International Space Station Status Report, 14-01-2005

Melissa Mathews/Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington Jan. 14, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-1272, -4769)

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS05-002

Midway through a six-month stay on the International Space Station, the
Expedition 10 crew this week focused on routine maintenance, biomedical
investigations and a software upgrade.

The software work was under way for much of the week and involved updates to
more
than 1.5 million lines of code in the onboard command and control computers.
The
software upgrade generally improves the operations of onboard computers and,
through its updates, decreases by about 300 the number of workarounds or,
Station
Program Notes (SPNs), ground flight controllers must use.

Also this week Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov
measured their cardiovascular systems and conducted routine mid-term
physical
evaluations.

Sharipov began preparing gear that will be used during the two crewmembers'
Jan.
26 spacewalk. During the spacewalk, they will install a new work platform on
the
exterior of the Zvezda living quarters module, hook up a small robotic
experiment
and install other scientific gear on the Station's exterior. The first of
two
planned spacewalks for Expedition 10, it will be conducted from the Russian
airlock using Russian spacesuits.

Formal preparations for the spacewalk begin Monday. The 4-1/2 hour spacewalk
will
be broadcast live on NASA Television, beginning at 1 a.m. EST Jan. 26. The
spacewalk is expected to begin about 2:25 a.m. EST.

All Station environmental control and life support systems are operating
well,
including the Elektron oxygen generating unit. Though Saturday is planned as
an
off-duty day for the crew, flight controllers plan a reboost of the
Station's
altitude of about 3 statute miles (5 kilometers) using engines on the
attached
Progress cargo craft. The reboost engine firing will last almost 20 minutes.

Information on the crew's activities aboard the Space Station and future
launch
dates, as well as Station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth,
is
available on the Internet at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

For information about other NASA and agency projects on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

The next International Space Station Status report will be issued Friday,
Jan.
21, or earlier if events warrant.

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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info