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03 May 2003

ISS On-Orbit Status 2 May 2003

Part 2 of 4

Budarin and Malenchenko spent some time with "symbolic activities",
viz., processing commemorative items brought up on Soyuz 6S,
including signing and stamping envelopes.  The returning crew will
also carry stowage completion certificates signed by the two
cosmonauts (to help with IMS inventory maintenance).

All crewmembers worked out vigorously on the RED resistive trainer,
CEVIS cycle ergometer and TVIS treadmill, completing their daily
physical exercise program.

At 6:30am EDT, both crews participated in two live PAO television
downlinks (6 min. each) with the CBS Early Show (Hannah Storm) and
CNN (Miles O'Brien).

The ARCTIC-1 refrigerator/freezer has finally failed and is now
deactivated. It will not be needed during Increment 7.  [Good try,
team and crew!] 

The on-board File Server (FS) experienced a "crash" yesterday, but
its functionality was recovered by this morning, and the crew could
see and (later) use its data, including email.  The only restoration
not successfully completed pertains to archive data (old files,
timelines, etc.).  It will take ~3 hrs. to restore these, and since
the FS would be inaccessible to the crew during this time, the
activity will be done after undock.  [Due to the FS crash, EarthKAM
lost an estimated 12 hrs. of imaging opportunity, but this will be
recovered by restorative ground commanding.] 

Instructions were uplinked for the returning crew for the required
"fluid loading" prior to reentry into gravity (to maintain
orthostatic tolerance). [Budarin is to take  salt supplements (VSD)
in the form of three table salt tablets (sodium chloride, NaCl)
during his meals tomorrow along with 300 ml of fluid, plus two
additional tablets plus 200 ml with every meal while in the Soyuz.
Bowersox and Pettit have it slightly different: eight NaCl tablets
each while on the ISS spread out over the day (two with 240 ml water
at a time), and two tablets in the Soyuz prior to hatch closure.
This is consistent with the standard Shuttle fluid loading protocol
for their given weight.]

For the reentry, all crewmembers will wear the Russian Kentavr anti-G
suit. The suits are kept in the habitation module of the Soyuz TMA
until undock day.  How will the crew experience the ballistic reentry
in the Soyuz 5S Descent Module, a First for Bowersox and Pettit  as
well as for the TMA model?  See Appendix, below. [The Russian Kentavr
garment is a protective anti-g suit ensemble to facilitate the return
of a long-duration crewmember into the Earth gravity.  Consisting of
shorts, gaiters, underpants, jersey and socks, it acts as
countermeasure for circulatory disturbance, prevents crewmember from
overloading during descent and increases orthostatic tolerance during
post-flight adaptation.] 

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

Exp. 6/Exp. 7 Change of Command Ceremony -- 2:11pm EDT
Farewells & Hatch closing -- 3:32pm EDT
Soyuz TMA-1/5S undocking (Exp. 6):  6:43pm EDT (2:43am Moscow, 1:43am
DMT (TsUP), on 5/4);
Soyuz TMA-1/5S landing:  10:06pm EDT (6:06am Moscow; 5:06am DMT;
8:06am Kazakhstan, on 5/4).
Preferred landing will be on the first oirbit, with the resulting
site at 51.2 n.Lat, 67.1 e.Long, about 89 km north from the center of
the nominal landing ellipse (Arkhalykj/Astana region in Turgay
province of Kazakhstan). There will be two additional/backup landing
opportunities on subsequent orbits.

Predicted weather conditions at Landing Site (to be updated 30 min.
prior to undock, with MCC-H being informed ~6:15pm EDT):  Partially
cloudy, temperature: around 7 degC; stort periods of rain; wind 5-10
m/s from S, cloud layer between 300/600 m and 1000m.  Conditions are
acceptable.  MCC-H and MCC-M will confer 30 min. before undock.;

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 Athens, Greece (nadir and a touch
right; ESC [electronic still camera]), Alexandria, Egypt (nadir pass;
ESC), Nile River Delta (shooting land use detail, looking just right
of rack into the midday sun glint disc), Cairo, Egypt (nadir pass;
ESC), Newfoundland sea ice (Dynamic event. To generate a time series,
complementing excellent recent images, crew was to document the
continued break-up of the large ice accumulation along the west coast
of Newfoundland), Industrialized SE Africa (crew was to try oblique
shots, right of track, especially near the Indian Ocean coast, as and
after they exited the land mass), Saharan dust plume, Senegal
(Dynamic event. Major plume exiting in Dakar region heading
southwest. Looking left towards West Africa), Navassa Island,
Caribbean (nadir pass. Shooting fringing coral reefs for a global
mapping study under way), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (nadir pass; ESC),
Las Vegas, Nevada (nadir pass; ESC), Phoenix, AZ (nadir pass; ESC),
Tucson, Arizona (nadir pass; ESC), Mexico City, Mexico (nadir pass;
ESC), Puebla, Mexico(nadir pass; ESC), High Central Andean Glaciers
(shooting detailed views of near nadir high volcanic peaks with snow
or ice-pack), Argentine floods (Dynamic event. Largest floods ever
recorded in the southern Parana River basin.  Shooting nadir shots
over the 15-mile wide floodplain.  Then, one minute later trying for
shots as the sun glint disc crosses the floodplain, for detailed,
high-contrast views), Atlanta, Georgia (nadir pass; ESC), Osaka,
Japan (left of track, Osaka and the string of associated cities came
into view), Tokyo, Japan (nadir pass; ESC), and Chongqing, China
(nadir pass over this major industrial city in the inland province of
Sichuan). CEO images can be viewed at the websites
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov and http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

 - Continued -

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