 6 mph. Daily downloads of his TVIS runs will be continued to further assess the treadmill’s performance. Sergei’s daily protocol prescribes a strict four-day microcycle exercise with 1.5 hr on the treadmill and one hour on VELO plus load trainer (today: Day 4 of a new set).]
Afterwards, the FE transferred the exercise data files to the MEC (medical equipment computer) for downlink, as well as the daily wristband HRM (heart rate monitor) data of the workouts on RED, followed by their erasure on the HRM storage medium.
Yesterday, near the end of SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System) ground commanding commissioning operations, it was noticed during the back-away of the Tip LEE (Latching End Effector) from MBS PDGF- 3 (Mobile Base System Power & Data Grapple #3) that one of the doors for both of the latch connector covers remained open. The ground is evaluating.
Weekly Science Update (Expedition Eleven — 6th):
Human Research Facility/Gas Analyzer System for Metabolic Analysis Physiology (HRF GASMAP): Nothing new.
Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS): Continuing.
Advanced Ultrasound (ADUM): Continuing..
Renal Stone (RS): In progress.
Foot/Ground Reaction Forces during Space Flight (FOOT): Dr. Phillips will perform his second Foot data collection activity next week. He has been provided with detailed feedback to help him conduct another successful session. Everyone on the Foot team is exited about supporting John again and looking forward to his “outstanding work”.
Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS is nominal and receiving acceleration data.
Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): MAMS remains in nominal operations.
Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES): PCG-STES is performing nominally.
Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-3 (BCAT-3): BCAT-3 Slow Growth Sample Module will be left undisturbed in its current location by the E11 crew. In order for the samples to potentially grow crystals that can be photographed during Increment 12 operations, the Sample Module must be left undisturbed.
Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): In progress. Deployed outside on the U.S. Airlock. Nominal and collecting data. To be exchanged during LF-1.
Dust and Aerosol Measurement Feasibility Test (DAFT): Nothing new.
Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM): Nothing new. Will be back in July.
Serial Network Flow Monitor (SNFM): Completed.
Fluid Merging Viscosity Measurement (FMVM): Nothing new.
Space Experiment Module (SEM): Nothing new. Experimenters and kids are working to get the next two satchels on ULF1.1.
Miscible Fluids in Microgravity (MFMG): The MFMG Team sent up their thanks to Phillips for completing the last experiments this week. This finishes MFMG payload operations. “The video looks great and we look forward to viewing the digital pictures.”
Educational Payload Operations (EPO): in progress.
Crew Earth Observations (CEO): As of this week, a total of 2118 CEO images have been downlinked and received by CEO researchers for their review.
Today’s CEO (crew earth observations) photo targets, in the current LVLH attitude no longer limited by flight rule constraints on the use of the Lab nadir/science window, were Typhoon Nesat, W. Pacific Ocean (Dynamic Event. This typhoon did not go to Category 3 but is still a strong Cat. 2 storm which does not currently present a threat to any inhabited areas), Internal waves, South China Sea-N (this ISS pass took the crew over the Gulf of Tonkin and Hainan Island. Looking to the right of track and behind for the sunglint point), Kabul, Afghanistan (the crew had a near-nadir pass over the Kabul metropolitan area. An overlapping mapping swath from NW to SE across the city center was desired for mosaicing and land cover classification), and Von Karman Vortices, Canary Islands (Dynamic Event. Weather conditions were ideal for generation of cloud vortices downwind from the Canary Islands. Looking to the right of track to the SW of the island chain for vortices).
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:
To view the latest photos taken by the expedition 11 crew visit:
- http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-11/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.
Expedition 11 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.
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ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 11:47am EDT [= epoch]):
- Mean altitude — 351.8 km
- Apogee height — 355.2 km
- Perigee height — 348.5 km
- Period — 91.58 min.
- Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
- Eccentricity — 0.0004966
- Solar Beta Angle — -27.5 deg (magnitude decreasing)
- Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.72
- Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 100
- Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 37371
Some Increment 11 Main Events (not final):
- Progress M-52 (17P) undock — 6/15 (4:13pm EDT);
- Progress M-53 (18P) launch — 6/16 (7:09pm EDT, Baikonur: 6/17, 5:09am)
- Progress M-53 (18P) dock — 6/18 (8:46pm EDT);
- Reboost — ~6/22 (delta-V 1.5 m/s);
- LF-1/STS-114 launch — 7/13 (18-day window opens);
- Soyuz TMA-6 (10S) relocate (from DC-1 to FGB) — ~8/16;
- Progress M-54 (19P) launch — 8/24 (dock 8/26);
- ULF1.1/STS-121 launch — NET 9/9 (launch window opens);
- 12A/STS-115 launch — NET 2/16/06;
- 12A.1/STS-116 launch — NET 4/23/06;
- 13A/STS-117 launch — NET 5/18/06.
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.
