[sarex] ISS STATUS REPORT #07-14

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #3Q1468

*International Space Station Status Report #07-14*
*3 p.m. CDT, Friday, March 16, 2007*
*Expedition 14 Crew*

The Expedition 14 crew was busy this week moving trash into the ISS 
Progress 23, installing a new window and preparing for upcoming missions 
to the station.

The new window was installed on Wednesday on the port side hatch of the 
Unity node. It is fitted with a berthing camera system that includes 
target markings on the outside of the hatch. This will help robotic 
operators align and dock the station’s new elements. The window’s 
installation was part of the crew’s work to ready the station’s 
Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) for its relocation later this year 
to Unity’s Earth-facing port. This was the second hatch window installed 
by an Expedition crew. A similar window was installed by Expedition 6 
crew members on Unity’s starboard hatch.

Additionally, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni 
Williams temporarily relocated a “wall” of collapsible water bags to 
allow them access to PMA-3 and provide access to some of the station’s 
computer cables, allowing Williams and Lopez-Alegria to install new, 
upgraded cabling.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams emptied all the items stowed in PMA-3 except 
for a spare Bearing Motor and Roll Ring Module, which was tied down for 
the adapter’s robotic relocation later this year. The apparatus is used 
to help the solar arrays swivel, or gimbal, to point to the sun for the 
generation of electricity. Additional work included preparations for the 
April 9 arrival of the Expedition 15 crew and U.S. spaceflight 
participant Charles Simonyi aboard Soyuz TMA-10. The ISS Progress 23 
thrusters were fired on Thursday for 12 minutes, 32 seconds to lift the 
station into the correct orbit for rendezvous and docking of the Soyuz. 
This orbital boost also provided the correct trajectory for landing of 
the Expedition 14 crew members and Simonyi aboard Soyuz TMA-9 on April 20.

Other tasks included preparation for the March 29 relocation of the 
Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module to 
the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. As a result, the Soyuz TMA-10 
will not need to perform the maneuver to reach Zarya as its final 
destination.

Also, the crew prepared for the undocking and discarding of the ISS 
Progress 23 cargo ship, the station’s giant trash can, on March 27. To 
ready the station for the STS-117 mission, Williams began photography 
practice for space shuttle Atlantis' Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver. She and 
her new Expedition 15 crewmates will take photos of Atlantis’ heat 
shield as it performs the slow, 360-degree nose-forward back flip 600 
feet below the station. Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin this week 
completed photographic observations of Earth as part of the Russian 
“Uragan” Earth-imaging investigation, and monitored radiation inside the 
station for another set of experiments. He tracks data on three 
different experiments that monitor cosmic rays and background radiation.

Next week, Lopez-Alegria and Williams will conduct some of the work 
required to install the station’s new integrated station computer 
network. This new system is ten times faster than the station’s current 
local area network (LAN) system. It will use Ethernet connectivity over 
a router through either cable or wireless equipment, thus eliminating 
drag-through cables from the U.S. segment into the Russian segment. 
Installation of the LAN originally was planned for the Expedition 15 
crew. However, the STS-117 launch delay prompted station managers to 
advance the LAN work to save time during Expedition 15. For more about 
the crew's activities and station sighting opportunities, visit: 
http://www.nasa.gov/station

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