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International Space Station Status Report #32 - 2004



 
 
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Old June 25th 04, 04:11 PM
Jacques van Oene
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Default International Space Station Status Report #32 - 2004

International Space Station Status Report #32

2004
Report #32
8 p.m. CDT Thursday, June 24, 2004
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

A spacewalk intended to replace a faulty circuit breaker on the exterior of
the International Space Station was cut short when the primary oxygen bottle
on Astronaut Mike Fincke's Russian space suit began losing pressure faster
than expected.

The overall pressure in Fincke's suit remained stable at all times and he
was not in danger. A backup oxygen tank available on his suit was not
needed.

Fincke and Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka opened the Pirs docking
compartment hatch at 4:56 p.m. CDT. Immediately after Fincke floated out of
the airlock, flight controllers in Moscow saw readings that indicated the
primary oxygen bottle on Fincke's suit was losing pressure.

The two spacewalkers returned to the airlock and closed the hatch about 14
minutes later. After conducting preliminary troubleshooting activities,
Padalka and Fincke were asked to remove the Orlan-M spacesuits and assist
with troubleshooting of Fincke's suit. Russian flight controllers could not
immediately determine the cause of the malfunction.

Fincke and Padalka then climbed out of the suits, returned to the Station's
living quarters and began working with ground controllers to reconfigure the
Station's systems for normal operations. The duration of Fincke and
Padalka's spacewalk was 14 minutes, 22 seconds.

Mission managers in Houston and Moscow agreed to conduct further evaluation
of the problem before setting a new target date for the spacewalk. The
earliest the spacewalk could now be performed is June 29 based on Russian
ground communications coverage.

Fincke told Mission Control in Houston that he was pleased flight
controllers in Moscow had discovered the oxygen tank problem so quickly, and
thanked both control teams for their efforts. He indicated the crew would
sleep late tomorrow, and then resume their regular sleep schedule until it
was time to prepare for another spacewalk.

The spacewalk's goal is to replace a Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM)
which houses a faulty circuit breaker, through which power is routed to one
of the Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs).

There are four CMGs in the Station's Z1 truss. They control the orientation
of the ISS in space. CMG 1 failed about two years ago, and will be replaced
during the next Shuttle mission. CMG 2 was taken off line by the April 21
failure of the circuit breaker and should be restored by the RPCM's
replacement. Meanwhile, two functioning CMGs adequately control the
station's attitude.

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/

The next ISS status report will be issued as events warrant.

-end-


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

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info



 




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