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TOPIC: International Space Station


L

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Space station
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The Russian Mission Control has successfully completed the first stage of correcting the orbit of the International Space Station.

"Preliminary reports from our American colleagues say that the engines of the Progress-M54, switched on at 2:23p.m. Moscow time (11:23a.m. GMT), have worked out the set time, which should raise the average orbit by four kilometres" - Alexander Kireyev.

Now Mission Control can start the second stage of the orbit correction program.

"The order to start the second impulse will be given at 3:42p.m. Moscow time (12:42p.m. GMT). It will equal the first impulse and raise the ISS orbit by another four kilometres" - Alexander Kireyev.

These corrective manoeuvres are aimed at raising the height of the ISS flight by about eight kilometres to 352.7 kilometres.
The station's orbit is corrected once every six months to prepare it for docking with Progress cargo ships and piloted Soyuz spacecraft.
Another Progress M-55 will be launched on December 8 from the Baikonur airfield that Russia leases from Kazakhstan.

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The US Senate passed late Tuesday a revised version of legislation that will allow NASA to purchase Soyuz flights to the ISS from Russia.

The bill, S.1713, passed the Senate late Tuesday night by unanimous consent. The US Senate had previously approved the original version of the bill in September, but the House revised the bill somewhat when it passed it last month.
The bill removes a provision in the original Iran Nonproliferation Act that prevents NASA from purchasing hardware or other services from Russia unless the administration certifies that Russia is not aiding the development of missile and related weapons programs in Iran. The bill, expected to be signed into law by the president, will allow NASA to make such purchases until 2012.

The bill was critical since Russia has flown all of the free flights to the station it had committed to under previous ISS agreements. Unless the cash strapped NASA space agency found a way to pay for future flights, Russia planned not to include any American astronauts on future Soyuz flights, starting in 2006.

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L

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RE: ISS
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Russia's Mission Control Centre said Wednesday it planned to correct the International Space Stations (ISS) orbit, raising it eight kilometres.
An expert with mission control said the corrective manoeuvres would be conducted Thursday in two stages by sending two successive impulses to switch on the engines of the Progress M-54 cargo vehicle, which is docked with the ISS, at 11:23 a.m. and 12:42 p.m. GMT.
At present, the ISS's average orbit height is 345 kilometres.
Mission control conducts regular orbit corrections to prepare the station to dock with space vehicles.
A previous attempt to correct the ISS' orbit on October 19 failed due to an emergency situation caused by a system engine shutoff of the Progress M-54.
The next cargo vehicle, the Progress M-55, is set to be launched from the Baikonur Space Centre in Kazakhstan December 8.

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L

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An orbital engine burn designed to raise the orbit of the International Space Station was cut short early on Wednesday because of an unspecified problem.
The engines on the Progress M-54 spacecraft, docked to the station, fired at 21:10 GMT Tuesday but shut down after only three minutes, about a quarter the intended length of the manoeuvre.

The manoeuvre was designed to increase the station's orbit by about 10 kilometres, to counteract the effects of atmospheric drag and to prepare for the arrival of another Progress spacecraft in late December.
Russian officials said they would make a decision later Wednesday on rescheduling the manoeuvre.

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Expedition 11 crewmembers aboard the International Space Station would have spent 175 days in space by the time they complete their mission October 11.
Since boarding the station in April, crew Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Science Officer and Flight Engineer John Phillips have conducted 39 experiments, including in ecology, geophysics, biomedicine and power engineering, and have repaired an oxygen regenerating system.

The Expedition 12 crew, comprised of Russian cosmonaut Valeri Tokarev and NASA astronaut William McArthur, heads for the ISS aboard a Soyuz rocket on October 1 (September 30, GMT). Space tourist Gregory Olsen will fly to the ISS together with the Expedition 12 crew and return with members of Expedition 11.

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The International Space Station's Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips are bracing themselves for a powerful geomagnetic storm; though there is no immediate need for the two men to move into the standby spacecraft Soyuz for better solar radiation protection.
Russian Mission Control doctors will be closely monitoring the crew's health to ensure they are not adversely affected.

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L

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The Soyuz-U launch vehicle and the Progress M-54 spacecraft successfully lifted off from the Baikonur launching site in Kazakhstan at 1:07 p.m. GMT (5:07 p.m. Moscow time), heading for the International Space Station.

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L

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RE: Progress M-53
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The cargo spacecraft Progress M-53 was deorbited and disposed of at 14:13 GMT.
Fragments of the spacecraft that did not burn upon re-entry plunged into the Pacific near Nativity Island.


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L

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RE: Progress18
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Russian ISS flight controllers have successfully undocked the unmanned Progress 18 spacecraft remotely from its berth at the aft end of the station’s Zvezda service module at 10:26 GMT.
The undocking makes room for Progress 19, an unmanned spacecraft set to launch Thursday atop a Soyuz rocket at 13:08 GMT.
Russian space station officials expected much of Progress 18 to burn up during re-entry, with spacecraft’s remains to splashdown into the Pacific Ocean, 3,000 kilometres east of Wellington, New Zealand, at about 14:13 GMT.

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L

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RE: Progress-M53
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Russian mission control outside Moscow, Russia has begun launched an operation to de-orbit and sink the Progress M-53 cargo spacecraft in the Pacific.

"The craft, loaded with the astronauts' waste, used equipment and other rubbish, undocked from the International Space Station at 2:23 p.m. Moscow time (10:23 a.m. GMT)" - mission control official.


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