International Space Station Status Report #46 - 2004

Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 13:35:24 -0500
From:
Subject: International Space Station Status Report #46

2004
Report #46
1:30 p.m. CDT Friday, Aug. 13, 2004
Mission Control Center, Houston

The Expedition 9 crew aboard the International Space Station prepared this
week to receive another shipment of supplies. The crew also worked on
several science experiments and routine maintenance of Station systems.

A Russian Progress cargo craft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan at 12:03 a.m. CDT Wednesday, and is due to dock to the aft port
of the Zvezda module at 12:02 a.m. CDT Saturday. NASA Television will
broadcast the docking live with coverage beginning at 11 p.m. CDT.

Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Mike
Fincke prepared for the arrival of the craft by clearing room for the new
supplies and setting up video cameras to monitor its arrival. Padalka also
trained on the use of the Russian telerobotically operated docking system
that he would operate to manually dock the Progress in the unlikely event
the automated system is not available.

During the Station's orbits above the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea,
the crewmembers took photographs of Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane
Charley while video cameras on the exterior of the Destiny laboratory module
documented the storms' development.

Science activities for the crew included using the advanced ultrasound
equipment to gather more data about what ultrasound examinations of healthy
crewmembers look like while in microgravity. The work is also verifying
techniques developed for minimally trained people to conduct the
examinations with the help from doctors in remote places, such as Mission
Control, Houston in this instance.

The crew worked with a Russian experiment studying plasma-dust crystals and
another studying the changes in body mass while in space. The crew also
filled out dietary logs for two days to support the U.S. Biopsy experiment
studying the effects of long-duration space flight on human skeletal muscle.

On Monday, the crewmembers answered questions from students at the Waimea
Middle School in Kamuela, Hawaii with about 550 educators and students in
attendance. Tuesday Fincke contacted students at Good Shepherd School and
St. Paul's Catholic School in Decherd, Tennessee through the amateur radio
system onboard.

Regular maintenance was conducted on the ventilation system and periodic
environmental samples were collected. The crew also participated in a Soyuz
emergency evacuation drill.

More information on the ISS Progress 15 (M-50) spacecraft is available from
the Russian Federal Space Agency at:

http://www.federalspace.ru/video/Progress_M50_www.pdf

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/

NASA TV is available in the continental United States on AMC-6, at 72
degrees west longitude, Transponder 9, 3880 MHz, vertical polarization,
audio at 6.8 MHz. In Alaska or Hawaii, NASA TV can now be seen on AMC-7, at
137 degrees west longitude, Transponder 18, at 4060 MHz, vertical
polarization, audio at 6.8 MHz.

The next ISS status report will be issued after the Progress docking on
Saturday, August 14, or earlier, if events warrant.


###


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

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info