ISS Status Report, 07-01-2005

Melissa Mathews
Headquarters, Washington Jan. 7, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1272)

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

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS05-001

The Expedition 10 crew began the new year by embarking on
biomedical experiments, unloading contents from the recently arrived
Russian Progress cargo vehicle, and troubleshooting the Station's
oxygen generator.

Commander and NASA Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer
Salizhan Sharipov rang in the new year Saturday to a special rendition
of "Auld Lang Syne" offered from Mission Control. They also received
greetings from Russian space officials in Moscow.
Today, the crew took time from its activities to observe the Russian
Orthodox Christmas. They have a light weekend planned with only a few
routine maintenance tasks scheduled.

Chiao and Sharipov also offered a message of condolence this week to
the victims of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami in southern Asia.

The crew conducted a variety of biomedical experiments throughout the
week, including the NEUROCOG experiment that studies how the body's
sense of balance, or neurovestibular system, adapts to weightlessness.
During the experiment, the crew member moves around the cabin wearing a
virtual reality headset.

On New Year's Day, the Station's Elektron oxygen-generation system shut
down. The crew has had some success in recovering the operation of that
system this week. The Elektron, which separates water into hydrogen and
oxygen, is one of several systems that can be used to replenish oxygen
in the Station cabin. Almost five months of oxygen reserves are aboard
the Station in other systems.

With help from Russian technical experts, the crew early this week
tried to purge gas from the Elektron lines, using both a manual pump
and an electrical pump. The gas bubbles were believed to be causing
pumps in the Elektron to shut down.

As troubleshooting continued, the crew on Thursday replaced the
electrolyte in the Elektron with that from a spare unit. The Elektron
was then successfully restarted, although later that day the system was
switched from a primary pump to a backup pump. The Elektron has
continued to operate intermittently since. While the Elektron was out
of service on Tuesday, oxygen was added to the Station atmosphere from
tanks on the Progress cargo craft.

Today Chiao and Sharipov took some time to discuss the progress of
their mission with students at the Central Park Middle School in
Schenectady, N.Y. For information about NASA education flight programs
on the Internet visit:

http://education.nasa.gov/divisions/...fice/overview/

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 Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

-end-


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info