International Space Station Status Report #44 - 2003

Report #44
4:30 p.m. CDT, Thursday, September 4, 2003
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

An unmanned Russian Progress vehicle successfully undocked from the
International Space Station today, heading for a month of scientific benefit
before it is commanded to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Just a week after a twin vehicle was cast away from a different Station
port, the ISS Progress 11 craft, which arrived at the Station in mid-June,
departed the Pirs Docking Compartment at 2:42 p.m. CDT (1942 GMT) following
the unlatching of hooks holding the Progress to Pirs. As the Progress
undocked, the ISS was flying 240 statute miles over eastern China. The
Progress was filled with items no longer needed on the Station and trash.

Aboard the ISS, Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science
Officer Ed Lu monitored the autonomous operation and kept tabs as the
Progress backed away from the Station.

For the next month, Russian flight controllers will conduct several
scientific experiments with the Progress, using its television cameras to
capture imagery of sites of ecological interest to Russian researchers while
maintaining a safe distance away from the Station. Once those experiments
are completed, the Progress will automatically fire its engines to drop out
of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere.

A new ISS Progress 12 vehicle arrived at the ISS late Saturday night, U.S.
time, ferrying food, fuel, water and supplies for the Station's current
inhabitants and those to follow.

The departure of ISS Progress 11 sets the stage for next month's arrival of
the Soyuz TMA-3 vehicle to the Pirs Docking Compartment delivering the next
resident crew to the ISS along with European Space Agency astronaut Pedro
Duque of Spain.

Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale, Expedition 8 Soyuz Commander and Flight
Engineer Alexander Kaleri, and Duque are scheduled to be launched October 18
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, headed for a docking to Pirs on
October 20. Duque will spend eight days aboard the ISS conducting science
experiments under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Aviation
and Space Agency. Duque will return to Earth on Oct. 28 with Malenchenko and
Lu. Foale and Kaleri will spend almost 200 days on the Station.

Information on the crew's continuing activities on the Space Station, future
launch dates and Station sighting opportunities from anywhere on Earth is
available 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 tomorrow, or sooner if events
warrant.




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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info

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