NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 5 September 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. Sunday — crew rest day. Ahead: Week 19 for Expedition 9. And it’s Day 141 in space for Expedition 9. Also: Day 1373 of permanent human station residency and Day 2117 since first ISS launch (FGB/Zarya).
Crew sleep cycle is back to normal, with wakeup at 2:00am EDT & sleep time at 5:30pm. Final closeouts from the successful EVA-11 on 9/3 today focused on stowage of the dried-out Orlan suits and their BSS interface control units.
CDR Padalka also initiated discharge on the 825-3M Orlan battery #1.
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Previous Reports ISS On-orbit Status [HQ] |
FE/SO Fincke, on the second day of his extended “Saturday Science” program, activated the MSG (Microgravity Science Glovebox). Subsequently, with support by the ground, he installed the HEAT hardware in the rack and activated the experiment, working it through several steps during the day, including taking photo imagery. [At first, telemetry showed that in terms of thermal contact between HEAT and MSG, the current configuration was worse than the experimental conditions encountered during the VC6 Dutch Soyuz mission. Successful troubleshooting by Mike Fincke, who removed an aluminum sheet used in the config, solved the problem within 10 min. POIC (Payload Operations & Integration Center) got two successful runs (as of today), and a preliminary assessment shows that the results are significantly better than those obtained during VC-6 Andre Kuipers’ mission. The Science Team even managed to see, in real time, a “burnout phenomenon”, which means that the maximum heat transfer capability of the heat pipe in micro-G can indeed be derived. Another HEAT run is scheduled for tomorrow.]
The crew conducted the weekly station housekeeping. [“Uborka”, done usually on Saturday, includes removal of food waste products, cleaning of compartments with vacuum cleaner, wet cleaning of the Service Module (SM) dining table and other surfaces with “Fungistat” disinfectant and cleaning fan screens to avoid temperature rises.]
Mike again filled out the FFQ (food frequency questionnaire), which keeps a close-to-regular weekly log of his nutritional intake over time on special MEC (medical equipment computer) software.
The CDR conducted today’s routine inspection of the SM’s SOZh life support system (including replacement of ASU toilet facility inserts).
Padalka also completed another daily inspection of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (“Plants-2”) plant growth experiment in the Lada-5 greenhouse. Topping its water container off as required was an additional step included in the crew-choice task list.
At 9:15am EDT, Padalka and Fincke had another weekly planning conference (WPC) with the ground to discuss the “Look-Ahead Plan” for next week (regularly prepared jointly by MCC-H and TsUP planners), via S-band/audio.
Later, at 12:45pm, Mike held a private family conference (PFC) via S-band/audio and Ku-band/NetMeeting video.
The crew was notified by Flight Control that the objects jettisoned during the spacewalk (see yesterday’s Status report) are being tracked and will remain well clear of the ISS.
Today’s optional CEO photo targets, limited in the current XPOP attitude by flight rule constraints on the use of the science window, which is available for only ~1/4 of each orbit when not facing forward (in ram), were Tropical Storm Ivan, Central Atlantic (Dynamic Event. This storm is surprisingly well organized at this early stage and is projected to enter the Caribbean as a major hurricane. Looking left of track approximately 7 deg), Internal waves, Amazon River mouth (despite the proximity of Ivan to the north, weather conditions should be clear for internal waves directly to the NE of the Amazon river delta. The sunglint point was directly to the right of track), Hurricane Howard, Baja California (Howard continues its NW-ward progress and should be losing strength at the time of the ISS overpass. The hurricane was positioned close to the terminator. If the view approximately five degrees right of track was striking, it could make an interesting Earth Observatory image submission), and Internal waves, Pacific coast, Cent. America (clear weather allowed for photography of internal waves. The recent passage of Howard may have produced some interesting wave features. The sunglint point was left of track).
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.
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.
Major upcoming events:
- Reboost — 9/22 (phase angle correction for 9S)
- Soyuz 9S launch — 10/9;
- Soyuz 9S dock — 10/11;
- Soyuz 8S undock/land — 10/19;
- Soyuz 9S relocate — 11/18;
- Progress 16P launch — 11/24.
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ISS Location NOW |
ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 10:44am EDT [= epoch]):
- Mean altitude — 360.7 km
- Apogee height — 364.6 km
- Perigee height — 356.9 km
- Period — 91.76 min.
- Inclination (to Equator) — 51.63 deg
- Eccentricity — 0.0005708
- Solar Beta Angle — 52.2 deg (magnitude increasing)
- Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.69
- Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 80 m
- Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 33095
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.
