International Space Station Status Report #6<br /><br />2003<br />Report #6<br />4 p.m. CST, Friday, Feb. 7, 2003<br />Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas<br /><br />As they complete their eleventh week on orbit, the International Space<br />Station's Expedition 6 crewmembers are unpacking a new shipment of supplies<br />while helping mission managers plan for the remainder of their time in<br />space.<br /><br />A Russian Progress resupply ship docked to the aft docking port of the<br />station's Zvezda service module at 8:49 a.m. CST Tuesday, delivering a ton<br />of food, fuel, clothing and other materials that should sustain Commander<br />Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin, and NASA ISS Science Officer<br />Don Pettit through the end of June. The hatches into Progress were opened<br />Tuesday afternoon, and unloading of supplies began Wednesday morning.<br /><br />Among the equipment inside the Russian cargo ship were two power modules<br />critical to the recovery of the science operations in the Microgravity<br />Science Glovebox, located in the U.S. laboratory module Destiny. MSG,<br />developed by the European Space Agency in cooperation with NASA's Marshall<br />Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., had been inoperative since late<br />last November when a power distribution controller and an exchangeable<br />electronics module failed. The units were returned to Earth by the last<br />shuttle to visit ISS, sent to ESA for repair, and after certification<br />testing at MSFC were loaded on the Progress for delivery.<br /><br />Flight controllers are discussing a possible reboost of the ISS with the<br />Progress engines on Tuesday. If the reboost is agreed to, it would increase<br />the stations average altitude from 239 statute miles to 246 statute miles.<br />That would leave the ISS at the proper altitude for the launch of a new<br />Soyuz return craft in April.<br /><br />Pettit installed the new components in the glovebox Wednesday, but when he<br />activated the science rack a circuit breaker tripped. Payload controllers<br />reported that the response to activation was similar to what was seen<br />shortly before the MSG failed back in November, and they had Pettit shut<br />down MSG to protect the new components. Troubleshooting by specialists from<br />ESA and the Payload Operations Center at MSFC will continue over the<br />weekend.<br /><br />Due to the hold on NASA's space shuttle launch schedule, mission managers<br />are studying how best to provide supplies to the crew on board ISS until the<br />shuttle returns to service. To aid that effort, Bowersox and his crew spent<br />time this week conducting a thorough audit of supplies on board, while the<br />flight control teams in Houston and the Russian mission control center<br />outside Moscow began charting statistics on actual usage. Both sets of data<br />will be reviewed in developing the manifest for the next Progress ship,<br />targeted for launch to the International Space Station in June.<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://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/<br /><br />The next ISS status report will be issued on Friday, Feb. 14, or sooner if<br />events warrant.