ISS Status Report No. 11 - 2004

International Space Station Status Report #04-11
9 p.m. CST, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004
Expedition 8 Crew

The residents of the International Space Station today conducted the first
ever two-man spacewalk without a crewmember inside, but the planned five and
a half hour-spacewalk to support technology experiments and prepare for a
future visit from a cargo vehicle was cut short by a cooling system problem
with one of the two crewmembers' Russian Orlan suits.

The spacewalk by Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer
Alexander Kaleri was proceeding smoothly and problem-free for almost three
hours until Kaleri reported that drops of water were beginning to form
inside his helmet visor and that his suit temperature was a little warm.
Within minutes, Russian flight controllers reported an apparent failure of
the system that provides cooling for Kaleri's suit. Initially, Russian suit
specialists surmised that the problem existed with the suit's sublimator
device, which provides cooling and dehumidifying capability and directed the
crew to end the spacewalk. Despite the problem, Kaleri was never in any
danger and suit temperatures never rose to uncomfortable levels.

Back inside the Pirs Docking Compartment from which the spacewalk was
staged, Foale removed his suit after Pirs was repressurized so he could
conduct an inspection of Kaleri's suit.

Foale quickly detected a kink in one of the tubes in Kaleri's liquid cooling
garment that provides the flow of water throughout the suit. The kink was
straightened out and water began to flow once again normally in Kaleri's
suit.

Earlier today, after configuring systems, closing module hatches and
buttoning up the Station in the unlikely event a problem would prevent them
from returning inside, Foale and Kaleri depressurized Pirs and opened the
hatch to begin their spacewalk at 3:17 p.m. CST (2117 GMT). It was the first
time the Station had not been occupied during a so-called "extravehicular
activity". U.S. and Russian technical teams had worked for months on
procedures to insure the safety of the crew and the complex and reviewed all
contingencies to mitigate possible risks with no one inside to respond to
potential problems.

All Station systems operated flawlessly in their autonomous configuration
during the abbreviated spacewalk.

Once outside the Pirs, Foale and Kaleri quickly set up tools and tethers to
guide them during the spacewalk that was focused on the exterior of Zvezda.
Their first task was the replacement of a cassette container on the Docking
Compartment airlock housing sample materials for the study of the harsh
effect of long-duration exposure of those materials to the space
environment. Foale replaced one of two similar cassettes housed on the
outside of Zvezda as the spacewalk drew to a premature close.

Foale and Kaleri then removed one of two suitcase-size pallets of Japanese
experiments from a bracket on Zvezda and moved a similar experiment package
to that bracket. The Micro-Particle Capturer and Space Environment Exposure
Devices (MPAC / SEEDS) had been in their current location since October 2001
when they were first installed outside Zvezda to measure micrometeoroid
impacts on material specimens.

Moving smartly through their tasks, Foale and Kaleri turned their attention
to the installation of a Russian experiment called "Matryoshka" onto
handrails outside Zvezda. The "Matryoshka" is a torso-like device housed in
a container comprised of material simulating human tissue. It is designed to
collect data on the absorption of radiation by crews living aboard the
Station for long periods of time.

As Foale and Kaleri completed their work to install the Matryoshka, Kaleri
reported his suit problem, at around 6 p.m. CST (0000 GMT).

Foale completed the installation of Russian material science experiment
container on the Zvezda Service Module as Kaleri made his way back to Pirs.
He and Foale closed the hatch to Pirs at 7:12 p.m. CST (0112 GMT) bringing
the spacewalk to a close after 3 hours, 55 minutes.

It was the 52nd spacewalk in support of Station assembly and maintenance,
the 27th staged from the Station itself, the fourth for Foale in his career
and Kaleri's fifth.

Once they are back inside the Station's living quarters, the crew will
reopen all of the hatches and prepare the Station for regular operations.
Foale and Kaleri are scheduled for several days of off-duty time through
early next week.

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.




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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info