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TOPIC: International Space Station


L

Posts: 131433
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RE: Progress M-53
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A Progress M-53 spaceship loaded with rubbish from the International Space Station will be undocked from it on September 7 and then sunk in the Pacific Ocean, an official with Russian Mission Control said Today.

"The undocking has been preliminarily scheduled for 10.23 a.m. GMT (2.23 p.m. Moscow time). The spacecraft will slow down using its own boosters. Elements that do not burn up (in the atmosphere) will sink in the target area in the Pacific at 2.13 p.m. GMT (6.13 p.m. Moscow time)"

The spaceship will not be used as a research lab, as has previously been the case. A Progress M-51, for example, was undocked from the ISS and then used for testing new programs close to the ISS before being sunk.

A new cargo spacecraft will be launched to the ISS at 1.08 pm GMT on September 8, and docked to the ISS at 2.49 GMT on September 10.

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L

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RE: ISS Update
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The crew on the International Space Station (ISS), Sergei Krikalyov and John Phillips, will train for an emergency evacuation Today.

"The exercise includes practicing actions in the event of an emergency, which means evacuation on board the Soyuz rescue capsule docked to the station" an expert at Russia's Mission Control said.
The astronauts will refresh their skills in boarding the escape capsule in the event that the station lost pressure.

"The capsule will not be undocked during the exercise".

There are different degrees of risk with depressurization, ranging from a micro-leak through a window sealer, which has already occurred on the ISS, to a worst-case situation, like the one that happened after a Progress cargo ship bumped into the Russia's former space station, Mir.

"If discovered, a leak must be reported to Earth. Then, [the crew] must isolate the depressurized module, find the leak using a special device, pump in oxygen and monitor the situation in accordance with our instructions" - Mission Control expert.

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L

Posts: 131433
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RE: ISS
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The Two astronauts are now back inside the International Space Station.
They managed to complete all their tasks except for the relocation of a grappling fixture for the stations Strela crane.



The spacewalk lasted only four hours and 58 minutes.

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L

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RE: SpaceWalk
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Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Science Officer John Phillips will go outside the International Space Station this Thursday on a spacewalk to remove, replace and photograph experiments, and relocate equipment.
Krikalev, designated EV1, will be making his eighth spacewalk. This is Phillips' first spacewalk.

Wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits, both with red stripes, the two are scheduled to open the hatch of the Pirs docking compartment airlock at 18:55 GMT to begin the six-hour spacewalk.

The first task is to remove a Russian Biorisk experiment container housing bacteria from the outside of Pirs.

Next they will remove an MPAC and SEED panel from the large-diameter aft section of the Zvezda Service Module. MPAC is a micrometeoroid and orbital debris collector. SEED is a materials exposure array.

Crewmembers then will move to the Matroska experiment, a torso-like container with radiation dosimeters in human-tissue-equivalent material. They will remove it and later, with the MPAC and SEED panel, bring it back inside the Station.

Krikalev and Phillips will install a television camera on Zvezda, then photograph and check a Korma contamination exposure experiment tablet on a handrail. Once that is complete, they will remove an SKK materials exposure experiment container and replace it with a similar unit.
Their final task is to remove from the Zarya module a grapple fixture for a Strela crane and relocate it on Pressurized Mating Adaptor No. 3, attached to the Station's Unity node.

Krikalev and Phillips will return to Pirs to wrap up their spacewalk at about 00:55 GMT.

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L

Posts: 131433
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RE: International Space Station
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Two astronauts, Soichi Noguchi and Stephen Robinson, ventured outside the shuttle Discovery on Monday to replace a failed gyroscope on the International Space Station in the second of three planned spacewalks.
The failed Control Moment Gyroscope (CMGs) is one of four used to maintain ISS position without firing thrusters, the gyroscope broke down in June 2002.
The station can maintain position with just two working gyroscopes but if only one is functioning, the station crew would have to fire rocket thrusters, which burn precious fuel, to keep it steady.
Discovery is making the first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, and is the first shuttle to link up with the space station since November 2002.
The spacewalking astronauts were scheduled to venture out once more on Wednesday to install a storage platform outside the station.

NASA is pondered whether to add a fourth to fix the space shuttle's heat shield.


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L

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The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) has allocated money to the Khrunichev Space Centre to complete the construction of a multipurpose research module (MRM) for the International Space Station (ISS).

Alexander Medvedev said that the construction of the module was 70% complete, and is scheduled to be launched in 2007. Roskosmos head Anatoly Pirmenov had approved this timeframe.
Medvedev said the centre would work with the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, Russia's leading rocket producer, to complete the project.

