NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 11 October 2008

STATUS REPORT Date Released: Saturday, October 11, 2008 Source: NASA HQ - Comments

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Saturday - off duty day for CDR Volkov, FE-1 Kononenko & FE-2 Chamitoff.

After yesterday's deferral of the on-orbit Soyuz 16S motion control system (SUD) test due to failure of the Russian BITS2-12 onboard measurement telemetry system (see below), Sergey Volkov & Oleg Kononenko today spent an hour in the TMA-12 Descent Module (SA) supporting the ground-commanded checkout of the SUD, Mode 2/"Docked". [The test, to prepare for a possible contingency relocation of the spacecraft to the FGB, should 17S be unable to dock at the FGB nadir port on 10/14, and the 16S undocking on 10/23, included pressurization of the KDU Combined Propulsion System Section 2 and Tank 2, a test of the pilot's RUD translational hand controller, and a hot firing of the DPO braking thrusters. KDU maneuver thrusters and DPO lateral thrusters were not fired. For the test, the science windows in the US Lab and Kibo module were shuttered, and station attitude was handed over to Russian thruster control at 4:25am EDT, commanded to free drift at 4:45am, then back to LVLH XVV (Local Vertical Local Horizontal/x-axis in velocity vector) attitude. The one-minute firing started on Daily Orbit 1 at ~4:46am. Attitude control was returned to the U.S. segment (USOS) at 5:40am, and the Lab window could be re-opened at ~8:40am for CEO.]

FE-2 Chamitoff continued the daily diet monitoring for the SOLO (Sodium Loading in Microgravity) experiment. SOLO runs in two blocks of six days each, with the second having started yesterday. [For SOLO, Chamitoff follows a special high-salt diet, for which prepared meals are provided onboard. All three daily meals are being logged on sheets stowed in the PCBA Consumable Kit in the MELFI (Minus-Eighty Laboratory Freezer for ISS) along with control solution and cartridges for the PCBA. Blood and urine samples are stowed in the MELFI.]

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