International Space Station Status Report #04-27 - 2004

International Space Station Status Report #04-27
8 a.m. CDT, Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Expedition 9 Crew

An unmanned Russian Progress resupply ship blasted off today from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to deliver 2½ tons of food, water, fuel
and supplies to the residents of the International Space Station.

As the Station flew over the heart of Africa, the ISS Progress 14 craft
lifted off its Central Asian launch pad right on time at 8:34 a.m. EDT (1234
GMT), and less than 10 minutes later, settled into orbit and deployed its
solar arrays and navigational antennas. Its computers are loaded with
preprogrammed commands for engine firings and rendezvous maneuvers that will
lead it to an automated linkup to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module
on Thursday morning at 9:55 a.m. CDT (1355 GMT).

Aboard the Station, Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA Science
Officer and Flight Engineer Mike Fincke were informed of the Progress launch
by flight controllers in Houston moments after liftoff.

The Progress 14 docking to the ISS will be broadcast live on NASA Television
on Thursday beginning at 9:00 a.m. EDT.

The launch of the new resupply vehicle occurred a little over 24 hours after
an identical Progress ship departed the ISS. The ISS Progress 13 undocked
yesterday from Zvezda at 5:19 a.m. EDT (919 GMT) and was sent into a
temporary "parking" orbit well away from the Station. Over the next ten
days, Russian engineers will gather data from its motion control system to
determine whether microgravity experiments can be conducted in such a craft
before it is commanded to burn up in Earth's atmosphere. The Progress 13
will be deorbited on June 3.

The new Progress is loaded with spare parts, fresh food and fuel for Padalka
and Fincke, who are in the second month of a planned 6-month mission on the
ISS.

Yesterday, Station mission managers decided to proceed with a spacewalk
around June 16 by Padalka and Fincke in Russian Orlan spacesuits out of the
Pirs Docking Compartment rather than in U.S. spacesuits out of the U.S.
Quest Airlock. The decision was made after additional troubleshooting
efforts on Saturday to provide cooling for Padalka's Extravehicular Mobility
Unit, or EMU, and for a third U.S. spacesuit on board, were unsuccessful.

The spacewalk is designed to replace a power controller on the Station's
truss that failed April 21, resulting in the temporary loss of one of four
Control Moment Gyros (CMGs) that govern the orientation of the complex.

Today, U.S. and Russian flight directors and spacewalk specialists began
comprehensive discussions on the details of the spacewalk. Padalka and
Fincke are expected to begin Orlan suit preparations next week and are
expected to climb into the suits around June 11 in a dress rehearsal to
insure that the suits are operating properly.

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/

-more-

The next ISS status report will be issued on following the ISS Progress 14
docking on Thursday, May 27, or earlier, if events warrant.



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info