NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 6 March 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. Sunday, a real rest day for the crew after a busy Saturday yesterday. Expedition 10 completes 144 days in space (142 aboard ISS) today, with 50 days to go. Ahead: Week 20 of Increment 10.

Sleep cycle has shifted back to nominal times (wakeup–1:00am EST, sleep–4:30pm).

Salizhan Sharipov performed the daily routine inspection of the SOZh life support system in the Service Module (SM) and completed the weekly task of collecting toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings for calldown to TsUP/Moscow. His ECLSS maintenance today also included the weekly checkup on the BRPK air/liquid condensate separator apparatus.

At 7:40am, the FE conducted a functionality and transmission test of the Russian TV setup for a commercial downlink scheduled for tomorrow under contract with ESA. [The event, on 3/11 at ESTEC/Holland, will feature a special live message from ISS at a presentation by Phonak AG, a manufacturer of high-quality hearing aids, of a pilot hearing aid project called “Savia” that also may become useful on ISS due to its ability to automatically filter out background noise. Tomorrow’s downlink is to be used as taped backup for the live transmission on 3/11.]

At ~12:06pm, Leroy Chiao had his weekly PFC (private family conference) via S-band/audio and Ku-band/NetMeeting video.

Working off the voluntary Russian task list, Salizhan performed the regular daily inspection of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (“Plants-2”) experiment, which researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-5 greenhouse.

The crew conducted their regular daily 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on TVIS, RED exerciser, CEVIS cycle and VELO cycle with bungee cord load trainer. [Salizhan’s daily protocol currently prescribes a four-day microcycle exercise with 1.5 hr on the treadmill and one hour on VELO (today: Day 1 of a new set).]

The crew was thanked for their extensive support yesterday to recover the Elektron oxygen generator after shutdowns due to gas bubbles in its fluid system. [To remove the bubbles from the electrolyte loop, the crew used the external circulation assembly (UTs), and the nitrogen purge assembly (BPA) to pressurize the BZh liquid unit.]

CDR Chiao was congratulated this morning on yesterday’s “Saturday Science” work on the BCAT-3 (Binary Colloid Alloy Test 3) experiment, previewed on the ground on downlinked photographs and to be analyzed in detail once the PCMCIA memory card with the data has been returned. [“It has been such a pleasure working with you on BCAT-3. The photographs have been wonderful and we are looking forward to this last set from Saturday Science. Yesterday’s crew conference was very exciting and we were thrilled to have that opportunity!”]

No CEO (crew earth observations) photo targets today.

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:

• http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/

To view the latest photos taken by the expedition 10 crew visit:

• http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-10/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.

Expedition 10 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.

Upcoming Key Events:

• EVA-13 — 3/25 (Readiness Review @ JSC: 3/11);
• Soyuz TMA-6 (10S) launch — 4/15 with Expedition 11 (CDR Sergei Krikalev, FE/SO John Phillips) and VC7 cosmonaut Roberto Vittori;
• Soyuz TMA-5 (9S) undocking — 4/25 with Exp. 10 crew (after 193 days on orbit, 191 days on board ISS) and VC7 cosmonaut Roberto Vittori;
• LF1 (STS-114) — NET 5/12;
• Progress M-53 (18P) launch — 6/10;
• ULF1.1 (STS-121) — NET 7/10;
• Progress M-54 (19P) launch — 8/24;
• Soyuz TMA-7 (11S) launch — 9/27.

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.