[sarex] ISS STATUS REPORT #04-5

[Arthur Z Rowe <n1orc@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    International Space Station Status Report #04-5
    4 p.m. CST, Friday, Jan. 23, 2004
    Expedition 8 Crew

    Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander
    Kaleri are preparing for next week's arrival of their first packages
    from home in almost three months.

    Foale and Kaleri spent much of this week packing up trash to be
    jettisoned from the International Space Station in an old supply
    ship to make room for a new Progress cargo craft. They packed the
    unneeded equipment aboard the ISS Progress 12 resupply vehicle and
    prepared it for undocking from the Station at 2:36 a.m. CST
    Wednesday. The next resupply vehicle, ISS Progress 13, is planned to
    launch at 5:58 a.m. Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
    Kazakhstan. Progress 13 is scheduled to dock with the Station at
    7:18 a.m. Jan. 31. The cargo includes fresh food, clothes, spare
    parts and other equipment

    Following the discovery and removal of a leaky vent hose two weeks
    ago that was part of a window system in the U.S. Destiny Lab, the
    Station’s air pressure has been steady. A replacement for the hose
    will be launched aboard Progress 13.

    Also this week, Kaleri followed up his replacement last week of a
    liquid separation unit for the Russian Elektron oxygen generation
    system by replacing the electronics package associated with the
    system. The crew noted a rattling noise in an air filter component
    on the Elektron, and an additional pressure regulator for the
    Elektron will be added to the Progress 13 cargo to address that noise.

    The pair also conducted several Russian routine medical evaluations
    this week and continued their regimen of exercise on a variety of
    pieces of training equipment.

    Last weekend, Foale and Kaleri spent two days in the Russian living
    quarters of the Station in a test to gather data on pressures in
    sections of the complex. Foale and Kaleri floated into the Zvezda
    living quarters module shortly after 2 p.m. CST Jan. 16, closing
    several hatches behind them that divided the station into four
    sections. They reopened the hatches about 11 a.m. Sunday. Flight
    controllers in Houston and Russia monitored air pressure in the
    sections of the Station during the weekend.

    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 on following the Progress
    undocking on Wednesday, or earlier if events warrant.


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