ISS Status Report #43, September 8, 2005

A new shipment of supplies is on its way to the International Space Station. The ISS Progress 19 resupply vehicle lifted off Thursday from its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 8:08 a.m. CDT (7:08 p.m. Baikonur time). Less than 10 minutes later, the cargo ship reached orbit, and its solar arrays and navigational antennas were deployed for its two-day trip to the orbital outpost.

At the time of the Progress launch, Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and NASA Flight Engineer and Science Officer John Phillips were flying 220 statute miles over the south Pacific Ocean.

Carrying more than 2 ½ tons of food, water, fuel, clothing, spare parts and other supplies, the new Progress is scheduled to automatically dock to the Station’s Zvezda Service Module on Saturday at 9:50 a.m. CDT. The craft will also deliver a new water circulation device called a “liquids unit” for the Station’s Elektron oxygen-generating system that has been inoperative for months. The new unit will be installed late next week to try to bring Elektron back into service.

Nearing the end of their fifth month in space, Krikalev and Phillips completed packing the old ISS Progress 18 supply ship with items no longer needed on the Station and closed its hatch Tuesday. The unpiloted cargo craft undocked from the Zvezda module’s aft port at 5:26 a.m. CDT Wednesday. The Progress and its contents were commanded to deorbit and burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific.

Also this week, Krikalev and Phillips replaced parts inside their treadmill exercise machine that is mounted in Zvezda. New components were delivered aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in late July for a routine upgrade of the system. After two days of maintenance work, Phillips activated the treadmill machine and is testing it today. He reported that it is operating normally and is available for daily use by the crew.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/station