ISS Status Report No. 42 - 2004

International Space Station Status Report #04-42
2:30 p.m. CDT, Friday, July 30, 2004
Expedition 9 Crew

Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mike Fincke this
week marked their 100th day in orbit, oversaw the undocking of a resupply
craft and prepared for their third spacewalk.

The ISS Progress 14 automated resupply craft undocked at 1:05 a.m. CDT
today. Fincke filmed its departure, and Station exterior cameras captured
rare footage of the Progress' fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. It had
been filled with about a ton of trash and equipment no longer needed aboard
the orbiting outpost. It was undocked to clear the area for the upcoming
spacewalk and to make room for the next supply vehicle, Progress 15, planned
to launch Aug. 11 and dock with the Station on Aug. 14.

Throughout the week, Padalka and Fincke prepared for their Aug. 3 spacewalk.
Using Russian spacesuits and the Russian Pirs airlock, they will replace
several materials exposure experiment packages and a thruster contamination
monitor. They also will install reflectors and communications equipment
needed for the docking of a new European Space Agency cargo ship, called the
Automated Transfer Vehicle, to fly for the first time next year. NASA
Television will broadcast the spacewalk live beginning at 1 a.m. CDT Aug. 3.
Padalka and Fincke are set to exit the hatch and begin up to six hours of
work outside at about 2:10 a.m. CDT.

This will be the 55th spacewalk in support of Space Station assembly and
maintenance, the 30th from the Station and the 12th from the Russian
airlock. Padalka will be making his fifth spacewalk, and Fincke his third.
The Expedition 9 crew, which launched April 19, has a fourth spacewalk
scheduled later in the year.

The Progress 15 cargo will include two spare water pumps that engineers hope
to use in repairing two U.S. spacesuits with cooling system problems.
Engineers are continuing to review detailed photographs downlinked by the
crew during last week's troubleshooting.

Fincke spent part of his weekend working with the In Space Soldering
Investigation. He used a soldering iron to melt solder on 18 experiment
samples, documenting differences in the way the solder melted and solidified
in weightlessness. Scientists hope to learn how such materials behave in
orbit. The tests may help to verify in-flight repair procedures for
electronics on the Station and for future space exploration vehicles and
outposts.

Thursday, the crew answered questions from teachers gathered for a NASA
Explorer School Workshop at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Md.

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

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

Details on Station science operations can be found on an Internet site
administered by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., at:

http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/

The next ISS status report will be issued following the Aug. 3 spacewalk or
sooner if events warrant.



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info