ISS On-Orbit Status, 11-06-2004

ISS On-Orbit Status 11 Jun 2004

All ISS systems continue to function nominally except those noted
previously or below. Yesterday, on the occasion of today's burial
ceremonies in Washington, DC, the ISS crew downlinked a tribute to President
Ronald Reagan. Fincke said, in part: "President Reagan proposed building
the Space Station, which Gennady and I are privileged to be working aboard
today for the benefit of all humankind. He spoke to astronauts in space
during his tenure in the White House, greeted the crew of Columbia at
Edwards Air Force Base after its fourth voyage and mourned the loss of the
Challenger crew along with the rest of us." He and Gennady then honored the
40th U.S. President (who had started the ISS Program with "Freedom") with 40
chimes of the ISS ship's bell."on behalf of all of NASA."

After the cancellation/deferment of today's Orlan suit dry run, the crew
executed a revised task schedule, beginning with CDR Padalka working on the
Service Module (SM)'s water supply system to pressurize the collapsed
bladders of the Rodnik water storage tanks (BV1 & BV2) in the
14P/Progress-249 vehicle, a 3-hr task, as a leak-checkup preparatory to the
regular transfer of liquid waste (urine) from EDV-U containers to the
Progress for disposal. [Each of the two spherical Rodnik tanks consists of a
hard shell with a soft membrane (bladder) composed of elastic fluoroplastic,
which is used to expel water from the tank by compressed air pumped into the
tank volume surrounding the bladder.]

FE/SO Mike Fincke disconnected the UOP DCP (utility outlet panel/display &
control panel) bypass power cable at the Lab RWS (robotics work station).

Mike then spent 1.5 hrs in the FGB, continuing the current round of
ventilation systems maintenance in the Russian segment (RS) by cleaning the
vent screens of specific interior closeout panels (116, 231, 316 & 431).

Afterwards, the FE logged in and performed his second session with the
psychological MedOps WinSCAT (Spaceflight Cognitive Assessment Tool)
experiment, using an uplinked "crib sheet" instead of PC-supplied data due a
software problem that programmers are still working on. [WinSCAT is a
time-constrained questionnaire test of cognitive abilities, routinely
performed by astronauts aboard the ISS every 30 days before or after the PHS
(periodic health status) test or on special CDR's, crewmember's or flight
surgeon's request.]

After performing filter cleaning on the SAMS (space accelerations
measurement system), Fincke continued troubleshooting the SAMS ICU
(interface control unit) computer with battery checks. [Purpose of the
troubleshooting was to help determine whether the problem is in the battery
or in the power management system of the laptop. The ground is working on a
software patch to address the issue.]

Starting a new round of atmospheric sampling in the ISS interior, the FE
deployed two passive FMK (formaldehyde monitoring kit) sampling badges in
the Lab and SM, to catch any atmospheric formaldehyde on a sampling
substrate for later analysis in JSC lab facilities.

Mike also sampled the environment for volatile compounds with the
(relatively) new DST (Dual Sorbent Tube) equipment. [To supplement the
sampling procedure, a 3-min training video was uplinked overnight for his
review.]

Air sampling in the SM and Lab included a CO2 (carbon dioxide) partial
pressure data take with the U.S. CDMK (CO2 monitor kit) by Mike Fincke for
calldown to MCC-Houston (along with the battery status) for use in trending
analyses, and another reading with the CSA-CPs (compound specific
analyzer-combustion products) for O2 and CPs.

Gennady set up and worked a training session on the ADUM (Advanced
Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity) experiment, using the ADUM OPE
(On-board Proficiency Enhancer), in preparation his ultrasound scanning
activities next week.

Mike performed the routine maintenance of the SM's SOZh life support system,
conducted the regular routine status checkup of autonomously operating
Increments payloads (today PCG-STES010), and prepared the daily "delta" file
for updating the IMS (inventory management system) database(s).

TsUP/Moscow continues systems monitoring of the Soyuz TMA-4 crew return
vehicle. Twice today, the CDR again took routine spacecraft parameter
readings (Form 03) in the vehicle for calldown.

The crew went through a review of the U.S. procedures of the upcoming Orlan
EVA, now scheduled for 6/24. Afterwards, they held a space-to-ground tagup
with EVA personnel at Houston. [In support of the review, the ground
uplinked material such as the detailed timeline and procedure for the RPCM
R&R, an alternate patch panel reconfiguration procedure, and the cuff
checklist pages for the RPCM R&R. Some issues are still being worked on the
ground.]

At about 11:25am EDT, Padalka and Fincke had their weekly teleconference
with the ISS Flight Director at MCC-H. The crew completed their daily
2.5-hr. physical exercise program on TVIS treadmill, RED expander and VELO
ergometer with load trainer.

For his regular "Saturday Science" feature, Mike Fincke has selected to
conduct a teleconference on the BCAT-3 (Binary Colloid Alloy Test 3)
experiment. A tagup with BCAT personnel will be held tonight at 5:05pm EDT.
[In support of the event, POIC (Payload Operations & Integration Center)
uplinked BCAT imagery and other material.]

