02.11.05

4 p.m. CST, Friday, Feb. 11, 2005 
Mission Control Center, Houston 
STATUS REPORT: ISS05-07

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT #05-7

The Expedition 10 crew of the International Space Station completed 
another productive week of their mission, focusing on science 
experiments, Progress undocking preparations and robotic arm 
operations. 

The all-Asian crewmembers commemorated a New Year as they passed their 
four-month mark in space. Commander and NASA ISS Science Officer 
Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov delivered a special 
message in honor of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrated Tuesday. 
The message included greetings in Russian and Mandarin, which Chiao 
speaks fluently. 

Chiao and Sharipov began the workweek with a checkout of the onboard 
defibrillator as well as continued preparation and packing of items 
to be transferred to Space Shuttle Discovery's Multipurpose Logistics 
Module during the Shuttle Return to Flight mission scheduled for May 
or June. The preparations included several hours early in the week 
with stowage and audit activities of spacesuit equipment in the Quest 
Airlock, including inventory of tool and maintenance kits. 

Other technical tasks completed during the week included installation 
of a Navigation Receiving Module in the Russian segment for Station 
attitude determination. Chiao continued work in the Quest, 
regenerating two Metal Oxide or METOX canisters for use in U.S. 
spacesuits. Those canisters “scrub” air exhaled into the spacesuit 
system of carbon dioxide and recharge the oxygen. 

The crew also deactivated the Russian Elektron oxygen generation 
system Wednesday. The planned deactivation allows the use of oxygen 
from the docked ISS Progress 16 cargo vehicle. It also reduces 
Progress to the weight necessary for its undocking scheduled for Feb. 
27. Two repressurizations are planned. The first repress, of about 
10mmHg, is scheduled for Feb. 15, and the second, about 15mmHg, for 
Feb. 25. The Elektron is scheduled to be reactivated in early March.

After a successful preplanned attitude transition maneuver Tuesday, 
return of attitude control was interrupted when one of the Control 
Moment Gyroscopes (CMG) became saturated and lost its ability to 
control the Station’s orientation. 

Attitude control was automatically taken over by the Russian Attitude 
Control System thrusters for about one orbit, using about 14 
kilograms of propellant. The CMG saturation was the result of an 
incorrect ground command. The ground team recognized the source of 
the error and issued the command to properly reposition the CMG. The 
CMGs then resumed control and the thrusters were turned off. The 
crew's workday was unaffected by the events. 

Along with their technical tasks and maintenance activities, the 
crewmembers supported nearly 14 hours of science and medical 
experiments. Sharipov worked on the Cardio-Cog experiment and Plasma 
Crystal, a Russian experiment that studies plasma dust crystals and 
fluids in microgravity. Chiao captured still photos documenting the 
progress of the Binary Colloidal Alloy Test, which looks at the 
long-term behavior of colloid particles suspended in fluids, such as 
ink, paint and milk. 

Both crewmembers participated in continued studies as part of the 
ADUM, or Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity, experiment. 
After some computer-based proficiency training earlier in the week, 
on Friday, they performed scans with Chiao serving as the test 
subject. This experiment could have applications on Earth by 
assisting in the diagnosis of patients in rural or remote areas. 

Also highlighting the crew’s week was a live education event with 
Crossroads Elementary School, a NASA Explorer School in Saint Paul, 
Minn. Tuesday the crew also had a special conference call with 
Anatoly Perminov, Head of the Russian Federal Space Agency 
(Roscosmos), and Edelhard Bulman, the German Minister of Education 
and Science, who were discussing future German/Russian space 
cooperation ventures. 

For more on NASA, the crew's activities aboard the Space Station, 
future launch dates and Station sighting opportunities from anywhere 
on the Earth, visit: 

www.nasa.gov 

The next International Space Station Status report will be issued on 
Friday, Feb. 18, or earlier if events warrant. 

	
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