[sarex] ISS STATUS REPORT #05-35 - 8 JULY 2005

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

SUBMITTED BY AERTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #32468

*International Space Station Status Report #05-35*
*4:00 p.m. CDT, Friday, July 8, 2005*
*Expedition 11 Crew*

After a light duty three-day holiday weekend, the International Space 
Station Expedition 11 crew returned to work for a short, but intense 
week of science experiments, spacesuit preparations and packing for the 
upcoming Space Shuttle mission.

Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Science Officer John Phillips spent 
much of their time this week gathering and packing items on board to be 
returned in the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) during 
Discovery's visit to the Station next week. The MPLM will weigh 18,166 
pounds when it is launched aboard Discovery and 19,745 pounds when it 
returns, after supplies for the Station have been unloaded and unneeded 
gear loaded. The crew also made room for additional stowage in the Quest 
Airlock to be available during the docked operations. With a Wednesday 
launch, the Shuttle will dock with the Station on July 16.

Three spacewalks are scheduled during the mission using U.S. spacesuits. 
To maximize the efficiency of the batteries, Phillips conducted a series 
of charging and discharging cycles of the spacesuit batteries this week.

On Tuesday, the Space Station was raised nearly 4 miles in order to 
better position the complex for the Space Shuttle rendezvous. Engines on 
the docked Progress vehicle were fired for just over seven minutes, 
increasing the amount of days the Shuttle can launch and rendezvous on 
the third day of the mission.

Station television cameras captured video as it passed over then 
Tropical Storm Dennis. Late Wednesday, cameras captured views of the 
storm as the Station passed over the Caribbean, south of Haiti. 
Additional sighting opportunities for Hurricane Dennis are anticipated 
over the weekend and will be provided next week.

Throughout the week, the crew had numerous other Earth observation and 
photo opportunities including sightings of Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya, 
the Nile River Delta in Egypt, and Hong Kong.

Krikalev repressurized the Station atmosphere using oxygen from the 
newly arrived Progress vehicle. He also transferred water from tanks on 
the Progress to tanks in the Service Module.

Phillips and Krikalev conducted the second of three sessions with the 
Renal Stone experiment. The experiment investigates whether potassium 
citrate can be used as a countermeasure to minimize the risk of kidney 
stone formation in space.

The crew ended its week with a live news conference with journalists at 
NASA's Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center. The weekend 
includes mostly off-duty time as well as routine housekeeping activities 
and conferences with management and support staff.

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://www.nasa.gov/station

ISS status reports will not be issued during the STS-114 Space Shuttle 
mission. Station activities will be included in the Shuttle mission 
status reports, which are planned twice daily or as events warrant.

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