Today's CEO (Crew Earth Observations) photo targets, limited in XPOP
attitude by flight rule constraints on the use of the science window, which
is available for only ~1/4 of each orbit when not facing forward (in "ram"),
were E Asia smog boundary, Sea of Japan (Dynamic event. Related to the
North China Plain aerosol site mentioned yesterday, satellite images show a
perceptible smog front extending east from Beijing, across Korea into the
Sea of Japan [smog on the south side]. If this linear feature is apparent,
the crew was to shoot obliques that include any dry land as a geographic
anchor), Rome, Italy (nadir pass. Looking inland from the small but
discernible Tiber River delta), Baghdad, Iraq (looking left where the rivers
swing nearest to one another), Kuwait City, Kuwait (nadir pass. Although
several good views have been acquired, there are none taken "nadirly" with
the required lens), Hudson Bay ice (Dynamic event. Weather is finally
clearing during daylight-awake hours: looking left, north of small James Bay
into the open waters of Hudson Bay, more than 3 degrees north of track, to
document the status of winter ice), and Saharan dust front, E Atlantic
(Dynamic event. Satellite images show a perceptible dust front [dust on the
south side]) where Algerian dust moves out over the African coast all the
way to Puerto Rico. Suggested were views looking right to capture this
feature if it persists. Trying to include the African coastline.
Opportunity lasted for ~1.5 minutes, looking south trending to west).

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/

U.S. & Russian Segment Status

Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLSS) and Thermal Control (TCS):

Elektron O2 generator is On. Vozdukh CO2 scrubber is On. U.S. CDRA CO2
scrubber is Off. TCCS (trace contaminant control subsystem) is operating.
SM Gas Analyzer has been calibrated and is used for ppO2 & ppCO2 monitoring.
MCA (major constituents analyzer) is in Life Extending Mode (LEM). BMP
Harmful Impurities unit: absorbent bed #1 in Purify mode, bed #2 in Purify
mode. RS air conditioner SKV-1 is On, SKV-2 is Off (SM panel mods completed
4/8; SKV-2 activation failed 4/20; is now functioning again). SFOG slot #2
fan suspect (not usable).

Electrical Power Systems (EPS):

Both P6 channels fully operational. BGA (beta gimbal assembly) 2B and 4B
both in Autotrack (solar-tracking, "sun slicer", i.e., drag reduction-biased
by 47 deg).
Plasma Contactor Unit PCU-1 is in Standby mode; PCU-2 is in Standby mode.

Command & Data Handling Systems:

C&C-1 MDM is prime, C&C-2 is backup, and C&C-3 is in standby.
GNC-2 MDM is prime; GNC-1 is backup.
INT-2 is operating; INT-1 is Off.
EXT-1 is On (primary), EXT-2 is Off (backup).
LA-1, LA-2 and LA-3 MDMs are all operating.
PL-1 MDM is Off; PL-2 MDM is Operational.
APS-1 (automated payload switch #1) and APS-2 are both On.
SM Terminal Computer (TVM): 2 redundant lanes (of 3) operational (string 1
dropped out 11/22/03).
SM Central Computer (TsVM): 2 redundant lanes (of 3) operational (string #3
dropped out 10/22/03).
FGB MDM-1 is Off (failed, 11/21/03); MDM-2 is Operational.

Propulsion System:

Total propellant load available: 3372 kg (7434 lb) as of 6/3/04; [SM(552) +
FGB(2820) + Progress M-1(0)]. (Capability: SM -- 860 kg; FGB -- 6120 kg).

Attitude Control Systems:

2 CMGs on-line (CMG-1 failed, since 6/6/02; CMG-2's RPC-17 failed 4/21/04).
State vector source -- U.S. SIGI-1 (GPS)
Attitude source -- U.S. SIGI-1 (GPS)
Angular rate source -- RGA-1

Flight Attitude:

XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane = "sun-fixed" [yaw: 0.5 deg,
pitch: -9.0 deg., roll: 0 deg]), with CMG TA (thruster assist).

Communications & Tracking Systems:

FGB MDM-1 is powered Off; FGB MDM-2 is operational.
All other Russian communications & tracking systems are nominal.
S-band is operating nominally (on string 2).
Ku-band is operating nominally (may require a mask).
Audio subsystem is operating nominally (IAC-1 is prime, IAC-2 is off).
Video subsystem operating nominally.
HCOR (high-rate communications outage recorder) is operating nominally.

Robotics:

SSRMS/Canadarm2 based at Lab PDGF/LEE A, operational on redundant string,
off on prime.
MBS: KA (keep alive) power on both strings.
MT: latched and mated at WS4.
POA: KA power on both strings.
RWS (robotics workstations): Lab RWS is On (DCP connected); Cupola RWS is
Off.

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:33am EDT [= epoch]):

Mean altitude -- 361.0 km
Apogee -- 365.6 km
Perigee -- 358.3 km
Period -- 91.78 min.
Inclination (to Equator) -- 51.6329 deg
Eccentricity -- 0.0005455
Solar Beta Angle -- -28.2 deg
Orbits per 24-hr. day -- 15.69
Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours -- 90 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. '98) -- 31742

For more on ISS orbit and worldwide ISS naked-eye visibility dates/times,
see

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html



--
---------------------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info