International Space Station Status Report #39 - 2005

Report #39
3 p.m. CDT, Friday, Aug. 12, 2005
Mission Control Center, Houston

After saying goodbye to the visiting Space Shuttle Discovery Saturday,
International Space Station Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Science
Officer John Phillips spent much of this week preparing for a spacewalk they
will conduct next week.

On their upcoming spacewalk, Krikalev and Phillips will change out a Russian
biological experiment, retrieve some radiation sensors, remove a Japanese
materials science experiment, photograph a Russian materials experiment,
install a television camera and relocate a grapple fixture. The six-hour
spacewalk begins at 1:55 p.m. CDT Thursday. Live coverage on NASA TV will
begin at 12:30 p.m. CDT.

At 12:44 a.m. CDT Tuesday, Krikalev's time spent in space will surpass that
of any other human being. Krikalev's record will pass the one now held by
Cosomonaut Sergei Avdeyev, who spent 748 days in orbit. Krikalev is a
veteran of six space flights, two long-duration flights to the Soviet Union
Space Station Mir; two flights on the Space Shuttle; and, counting this
mission, two flights to the International Space Station. Krikalev was aboard
the Space Station Mir when the Soviet Union disintegrated. He became the
first Russian to fly on the Space Shuttle in 1994. He was a member of the
Shuttle crew that began assembly of the International Space Station in 1998.
In 2000, he was a member of the first resident International Space Station
crew.

Krikalev and Phillips had an off duty day on Sunday. On Monday they worked
to unpack and prepare spacewalk tools and to ready the Pirs docking
compartment, from which the spacewalk will be conducted. They continued
spacewalk preparations for the rest of the week, checking the Russian Orlan
spacesuits they will wear and talking with spacewalk experts in the Russian
Mission Control Center and in Houston.

On Thursday, the Russian Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal system shut down
aboard the Station. The system is one of multiple systems that can be used
to scrub the Station cabin air. Flight controllers in Houston have activated
a U.S. Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly to perform that function while the
Vozdukh is not operating. Russian specialists are continuing to analyze the
problem.

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://www.nasa.gov/station

The next Station status report will be issued on Thursday, Aug. 18, after
the spacewalk, or earlier if events warrant.



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info