ISS On-Orbit Status, 27-06-2004

ISS On-Orbit Status 27 Jun 2004

All ISS systems continue to function nominally except those noted
previously or below. Sunday rest aboard ISS. Ahead: Week 9 for Increment
9.

After breakfast, CDR Gennady Padalka worked on the Orlan-M spacesuits used
for the aborted EVA on 6/24, setting up the ZU-S battery chargers, then
successively initiating recharging of the two 825M3 Orlan backpack batteries
to ready them for the next try on 6/30. To allow monitoring of the
procedure from the ground, Padalka first hooked up the Service Module (SM)'s
BITS2-12 onboard telemetry system.

After their one-hour lunch break (starting 7:44am EDT), the crew performed
the weekly 3-hr. station cleaning, postponed from yesterday. ["Uborka"
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.]

The CDR completed the daily routine maintenance of the SM SOZh life support
system (including ASU toilet facilities), which today also involved the
weekly data collection of the SM's toilet flush counter readings, with
inspection of the urine collection (SP) & pretreat assembly and water supply
status (SVO) counter readings, both for calldown to TsUP/Moscow.

Padalka and Fincke completed their full daily physical exercise program on
CEVIS cycle ergometer, TVIS treadmill, RED resistive expander and VELO bike
with force loader.

For today's amateur radio "Field Day" all over the world, the ISS crew was
provided with rise times for participating, at their option, with the
onboard "Sputnik-SM" ham radio equipment. Times for North and South America
were uplinked to Mike Fincke.

Gennady worked another task-listed session of the Russian Uragan
earth-imaging program, using the Kodak 760 DSC (digital still camera) with
200-, 400- and 800mm-lenses from SM window #9, now available again in LVLH
attitude. After the activities, he commanded the external window shutter
closed again. The images were transferred from the camera's PCMCIA memory
card to the TP2 laptop. [Today's task featured imagery of the city of
Accra and coast of Ghana, Lesotho, a panoramic view of the Rockies, the
cities of Milwaukee and Chicago, a panorama of the Amazon estuary, the
Tristan da Kunha Islands, and panoramic shots of Sao Paolo and the coastal
area.]

Also on Gennady's task list today was another session of the "Diatomeya"
ocean observations program, using the DSR PD-150P video camera and Nikon F5
digital still camera with 24/85-mm lens to collect photo and video data on
bioproductive regions (algae blooms) confined to largest morpho-structures
in Atlantic and Indian Ocean bed contours. [Uplinked suggested targets
today specified the North Atlantic in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge area and the
region over the western slope of the North American Depression.]

Using the Nikon D1 (800mm-lens), the CDR then took areal photography for
Russia's Environmental Safety Agency (ECON). [Target region for today was
the Pacific Ocean.]

As a long-term recurring item on the Russian task list, Padalka was again
charged with taking photographs of the PKZ-1V Kromka experiment tablet
deployed on the plume deflector of the SM's plus-pitch thrusters. (Last time
done: 5/29) [The pictures are shot with the Kodak 760 digital still camera
(DSC) from the EVA hatch #1 in the DC-1 docking compartment.]

Today's optional CEO (Crew Earth Observations) photo targets, in the current
LVLH attitude no longer limited by flight rule constraints on the use of the
Lab nadir/science window, except for the shutter closure and
condensation-prevention plan (limited to 90 min. in 24 hours), were
Tigris-Euphrates, Turkey (nadir pass over the middle of the site: look for
the new and filling lakes with associated infrastructure, such as farms and
roads), Baghdad, Iraq (nadir pass), Chicago, Illinois (pass crossed the
north end of Chicagoland: good opportunity to image northern suburbs of the
city), Denver, Colorado (more than one image was probably needed to acquire
the city at the requested resolution), Fans, southern Amazonia, Brazil (if
weather remained relatively clear, the crew was asked to shoot a diverging
pattern of unusual sinuous white lines visible in the rainforest. These
faint lines were first recognized from handheld imagery and have been
interpreted as meandering, north-flowing river courses. The courses are
interpreted as a megafan lying between the Brazilian hill country and the
Madeira River, and gave rise to the successful prediction that other
megafans would be discovered in similar settings in Amazonia.)

CEO images can be viewed at the websites.


http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

See also the website "Space Station Challenge" at


http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 9:15am EDT [= epoch]):

Mean altitude -- 360.6 km
Apogee -- 364.3 km
Perigee -- 356.9 km
Period -- 91.8 min.
Inclination (to Equator) -- 51.6322 deg
Eccentricity -- 0.0005485
Solar Beta Angle -- 15.7 deg
Orbits per 24-hr. day -- 15.69
Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours -- 80 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. '98) -- 31994

For more on ISS orbit and worldwide ISS naked-eye visibility dates/times,
see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html



--
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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info