[sarex] ISS STATUS REPORT #06-44

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC AMSAT AC #31468
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International Space Station Status Report #06-44
3 p.m. CDT Friday, October 13, 2006
Expedition 13 Crew

The International Space Station’s Expedition 14 crew went for a short 
ride this week, performed maintenance and experiments aboard the growing 
outpost and celebrated one crew member's 100th day in space.

Station Commander and NASA Science Officer Mike Lopez-Alegria, along 
with flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Thomas Reiter, boarded their 
Soyuz spacecraft and flew it from one docking port to another on 
Tuesday. The relocation was a routine procedure conducted ahead of the 
launch and arrival of the next Progress supply ship scheduled late this 
month.

With Tyurin at the controls, the Soyuz undocked from the aft position of 
the Zvezda module at 2:14 p.m. CDT and docked to the Zarya control 
module’s Earth-facing docking port at 2:34 p.m.

The 23rd Progress vehicle will launch Oct. 23 from the Baikonur 
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It will dock to the vacated Zvezda port three 
days later, delivering supplies to the crew.

More than three weeks into a six-month stay, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin 
are settling in to the routine of life in microgravity. They joined 
Reiter in celebrating his 100th day in space since his launch aboard the 
Space Shuttle Discovery in early July. Reiter, a European Space Agency 
astronaut, will return home aboard Discovery when it returns in December 
and brings NASA astronaut Suni Williams as his replacement.

Oxygen is being supplied in the station cabin by tanks on the outside of 
the U.S. Quest Airlock while an onboard Russian oxygen generation 
system, called the Elektron, is not working. Additional parts to repair 
the Elektron are expected to be among the supplies arriving late this 
month on Progress.

The station’s orientation is being managed by three of the four 
electrically-driven Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs). One gyroscope, 
designated CMG 3, was shut down after exhibiting intermittently high 
vibrations early on Monday. Three gyros are sufficient, and there has 
been no impact to the safety or operation of the station due to the shut 
down of CMG 3. Flight controllers are evaluating future plans for CMG 3 
and any changes that might be needed to assembly operations during the 
next shuttle mission, STS-116, as a result. During that mission, set for 
December, alternating systems on the station will be powered off as the 
complex is rewired to bring on line new supplies of electricity from the 
recently added solar arrays. Steering jets could be used to control the 
station's orientation if needed as gyroscopes are powered down during 
those procedures.

This week the crew performed routine medical checks and took water 
samples while loading the docked Progress vehicle with unneeded items. 
Lopez-Alegria swapped a water separator in the Quest Airlock’s Common 
Cabin Air Assembly to ensure a filter doesn’t become clogged. The 
maintenance procedure was previously performed by the Expedition 5 crew.

Also this week, equipment setup began for the Space Video Gateway 
checkout, which will demonstrate the station’s ability to transmit 
television in high definition.

The next status report will be issued Friday, Oct. 20, or earlier if 
events warrant. For more about the crew's activities and station 
sighting opportunities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station