ISS On-Orbit Status 28 Jan 2004 <br /><br /> All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below. Yesterday 37 years ago, NASA's Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee perished in the Apollo 1 fire at KSC. Yesterday, the Martian hills surrounding the Gusev Crater landing site of Mars Exploration Rover "Spirit" were dedicated to their names. One day, humans will climb those hills. Today 18 years ago, NASA's Francis "Dick" Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Chri<br />sta McAuliffe perished in the loss of Shuttle Challenger/STS-51L. Tomorrow one year ago, NASA's Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel B. Clark and Israeli crewmember Ilan Ramon were lost with Shuttle Columbia/STS-107. <br /><br />At the ISS, Progress M-248/12P undocked this morning on schedule at 3:36am EST, with the crew monitoring its departure from the Service Module (SM)'s aft compartment. Later it performed its deorbit burn on time and now is history. FE Alexander Kaleri performed the Russian PFE (physical fitness evaluation) test MO-3, today only Part 1 on the TVIS (treadmill with vibration isolation system). [Identical to the Profilaktika (countermeasures) test for the treadmill in idling mode (i.e., with free choice of <br />speed within a certain specified range), it calls for the use of the TEEM-100M gas analyzer, measurement of the lactate and creatine kinase levels in the subject's blood, and a subjective evaluation of the physical exertion levels during the test. The Cardiocassette-recorded data were then downloaded to the U.S. OCA for downlinking.] <br /><br />CDR Michael Foale held a payload conference with the Principal Investigator (PI) of the PromISS-3 (Protein Crystal Growth Monitoring by Digital Holographic Microscope 3) onboard training (OBT) activity scheduled for tomorrow (1/29). <br /><br />At 9:40am EST, the crew sent down a telephone message of greetings to the editorial staff, partners and guests of the Russian magazine "Tennis and Business", published by Optima Invest Co. [1/31 will be the 2nd Anniversary of the first issue of this magazine. OPTIMA INVEST was the main sponsor of the 40th Anniversary celebration of GCTC (Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center).] <br /><br />At 12:44pm EST, Mike set up and conducted a ham radio session with students of King's School, Canterbury, United Kingdom. [The King's School, founded in 579 AD, is a co-ed boarding and day school for students 13-18 years of age. King's is closely following Mike Foale's time on the ISS.
]http://www.kings-school.co.uk/picofmoment/newpicofmoment.htm] <br /><br />Sasha also conducted the daily routine maintenance of the SM's SOZh life support system, while Mike performed the regular routine checkup of the autonomous Increment 8 payloads in the Lab. <br /><br />Working off the Russian discretionary task list, Sasha performed another set of observations for the Diatomeya ocean research program, taking photo and video imagery of water surfaces in various climatic regions of World Ocean. Recommended was a survey traverse running across dynamically active areas with massive currents, Mid-Oceanic ridges, and strong divergence zones rich with biogenic water, using the Nikon F5 with f/80 mm lens and the Sony DVCAM-150 digital camcorder. As a second task list item, Ka<br />leri performed another round of Uragan earth observations, using the Kodak 760 electronic still camera (ESC) with the long f800 lens at SM window #9 to make observations and take imagery of the recommended target zones of Lagos, Abudia, Patagonia glaciers and Huascaran volcano. <br /><br />Foale and Kaleri worked out according to their regular daily physical exercise program of 2.5 hrs on the TVIS treadmill, RED exerciser, and VELO bike (with load trainer). <br /><br />A 16-page familiarization briefing on the Granada Crystallisation Facility (GCF) was uplinked to the crew, preparatory to the arrival of the GCF hardware on 13P and its subsequent return on Soyuz 7S. <br /><br />Launch of Progress 13P at Baikonur is scheduled for tomorrow, 1/29, at 6:58am EST. Docking will nominally occur on Saturday, 1/31, at 8:15am, at the SM aft end port. <br /><br />Today's CEO (crew earth observations) targets, in the current LVLH attitude no longer limited by flight rule constraints on the use of the Lab nadir/science window, except for the shutter closure and condensation-prevention plan (limited to 90 min. in 24 hours), wereShanghai, China (nadir pass over China's major port city of 14.2 million on the south side of the Chang Jiang [Yangtze] estuary),Cape Town, South Africa(nadir pass. Trying to include the wide expanse of the city sprawl inland from the port cen<br />ter),Johannesburg, South Africa(looking right for the center of the Witwatersrand conurbation),Patagonian Glaciers(400mm-lens: Weather clearing in the southernmost Andean ice fields. Detailed images requested of ice tongues), andBahamas(detailed images near nadir of coral reefs and shallow [light blue] shelves. CEO color images can now be used for detailed bathymetric mapping). <br /><br />CEO images can be viewed at the websites. <br /><br />
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov <br />
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov <br /><br />See also the website "Space Station Challenge" at <br /><br />
http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/ <br /><br />ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 8:54am EST [= epoch]): <br /><br />Mean altitude -- 368.7 km <br />Apogee -- 373.9 km <br />Perigee -- 363.4 km <br />Period -- 91.9 min. <br />Inclination (to Equator) -- 51.63 deg <br />Eccentricity -- 0.000775 <br />Orbits per 24-hr. day -- 15.66 <br />Mean altitude loss last 24 hours -- 120 m <br />Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. '98) -- 29624 <br /><br />For more on ISS orbit and worldwide ISS naked-eye visibility dates/times, see
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html
