[sarex] EXP 10 STATUS REPORT #05-9

["ARTHUR Z. ROWE" <N1ORC@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Submitted by Arthur N1ORC - Amsat A/C #31468

*International Space Station Status Report #05-9*
*3 p.m. CST, Friday, Feb. 25, 2005*
*Expedition 10 Crew*

The crew members aboard the International Space Station are winding down 
a week that saw them preparing for the arrival of a new cargo spacecraft 
and helping achieve a milestone in Station robotics operations, which 
has the potential for long-term exploration applications.

Expedition 10 Commander and NASA Station Science Officer Leroy Chiao and 
Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov spent part of the week packing the 
Russian Progress supply spacecraft with trash and other items no longer 
needed on the Station. They closed the hatch between Progress and the 
Zvezda Service Module this morning in advance of the ship’s undocking 
Sunday.

The unpiloted spacecraft will be undocked Sunday at 11:06 a.m. EST. A 
pair of engine firings will place the vehicle in an orbit a safe 
distance away from the Station to allow Russian flight controllers to 
conduct engineering tests before it is commanded to reenter the Earth’s 
atmosphere on March 9 and burn up. The Progress arrived at the Station 
in December, bringing food and supplies to Chiao and Sharipov.

The next Progress that will be sent to the Station, will be moved to its 
launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan tomorrow for final 
preparations for its liftoff Monday at 2:09 p.m. EST. After a two-day 
journey, docking is scheduled on Wednesday, March 2, at 3:15 p.m. EST. 
NASA TV will provide live coverage of the docking beginning at 2:30 p.m. 
EST. This will be the 17th Progress to dock with the Station.

The new Progress is loaded with more than two tons of supplies and food, 
including 2,932 pounds of spare parts, equipment, experiment hardware 
and life support system gear, 386 pounds of propellent, 242 pounds of 
oxygen and air, and 1,071 pounds of water. Eighty six food containers 
are also loaded into the Progress, good for more than 160 days of 
additional provisions in the Station’s pantry above what is already on 
board.

Among the other key U.S. items being carried to the Station on the 
supply ship is a new heat exchanger device for the cooling of U.S. 
spacesuits in the Quest Airlock. It will replace a heat exchanger that 
introduced rust in the suits last year, canceling Station spacewalks out 
of the U.S. segment. The new component will be installed by Chiao next 
month and checked out by the next crew, Expedition 11, to permit the 
airlock to be used again this summer. Also being delivered are digital 
cameras and lenses that the Expedition 11 crew will use to collect 
imagery of the heat-protective tiles of the Shuttle Discovery during its 
approach to the Station during this spring’s Return to Flight mission, 
STS-114, prior to docking. That imagery will assist in helping mission 
managers determine whether Discovery’s thermal protection system is 
intact and able to support a safe return to Earth.

Earlier today, engineers completed a two-day test of new software that 
was loaded into the Canadarm2 robotic arm last month to allow remote 
control operation of the space crane from Mission Control, rather than 
by the crew on board. The test was declared a success.

Chiao stood by at the robotic work station in the Destiny laboratory, 
ready to take over manual operation of the arm if necessary, but the 
automated commands loaded into the arm enabled Canadarm2 to move 
effortlessly throughout the demonstration. Its shoulder and wrist joints 
and its latching end effector were all exercised, verifying a new 
capability that may yield valuable data for designers of more complex 
robotic hardware for spacecraft that will support the Vision for Space 
Exploration.

Chiao also installed a rotor pump in one of the U.S. space suits on the 
Station today to configure it properly for its return to Earth on the 
STS-121 Shuttle mission to the outpost targeted for mid-July.

On the research front, Chiao conducted a session this week with the Dust 
and Aerosol Measurement Feasibility Test, or DAFT. The experiment, 
developed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, is 
designed to test the effectiveness of a device that counts ultra-fine 
dust particles in a microgravity environment. This is a precursor to the 
next generation of fire detection equipment for space exploration vehicles.

The device, called a P-Trak®, counts the dust particles by passing 
dust-laden air through a chamber of vaporous isopropyl alcohol. When a 
droplet of alcohol condenses over an ultra-fine dust particle, the 
particle becomes large enough to break the light beam and be counted. 
NASA’s payload operations team at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center 
coordinates science activities on Space Station.

Information about crew activities on the Space Station, future launch 
dates and Station sighting opportunities from Earth, is available on the 
Internet at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

The next International Space Station Status report will be issued on 
Monday, Feb. 28 following the ISS Progress 17 launch, or earlier if 
events warrant.

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