International Space Station Status Report: SS05-053 - Sun 13 Nov 2005 10:41:PM
November 10, 2005<br /><br />Melissa Mathews<br />Headquarters, Washington<br />(Phone: 202/358-1272)<br /><br />James Hartsfield<br />Johnson Space Center, Houston<br />(Phone: 281/483-5111) <br /><br />STATUS REPORT: SS05-053<br /><br />INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS05-053<br /><br />With their first spacewalk behind them, the crew of the International <br />Space Station pressed ahead this week to prepare for several upcoming <br />milestones. <br /><br />Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery <br />Tokarev get a special musical wakeup call this weekend as Paul <br />McCartney connects with them live from a concert in Anaheim, Calif. <br />The call will take place at 12:55 a.m. EST Sunday and will be <br />broadcast live on NASA Television and www.nasa.gov.<br /><br />McArthur and Tokarev spent the week servicing the spacesuits used <br />Monday for a 5 hour, 22 minute excursion outside the station. During <br />the spacewalk, they installed a television camera, jettisoned an <br />inactive science experiment and removed and replaced other equipment <br />on the truss system of the complex.<br /><br />The crew's second spacewalk is planned for Dec. 7. McArthur and <br />Tokarev will don Russian Orlan spacesuits and exit the Pirs Docking <br />Compartment airlock for that excursion. During the spacewalk, they <br />will move a cargo crane adapter, collect science experiments from the <br />hull of the Zvezda Service Module and manually launch an expired <br />Russian spacesuit equipped with amateur radio equipment. Called <br />SuitSat, the experiment is designed to see if ham radio contacts can <br />be made with a free-flying transmitter.<br /><br />To prepare for the spacewalk, McArthur and Tokarev will relocate their <br />Soyuz spacecraft from the Pirs docking port to the nadir docking port <br />of the Zarya module on Nov. 18, briefly leaving the station <br />unoccupied.<br /><br />Earlier today, four thruster engines on the Progress cargo spacecraft <br />were fired for more than 33 minutes in two separate reboost maneuvers <br />to raise the altitude of the outpost. The station is now in a near <br />circular orbit of 219 miles to accommodate the launch and docking of <br />the next resupply ship in December. The reboost was the longest ever <br />completed using Progress engines. <br /><br />On Wednesday, Tokarev replaced a control panel for the station's <br />toilet in Zvezda that had malfunctioned earlier in the week. The <br />temporary loss of the use of the device's liquid disposal component <br />had no impact on station operations. Following the troubleshooting, <br />the toilet is now operating normally.<br /><br />For information on the crew's activities aboard the station, future <br />launch dates, and station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the <br />Earth, visit: <br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/station