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01 May 2003

ISS On-Orbit Status 30 Apr 2003

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted
previously or below.  Day 158 for Expedition 6 (since STS-113 launch,
11/23/02 [156 days aboard ISS]).

Handovers continued between Expedition 6 and the Expedition 7 crews.

FE-1 Nikolai Budarin completed the first day of the Russian MBI-2
Deuraz ("Diuresis") experiment, conducted by him today and tomorrow.
[Deuraz required Budarin today to record toilet use time in the
morning, perform urine sample collections throughout the day, and
log meal and fluid intake on a record card.  Additional work, to be
completed on Thursday, consists of collecting venous blood samples
from Budarin, followed by centrifugation to separate the blood into
cells and plasma, and finally closeout and stowage.] 

CDR-7 Yuri Malenchenko and Budarin continued the Russian BTX-10
"Conjugation" experiment, which pursues development of new methods of
engineering of new recombinant strains of protein producers.
[Malenchenko monitored the run, replacing the ice packs with new ones
from the Biokont-T container, while Budarin took imagery of the
Biokont-T operations.  This will be done daily until 5/3 for return
on 5S/Soyuz). 

FE-1 Nikolai Budarin, observed closely by Yuri Malenchenko, started
regeneration for absorbent bed #2 of the BMP harmful impurities unit,
switching channel 2 back to Purify mode.  [The "bakeout" cycle in the
filter beds is repeated every 20 days.  Each bakeout to space vacuum
takes about 24 hours.]

Malenchenko conducted the periodic inspection of the (new) BRPK-1
air/condensate water separator in the Service Module (SM).  [When the
BRPK exceeds its service life or is malfunctioning, incomplete
separation of the atmospheric condensate occurs and water accumulates
under the "sheet" of porous hydrophilic fluoroplastic.]

FE-1-7 Edward  Lu reconfigured the HRF (human research facility)
laptop computer and workstation with the backup drives, to provide
ample disk space for upcoming HRF Increment 7 events.

Bowersox and Lu checked out the station's communications
configuration prior to Soyuz undocking.

Yesterday's InSPACE (investigating the structure of paramagnetic
aggregates from colloidal emulsions) run performed similar to
previous runs.  The ground team is awaiting data analysis results to
determine the validity of data received from the MSG (Microgravity
Science Glovebox).  [Yesterday's InSPACE operations by Don and Ed
were a continuation of testing with the CA005 (coil assembly #5) that
contains 0.4 micron particles, including changing the frequency value
of the electric field during the all-day monitoring and switching the
video cassette.] 

Malenchenko completed the daily routine task of SOZh life support
systems maintenance and prepared the daily IMS (inventory management
system) "delta" file for updating the IMS database.

Nikolai Budarin conducted his daily checkup of the BIO-5
"Rasteniya-2/Lada-2" zero-G plant growth experiment.

CDR Ken Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin and Yuri Malenchenko completed
another three hours of nominal descent ops training in the Soyuz
TMA-1 spacecraft, with Yuri taking the place of Don Pettit for the
OBT.  During the training, the crew tagged up with ground specialists
at MCC-M/TsUP. 

All crewmembers worked out on the RED resistive trainer, CEVIS cycle
ergometer and TVIS treadmill, completing their daily physical
exercise program.  Pettit and Bowersox performed the weekly
maintenance of the TVIS, and Pettit also conducted the monthly
maintenance of the CEVIS. 

New targets were uplinked for the Russian Uragan earth observations
program for today and tomorrow.  [Today's targets were the city of
London, seven cities on the Rhine river in the Ruhr basin, open pit
mines south of Leipzig, flood land of the Oder river, panoramic
pictures of the Tatres and Karpaty mountain ranges, the dike of the
Krasnodarski water-storage reservoir and Krasnodar town, the Black
Sea coast, city of Sochi-Adler, the Elbrus mountain range, Kolka
glacier, city of Baku with oil contamination, and the mountain system
south of the Caspian Sea.] 

The crews received congratulations for yesterday's excellent PAO
event with U.S. media at NASA centers and Russian media at TsUP.

Today, at 6:45am EDT, both crews participated in live televised
interviews on ABC's Good Morning America and the NBC "Today" Show.

Upcoming Crew Rotation Events (all on Saturday, 5/3):

Exp. 6/Exp. 7 Change of Command Ceremony -- 2:11pm EDT
Farewells & Hatch closing -- 3:32pm EDT
Soyuz TMA-1/5S undocking (Exp. 6):  6:40pm EDT (2:40am Moscow, 1:40am
DMT (TsUP), on 5/4);
Soyuz TMA-1/5S landing:  10:03pm EDT (6:03am Moscow; 5:03am DMT;
8:03am Kazakhstan, on 5/4).

Today's optional CEO (crew earth observations) targets, including
cities during daylight and at night (again available as targets in
the current LVLH attitude) were Irrawaddy River delta, Myanmar
(opportunity for detailed mapping in sun glint, just right of track),
Karachi, Pakistan (nadir pass; ESC [electronic still camera]),
Bombay, India (nadir pass; ESC), Tessina landslide site, Italy
(active research is being undertaken in and around this hazardous
Alpine avalanche site.  Request for a series of detailed views near
nadir), Damascus, Syria (nadir pass; ESC), Tunis, Tunisia (left of
track on the coast; ESC), Zambezi River wetland, Zambia (Dynamic
event. Sun glint opportunity just right of track for major
mid-continent swampland drainage patterns, that are both poorly
mapped and poorly understood), Seattle, Washington (nadir pass; ESC),
Dakar, Senegal (nadir pass; ESC), Albuquerque, New Mexico (nadir
pass; ESC), and La Paz, Bolivia (night target. Nadir pass). CEO
images can be viewed at the websites http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov and
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

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