ISS Status Report, 24-09-2004

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington September 24, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-4769)

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS04-032

With less than a month remaining in their stay aboard
the International Space Station, Expedition 9 Commander
Gennady Padalka and NASA Science Officer Mike Fincke are
preparing the orbiting laboratory for its next residents.

The crew's work this week included taking inventory,
performing maintenance on exercise equipment and continued
troubleshooting of the primary onboard oxygen generator.

Roskosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, announced this
week the next Station crew will launch at 12:17 a.m. EDT Oct.
11 aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome,
Kazakhstan. The Expedition 10 crew commander is Leroy Chiao
and Salizhan Sharipov is flight engineer. Russian Space
Forces Test Cosmonaut Yuri Shargin will accompany them for
launch and spend about a week aboard the Station. Padalka,
Fincke and Shargin will return to Earth Oct. 19.

This week, additional troubleshooting work continued on the
Elektron oxygen-generating unit. It produces breathing oxygen
from wastewater. Intermittent operations of the device led
the Russian flight control team to believe contamination was
preventing proper pressurization in a hydrogen line. Padalka
cleaned the line. Further work is planned this weekend. As
oxygen is generated from water by the unit, hydrogen is
dumped overboard.

While the Elektron work continued, the Station's atmosphere
was repressurized twice this week using oxygen from tanks on
the Progress supply spacecraft docked to the Station. If
needed, months of oxygen are available for the crew even
without the use of the Elektron. Oxygen is stored in Progress
tanks, Station tanks and oxygen-generating canisters.

Padalka and Fincke also performed routine maintenance work
this week on the Station's treadmill, which is done every six
months. The treadmill provides cardiovascular training. The
crew prepared for the trip home by taking food and hardware
inventory. They also began stowing cargo containers and
personal items for the return trip.

The crew periodically sends down digital photographs of life
in space, including Earth views, which can be viewed online
at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/.../station/crew-
9/ndxpage1.html

Information about crew activities on the Space Station,
future launch dates and Station sighting opportunities from
Earth, is available on the Internet at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

Details about Station science operations are available 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/

-end-


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

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info