International Space Station Status Report #15, 2005

International Space Station Status Report #15

2005
Report #15
5 p.m. CST, Friday, March 25, 2005
Mission Control Center, Houston

Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov
completed preparations for a Monday spacewalk this week and rested to
prepare for the excursion.

Sharipov and Chiao are set to step outside early Monday for nearly six hours
to continue the external outfitting of the Station with antennas for the
European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). They also will deploy a small
Russian technology satellite, Nanosatellite, to test control techniques.

NASA Television will broadcast the spacewalk live beginning at 11 p.m. CST
Sunday. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at about 12:25 a.m. CST Monday.

It is planned to be the second and final planned spacewalk of the
expedition. They began preparations last Friday with a spacewalk timeline
review. They also gathered tools they will use to install the antennas on
the exterior of the Station's Zvezda living quarters module. On Monday, the
crew worked out on a stationary bicycle while doctors on the ground
monitored their health and they were pronounced physically fit for the
spacewalk. The crew also checked the health of the breadbox-sized satellite,
finding it in good order.

The spacewalkers will install the fourth, fifth and sixth in a series of
communications antennas for the European ATV. They also will install a
Global Positioning System antenna on Zvezda and inspect and photograph the
large "Lira" antenna on Zvezda to insure it is in the correct position.

Early today, a thermal control loop panel in Zvezda that provides cooling to
the Pirs airlock failed, and its backup system was activated to provide the
necessary cooling. There are two circulating pumps associated with each
panel. Both pump panels are needed to provide adequate backup capability for
the spacewalk. The crew will troubleshoot the pump panel early Saturday, and
replace one or both of the pumps in the degraded panel.

The crew will close hatches between the U.S. and Russian segments of the
Station at 4:55 p.m. Sunday, deactivate nonessential systems on the Station
at 5:30 p.m. and perform preliminary spacesuit tests at 7 p.m. Airlock
systems checks are set for 9:20 p.m., and final suit checks at 9:50 p.m.

Chiao and Sharipov will climb into their Orlan suits at 10:10 p.m. Sunday
and will begin depressurizing the airlock at 10:40 p.m. The spacewalk will
officially begin when they open the Pirs hatch about 12:25 a.m. CST Monday.

Also this week, the crew repressurized the Station using oxygen from tanks
on the attached Progress supply ship. Mission managers elected to postpone
any further troubleshooting of the balky Elektron oxygen-generating system
until after the spacewalk. The Elektron, which converts water into oxygen,
is one of several methods that can be used to provide oxygen.

Ground controllers powered up the Mobile Servicing System on Wednesday and
confirmed software was working properly after an update last week. The
Canadarm2 robotic arm is in position for its cameras to provide television
views of the spacewalk.

Russian flight controllers commanded Station thrusters to fire and increase
the altitude of the complex by about 1.8 statute miles. The reboost places
the Station at the correct altitude and trajectory for the launch of the
next crew, Expedition 11, and a European Space Agency astronaut on April 15.

On Thursday, managers approved a plan to make connections that will bypass a
failed circuit breaker, called a Remote Power Controller, on the first
spacewalk to be conducted during Shuttle mission STS-114. The job is planned
to be a five-minute task on that spacewalk, the first of three to be
conducted by the Shuttle Return-to- Flight crew while Discovery is docked to
the Station. STS-114 spacewalker Steve Robinson will reconfigure power
cables to bypass that circuit breaker, providing power to restart a Station
Control Moment Gyroscope. Power was removed from that gyroscope last week
when the circuit breaker failed.

Later on the Shuttle mission, Robinson and fellow spacewalker Soichi Noguchi
will replace another gyroscope that failed in June 2002. Once complete, the
work will restore the Station to four operating gyroscopes. The Station's
orientation is being maintained well now by only two gyroscopes, but more
will be needed as assembly of the complex resumes and its size increases.

Information about crew activities on the Station, future launch dates and
Station sighting opportunities from Earth, is available on the Internet at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

The next International Space Station Status report will be issued on Monday,
March 28, following the spacewalk or earlier if events warrant.


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info