Allard Beutel<br />Headquarters, Washington September 24, 2004<br />(Phone: 202/358-4769)<br /><br />INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS04-032<br /><br /> With less than a month remaining in their stay aboard<br />the International Space Station, Expedition 9 Commander<br />Gennady Padalka and NASA Science Officer Mike Fincke are<br />preparing the orbiting laboratory for its next residents.<br /><br />The crew's work this week included taking inventory,<br />performing maintenance on exercise equipment and continued<br />troubleshooting of the primary onboard oxygen generator.<br /><br />Roskosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, announced this<br />week the next Station crew will launch at 12:17 a.m. EDT Oct.<br />11 aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome,<br />Kazakhstan. The Expedition 10 crew commander is Leroy Chiao<br />and Salizhan Sharipov is flight engineer. Russian Space<br />Forces Test Cosmonaut Yuri Shargin will accompany them for<br />launch and spend about a week aboard the Station. Padalka,<br />Fincke and Shargin will return to Earth Oct. 19.<br /><br />This week, additional troubleshooting work continued on the<br />Elektron oxygen-generating unit. It produces breathing oxygen<br />from wastewater. Intermittent operations of the device led<br />the Russian flight control team to believe contamination was<br />preventing proper pressurization in a hydrogen line. Padalka<br />cleaned the line. Further work is planned this weekend. As<br />oxygen is generated from water by the unit, hydrogen is<br />dumped overboard.<br /><br />While the Elektron work continued, the Station's atmosphere<br />was repressurized twice this week using oxygen from tanks on<br />the Progress supply spacecraft docked to the Station. If<br />needed, months of oxygen are available for the crew even<br />without the use of the Elektron. Oxygen is stored in Progress<br />tanks, Station tanks and oxygen-generating canisters.<br /><br />Padalka and Fincke also performed routine maintenance work<br />this week on the Station's treadmill, which is done every six<br />months. The treadmill provides cardiovascular training. The<br />crew prepared for the trip home by taking food and hardware<br />inventory. They also began stowing cargo containers and<br />personal items for the return trip.<br /><br />The crew periodically sends down digital photographs of life<br />in space, including Earth views, which can be viewed online<br />at:<br /><br />http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-<br />9/ndxpage1.html<br /><br />Information about crew activities on the Space Station,<br />future launch dates and Station sighting opportunities from<br />Earth, is available on the Internet at:<br /><br />http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/<br /><br />Details about Station science operations are available on an<br />Internet site administered by the Payload Operations Center<br />at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.,<br />at:<br /><br />http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/