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18 May 2003

ISS On-Orbit Status 17 May 2003

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted
previously or below.  Saturday, the first of two off-duty days for
the crew (except for standard maintenance and optional task list
jobs). 

Floating through their voluminous residence after wake-up at the
regular 2:00am EDT, morning inspection, hygiene and breakfast, the
two crewmembers performed the regular weekly 3-hr. housecleaning.
[The "uborka stantsii" focuses on removal of food waste products,
cleaning of compartments with vacuum cleaner, wet cleaning of the
Service Module (SM) dining table and other surfaces with
disinfectants ("Fungistat") and cleaning of fan screens to avoid
temperature rises.] 

CDR Yuri Malenchenko then completed the daily routine maintenance on
the SM's SOZh life support system, while FE/SO Ed Lu prepared the
daily IMS (inventory management system) delta file for automatic
export/import to update the database.

Working from the Russian discretionary task list, Malenchenko
conducted another session of the Russian GFI-8 Uragan ("hurricane")
earth imaging program, using the Kodak DCS760 digital still camera
with 800-mm lens to image the City of Abuja in Nigeria, one of the
fastest growing population centers in the Third World.  [Detailed
imagery of such cities and their suburbs is used for the analysis of
these rapidly changing entities.] 

Lu and Malenchenko completed their daily physical exercise program,
on TVIS treadmill, RED (resistive exercise device), CEVIS bike and,
for Yuri, on the Russian VELO cycle ergometer with load trainer.

Due to the premature wear found on the just-removed RED Flexpack
canister cords, the crew was asked to perform, for the next two
weeks, a daily inspection on the cord of the front can, to ensure
that the new cord installed is not quickly compromised with abnormal
or unusual wear.  This visual inspection, to be made prior to the
beginning of the exercise session, will take only about one minute.

The crew had their weekly conferences with the JSC Astronaut Office
(Kent Rominger) and ISS Program management.

A master list of all on-board hard-copy procedure books and recent
pen-and-ink changes was uplinked.  [There are over a dozen procedures
books in the station, covering caution and warning, emergencies, EVA
systems, structures & mechanics, photo/television, medical
checklists, and payload ops.  They are hard copies, in case the
electronic files/reader system is unavailable.]

Next Monday's EVA suit activities review (to prepare for the suit
don/doff dry-run on 5/28) has been added to the crew's "job jar" task
list, so that the Ed and Yuri have the choice of doing it over the
weekend.  [The review uses video instruction uplinked to the MACE
(mass access computer equipment) in .mpg file format.]

Also on the task list and hard-scheduled for 5/20 (Tuesday) is the
Expedition 7 crew's required computer-based training (CBT) for the
Human Research Facility's Gas Analyzer System for Metabolic Analysis
Physiology (HRF GASMAP).   [In a change from Increment 6 procedures,
the 90-day health check has been replaced by 30-day health checks for
this increment.  Also, while the CBT calls for a warm-up period of 5
hours, the procedure specifies only a 3h warm-up (2h standby mode
plus 1hr of operate mode).  HRF personnel will be on console to
support the GASMAP activity on 5/20.] 

Today's CEO (crew earth observations) targets, severely restricted by
limited the use of the science window in the Lab due to the current
XPOP attitude, were El Paso, Texas (nadir pass), Monterrey, Mexico
(nadir pass), Smoke, central & south Mexico (Dynamic event. Clouds
have dispersed so that smoke from fires on the Mexico-Guatemala
border should have been visible in much of the western Gulf of
Mexico, with margins between separate masses of smoke.  Smoke
reported thickening and drifting north under track.  Shooting
obliques left and right.  Source fires should have been visible in
the morning), Anatahan Volcano, N. Marianas (Dynamic event. Anatahan
Volcano, about 2.5 deg right of track.  The plume has fanned out very
wide, so wide angle lenses were probably called for), and Angolan
Biomass Burning (fires starting very early this year in the most
combustible part of the planet. Looking left and right for fires and
smoke palls). CEO images can be viewed at the websites
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov and http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:36am EDT [= epoch]):

Mean altitude -- 389.6 km
Apogee -- 393.8 km
Perigee -- 385.4 km
Period -- 92.35 min.
Inclination (to Equator) --  51.63 deg
Eccentricity -- 0.0006257
Orbits per 24-hr. day -- 15.59
Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours -- 30 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. '98)  -- 25621
For more on ISS orbit and worldwide naked-eye visibility dates/times,
see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html

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