International Space Station Status Report #17 - 2005

Report #17
4 p.m. CST, Friday, April 1, 2005
Mission Control Center, Houston

Following their second spacewalk and nearing the end of a six-month flight,
Expedition 10 crew members conducted science experiments, prepared for the
arrival of their replacements and readied the Station for the first
post-Columbia Shuttle mission.

Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov
also spent much of the latter part of the week stowing tools used during the
spacewalk, cleaning and stowing their Russian Orlan spacesuits and
reconfiguring the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock. The crew installed
antennas that will be used by a new automated European supply craft and
released a small Russian technology satellite during the 4-hour, 30-minute
spacewalk.

Chiao and Sharipov began preparing the Station for the first visit by a
Space Shuttle mission since the Columbia accident. The Shuttle Discovery is
targeted for launch on mission STS-114 in a planning window that begins May
15 and ends June 3. The crew began packing gear that will be returned on the
Shuttle and they checked out cameras that the upcoming Station crew will use
to photograph the Shuttle's heat shield. Chiao conducted some
troubleshooting on one of those digital cameras that is experiencing
intermittent card reading errors during downloads. Other cameras are
available if needed.

The crew also continued work with the Station's Elektron oxygen generation
system. The system has operated intermittently over the past few weeks.
Additional troubleshooting was conducted this week by Sharipov while Russian
technicians continued to study repair options. Multiple alternate sources of
oxygen are available and the Elektron problems have not significantly
impacted activities.

Chiao and Sharipov participated in a question and answer session with
students at the Sheridan Middle School in New Haven, CT Thursday and an
amateur radio session with the Science Discovery Center in Denton, Texas.

Two of the Station's Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs) continue to perform
well, controlling the Station's orientation. A brief, unusual vibration was
detected on one of them, CMG 3, just after the end of the spacewalk on
Monday. Engineers are continuing to evaluate the indication. Two additional
gyroscopes are not operating. One of them is planned to be repowered during
a spacewalk on the upcoming Shuttle mission and another will be replaced at
that time. Two gyroscopes are sufficient for control of the current Station,
but additional gyroscopes will be needed as assembly resumes and the size of
the complex increases.

The next Station crew continued training this week at Russia's Gagarin
Cosmonaut Training Center. Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and
Flight Engineer John Phillips, along with European Space Agency Astronaut
Roberto Vittori, completed final exams and certification for launch. They
will travel to the launch site, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, this
weekend and conduct a check of their Soyuz spacecraft on Monday. Vittori
will spend eight days on the Station under a commercial contract between ESA
and the Russian Federal Space Agency. Krikalev and Phillips will spend six
months aloft.

For more on NASA, the crew's activities aboard the Space Station, future
launch dates and Station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth,
visit:

www.nasa.gov

The next International Space Station Status report will be issued on Friday,
April 8, or earlier if events warrant.



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info