ISS Status Report No. 34 - 2003

International Space Station Status Report #03-34
4 p.m. CDT, Friday, July 18, 2003
Expedition 7 Crew

The Expedition 7 crew, Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science
Officer Ed Lu, prepared for a new science experiment and performed
maintenance activities this week aboard the International Space Station.

Lu completed the installment of, and checkout procedures for the Coarsening
of Solid-Liquid Mixtures 2 experiment in preparation for its first
scientific run aboard the Space Station next week. The materials science
payload is ready for data collection in the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox
in the U.S. laboratory Destiny. The experiment will study a process called
coarsening during which the strength of a material is reduced. This
phenomenon is seen in high-temperature turbine blades and even in the
material used in dental fillings.

Lu transferred the file server that houses information for the Station
Support Computer (SSC) laptops to a Next Generation Laptop to increase the
speed and memory of the Station network. The crew uses the six SSC laptops
to access daily plans, procedures, the inventory management system and
electronic mail. Ultimately all of the SSC laptops as well as the Portable
Station Computers that perform command and control functions of the ISS will
be upgraded to the Next Generation Laptops.

Malenchenko and Lu routinely inspected the Zvezda Service Module and Pirs
Docking Compartment windows and took electronic images to downlink to
engineers for analysis. Malenchenko also replaced a failed battery in Zvezda
with a spare.

A troubleshooting procedure performed by Lu to recover the cooling
capability in his spacesuit was unsuccessful. A third, larger spacesuit is
available to be resized for Lu's use in the event a spacewalk is necessary.
The cooling system in Lu's spacesuit did not function correctly during a
practice run in the Quest Airlock at the beginning of this mission. The
Expedition 7 crew is not scheduled to conduct a spacewalk, but had practiced
getting into the U.S. spacesuits in case of emergency.

Earlier this week, the Johnson Space Center and the Mission Control Center
remained at a concerned level of preparedness but there was no impact to
mission operations during the arrival of Hurricane Claudette along Texas
Coast. Lu was able to capture video and still images of the storm as it
approached the coast on Tuesday. Those images and information on the crew's
activities aboard the Space Station, future launch dates, as well as Station
sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth are available 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/

The next ISS status report will be issued on Friday, July 25, or sooner if
events warrant.

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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info

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