International Space Station Status Report #04-10<br />4 p.m. CST, Friday, February 20, 2004<br />Expedition 8 Crew<br /><br />All systems remain "go" for the only planned spacewalk by the International<br />Space Station's Expedition 8 crewmembers. Commander Mike Foale and Flight<br />Engineer Alexander Kaleri, who observed the four-month anniversary of their<br />launch to the Space Station on Wednesday, finished up a long list of tasks<br />this week to be ready for a spacewalk to be staged from the Pirs Docking<br />Compartment Thursday, Feb. 26, starting at 3 p.m. CST. NASA Television<br />coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 2 p.m. CST.<br /><br />This week, the crewmembers worked closely with specialists at the Russian<br />Mission Control Center in Korolev, near Moscow, as they unpacked their<br />Russian Orlan spacesuits, tested them, demonstrated their ability to enter<br />the Soyuz spacecraft from Pirs while wearing the suits, and completed a<br />thorough review of the spacewalk plan. Foale and Kaleri are now shifting<br />their daily schedule to maximize communications with Russian flight<br />controllers through Russian ground stations during Thursday's excursion.<br /><br />The tasks planned during the five and a half hour long spacewalk include the<br />retrieval of a set of retroreflectors from the aft end of the Zvezda Service<br />Module. Retrieval of the retroreflectors will assist the preparation of<br />navigational data for next year's maiden arrival of a new European supply<br />ship. While outside the Station, the spacewalkers also will deploy an<br />experiment test bed designed to study the radiation environment and change<br />sample packages in a Japanese materials exposure experiment. They also will<br />change sample packages in a Russian apparatus that is used to study the<br />residue created from Station thruster firings.<br /><br />All systems on board the Station are in good condition, including the<br />Elektron air-generating system, which was shut down for part of the week.<br />The Elektron separates oxygen out of water to supply breathing air for the<br />Station crewmembers. It shut off unexpectedly on Tuesday. After evaluation,<br />the Elektron was restarted Friday morning and has been running fine since.<br />Spare parts for Elektron are on board ISS along with other plentiful backup<br />sources of oxygen for the crew if required.<br /><br />This week, Russian specialists positively identified a piece of debris seen<br />floating by the Station's port side on Sunday. Photographs taken by Foale<br />and Kaleri through a window in the Zvezda module showed a bolt and an<br />accompanying washer. From a part number that was visible in the picture, the<br />items were identified as coming from a mechanism that held the Progress ship<br />'s starboard solar array in place during launch. Those items, which served<br />no purpose after the array was deployed prior to its arrival at ISS, drifted<br />slowly away from the Station and pose no danger. Russian specialists are<br />studying how to prevent similar bolts on other ships from coming loose in<br />the future. Plans described in prior reports for Foale to vent residual<br />condensation from the inner panes of the main window in the Destiny<br />laboratory module last weekend were put on hold due to spacewalk<br />preparations. Venting that moisture, and installing a new flex hose to<br />prevent condensate buildup between those panes in the future, is expected to<br />be assigned to the crew's task list in early March.<br /><br />Information on the crew's activities aboard the Space Station, future launch<br />dates, as well as Station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth,<br />is available on the Internet at:<br /><br />http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/<br /><br />Details on Station science operations can be found on an Internet site<br />administered by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space<br />Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., at:<br /><br />http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/<br /><br />The next ISS status report will be issued Feb. 26, after the spacewalk, or<br />sooner if events warrant.