INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS06-034

July 21, 2006

Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0688

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111

STATUS REPORT: SS06-034

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS06-034

For the first time since early 2003, the International Space Station
is home to three crew members. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas
Reiter joined Expedition 13 following Space Shuttle Discovery's
mission earlier this month.

Reiter, who serves as the expedition flight engineer, Commander Pavel
Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams got down to business.
Their tasks this week included activating a new high-tech freezer;
installing additional sound suppression devices; performing a
functional check of a new oxygen generation system, which will become
active next year; and preparing for the next spacewalk, set for just
before 10 a.m. EDT on Aug. 3.

Discovery left behind about three tons of supplies, hardware and
experiments as well as 175 gallons (660 liters) of water and 74
pounds (33 kilograms) of nitrogen, leaving the station in excellent
condition to support the crew of three.

One of the most anticipated experiment racks, the Minus Eighty
Laboratory Freezer for ISS, was activated. The freezer will allow
biological and human research experiment samples to be stored until
they are returned to Earth for evaluation.

The recent Discovery mission brought the new oxygen generation system
and the freezer to the station. Status checks were performed this
week on the newly installed oxygen system to prevent its internal
valves from sticking over long periods of dormancy. Once it is
activated, the device will augment the Russian Elektron
oxygen-generation system in preparation for the further expansion of
the station crew to six people.

The crew also began preparations for the next spacewalk. The spacewalk
by Williams and Reiter will be conducted in U.S. spacesuits. The
astronauts will deploy external experiments and prepare station truss
components for future assembly work. Additional solar panels and
electrical equipment will be delivered by the next two space shuttle
missions, scheduled for late August and December. Spacewalk
preparations included flushing cooling loops in the Quest airlock and
the spacesuits and configuring airlock systems and tools. The
astronauts also reviewed station robotic arm procedures.

The next station status report will be issued on Friday, July 28, or
earlier if events warrant.

For more about the crew's activities and station sighting
opportunities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.nl

Jacques van Oene wrote:
functional check of a new oxygen generation system, which will become
active next year;

and the freezer to the station. Status checks were performed this
week on the newly installed oxygen system to prevent its internal
valves from sticking over long periods of dormancy.


Is there any reason for not getting the O2 generator working right away ?

Seems to me that NASA should be eager to put it "on-line" ASAP and test
it in regular use to see how realiable it is.

Leaving it dormant now for a year not only delays finding out if the
thing works reliably, but also gives it a year of inactivity during
which it will age some more. (How old is that device already ?). And
that is one less year to debiug it and potentially send a replacement
via Shuttle.