"I had a meeting with the new head of Energia, Nikolai Sevastyanov, who I know and had good business relations with in the past. No one can complete such complicated projects on their own, and we always solved such problems together in the past." - Alexander Medvedev.

The MRM, the third Russian module of the ISS, will be put into orbit by a Russian made Proton launch vehicle.


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L

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The International Space Station seems set to become a purely Russian venture.
Despite declarations to the contrary, it seems that the United States is likely to pull out in the near future.
Europe may retain its interest, however, as the European Space Agency (ESA) plans to send its Jules Verne Automatic Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to the ISS.

In the two months since new NASA Administrator Michael Griffin was appointed, the United States has given virtually no assurances of its continued commitment to the ISS. On the contrary, Griffin told USA Today on June 22 that the NASA would not be able to fulfil all of its previous commitments on completing the program.
Griffin admitted that NASA cannot currently guarantee the launch of all remaining ISS modules, largely because implementation of President George W. Bush's new ambitious space doctrine, which includes manned flights to the Moon and Mars, means NASA is unable to fly the planned 28 space-shuttle missions to the ISS.

According to Griffin, a specially convened NASA expert group is currently revising U.S. commitments to the program, a process that should be completed in early fall.
NASA is unlikely to withdraw from the ISS immediately, but it may do so more gradually. The long-awaited first space-shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster of February 1, 2003, is unlikely to change anything. Experts say shuttle flights will not help the ISS much, because 28 flights are not enough. In short, currently nothing is up for discussion.

Moreover, it seems that NASA has failed to meet all safety recommendations made since the Columbia tragedy, according to a 26-member task force headed by former astronauts Richard Covey and Thomas Stafford.
Only 12 out of 15 accident-avoidance modifications have been introduced into the Discovery shuttle's design. The orbiter itself is not yet strong enough, and NASA has been unable to eliminate the possibility of ice, foam and other materials breaking off from the main fuel tank and inflicting considerable damage. Finally, there is no system for making sophisticated in-orbit repairs.

For Russia, such circumstances are nothing new, and it seems that the country will have to fly ISS resupply missions once again.
At the Le Bourget aerospace show in mid-June, Federal Space Agency head Anatoly Perminov said it would be impossible to sustain the ISS completely, unless space-shuttle flights were resumed. According to Perminov, some ISS modules can only be delivered aboard U.S. space shuttles.

Late last year, Perminov said the FSA was looking into ways to implement the program on its own. His deputy, Alexander Medvedchikov, said in early June that Russia could sustain the ISS using Kliper spacecraft, currently in development, if the United States quits the program.

"As you know, we are also looking into the future. Russia is developing the Kliper reusable spacecraft. This is why we will be ready, if something happens, and if the United States withdraws from the program" - Anatoly Perminov.



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L

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RE: Space Station
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The International Space Station's orbit was raised 2,300 meters on Thursday.

"The operation was conducted outside the zone of Russian communications satellites. Our American colleagues from the Houston space centre said everything had gone smoothly. The docked Progress cargo vehicle's engines worked according to schedule, i.e., for 318 seconds" - Russian Mission Control spokesman.

The manoeuvre brought the station to the best trajectory for docking with the Discovery space shuttle. On July 1, NASA is expected to announce a launch date for the shuttle. A "window" for the launch will be open from July 13 to 31.

"The Americans can launch it anytime from July 13 to 31, except July 14 and 16 ".

However, the opening of this window could be postponed, as has often happened in the past.
Adjusting the orbit of the ISS is a routine operation that is conducted regularly to prepare the station for the arrival of manned and cargo spacecraft.



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Anonymous

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RE: ISS
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On June 17, the spacecraft Progress M-53 will be launched with 2.5 tonnes of supplies on a Soyuz-U rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

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L

Posts: 131433
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RE: ISS software
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The crew of the International Space Station has renewed the software on the central computer.
At first, from the mission control centre we fed the new 'mathematical' plug-in into the computers, then the crew commander Sergei Krikalev checked it was working by linking his laptop to the central board in the service module.
It is a regular scheduled operation, because new goals are set, and through it the centre actually renews the ISS "electronic brains".
The ISS mathematical software is continually improved.

Progress space cargo vehicles bring it to the station on disks and it also sent by radio from the mission control centre.
The previous "intellectual upgrading" of the ISS happened on July 21 2004. For checking the installed software the onboard computers were turned off for several seconds and then turned on again.

"It was a restart. The reloading took seconds. First, we switched off and then on the computers from the earth. Before that, the crew had installed the latest mathematical software version, which was brought in by a Progress-M49 space cargo vehicle on May 27," - Viktor Blagov, Russian mission control centre.



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