Mar. 16, 2007
John Yembrick
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0602
Kelly O. Humphries
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-244-5050
STATUS REPORT: SS07-13
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS07-13
HOUSTON - The Expedition 14 crew was busy this week moving trash into
the ISS Progress 23 cargo ship, installing a new window on the space
station 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.
Space Station Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni
Williams also 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 the two 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.
In addition, 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.
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:
-end-