ISS On-Orbit Status 8 Jun 2003<br /><br /> All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously<br />or below. Day 44 in space for Expedition 7. Ahead: Week 6 of Increment 7.<br /><br />11P/Progress M1-10/ was launched this morning with flawless perfection,<br />lifting off at Baikonur/Kasakhstan on time at 6:34am EDT. Deployments of<br />antennas and solar arrays were nominal. [The automated cargo ship inserted<br />itself into orbit at 6:43am and performed its first two maneuver burns DV1<br />(34 m/s) and DV2 (25.9 m/s) at 10:09 am and 10:56am. A small third burn,<br />DV3 (3 m/s), is scheduled for 6/10 (Tuesday) at 7:45am EDT. 11P is on its<br />way to rendezvous with the station in the morning of 6/11 (Wednesday).]<br /><br />CDR Yuri Malenchenko collected the weekly data readings of the Service<br />Module (SM)'s toilet flush and water supply status counters for calldown to<br />MCC-M, then completed the periodic inspection of the Elektron oxygen<br />generator's VM gas/liquid system for possible obstructing air bubbles.<br /><br />Yuri also performed the regular weekly inspection of the BRPK air/liquid<br />condensate separator system in the SM.<br /><br />Later, the CDR conducted the daily routine maintenance of the SM's SOZh life<br />support system (including ASU toilet facilities), while Flight<br />Engineer/Science Officer Ed LU prepared the daily IMS inventory "delta"<br />file.<br /><br />Malenchenko also completed his regular task of caring for the on-board<br />nursery, i.e., the daily monitoring/servicing of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2<br />zero-G plant growth experiment in the Lada-2 greenhouse.<br /><br />Both crewmembers completed their daily 2.5-h program of physical exercise,<br />on TVIS treadmill, RED expander and, for Yuri, on the Russian VELO cycle<br />ergometer with load trainer.<br /><br />The crew had their the weekly PFCs (private family conferences), via<br />S-band/audio.<br /><br />Working from the Russian discretionary task list, Malenchenko conducted<br />another session of the Russian Uragan ("hurricane") earth imaging program<br />(GFI-8), using the Kodak DCS 760 digital camera with f/800 focal length<br />lens. [Suggested targets were detailed imagery of the River Amur floodplain<br />and forest fires; Sinai Peninsula; Armenia; City of Baku; dust storms above<br />the Aral Sea; town of Baikonur; quarries near Dzheskazgan and Temirtau;<br />ecology of the Karaganda region; city of Semipalatinsk, and panorama of the<br />highest peaks in the Altai Mountains.]<br /><br />Also on the Russian task list on a time-available basis today was a session<br />with the Diatomeya ocean observation program. [Today Yuri used the Nikon D1<br />digital still camera from SM window #9, to image the Gulf of Mexico and<br />regions of the Atlantic Ocean.]<br /><br />Another Russian task list item completed by Malenchenko today were set-up<br />operations and measurement initiation of the Molniya-SM/LSO hardware from SM<br />window #3, with the French-provided EGE1 laptop. [Objective of Molniya-SM,<br />similar to the French LSO experiment, is to record storm phenomena and other<br />related events in the Earth's equatorial regions. The experiment is<br />controlled from the French EGE-1 laptop, which needs to be loaded with<br />orbital sighting predictions using an up-to-date NORAD tracking TLE<br />(two-line element). Objective of LSO was to study rare optical phenomena<br />occurring in the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, so-called "sprites"<br />(i.e., puzzling glow phenomena observed above thunderstorm clouds). LSO was<br />originally part of Claudie Haigneré's French "Andromeda" payload package of<br />taxi mission 3S that could not be performed as planned during Increment 4<br />due to an ISS flight attitude conflict.]<br /><br />Today's optional CEO targets, no longer limited in the current LVLH<br />attitude, were Beijing, China (the crew had a near nadir view of the Chinese<br />capital on this pass), Tianjin, China (this large, industrial sister city of<br />Beijing lied just right of track), Congo-Zimbabwe Biomass Burning (with dry<br />season well underway, this is a good clear weather pass to look for fires<br />plumes and burn scars to the right of track), Tel Aviv, Israel (the crew was<br />to look for the Israeli capital on the coast just left of track),Amman,<br />Jordan (the Jordanian capital city was near nadir, located about 20 miles<br />northeast of the Dead Sea), Beijing, China (CITY AT NIGHT during this second<br />pass: ISS approach was from the NW), Tianjin, China (CITY AT NIGHT during<br />this second pass: Just SE of Beijing and to the right of track), Brasilia,<br />Brazil (the Brazilian capital, carved out of the jungle, lied just right of<br />track), Casablanca, Morocco (this famous Moroccan city on the coast was just<br />right of track), Rangoon, Myanmar (CITY AT NIGHT: This city is located on an<br />estuary of the Irrawaddy River and lied just left of track), Tel Aviv,<br />Israel (CITY AT NIGHT during this second pass: This should have been the<br />largest of the well-lit cities on the coast. As ISS approached from the NW,<br />the crew was to look left of track), Amman, Jordan (CITY AT NIGHT during<br />this second pass: The city should have stood out alone in the desert to the<br />left of track), and Richardson Co, Nebraska (LEWIS & CLARK SITE [see<br />yesterday's Status Report]: This target is located on the west bank of the<br />Missouri River about half way between Kansas City and Omaha). CEO images can<br />be viewed at the websites http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov<br />http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov See also the website "Space Station<br />Challenge" at http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/