All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below.

Today 40 years ago, 40-year old John Herschel Glenn became the first American in Earth orbit when he rode an Atlas rocket into the history books (he also became the oldest person ever to fly in space when in October 1998 he participated in the Shuttle Discovery mission STS-95, at age 77).

U.S. EVA-1, the first spacewalk from the station's Joint Airlock (JAL) without a Shuttle Orbiter present, was highly successful. Its main purpose: to prepare for and increase efficiency of the four EVAs planned for 8A/STS-110, all to be conducted from the JAL, primarily to install the solar array truss segment S0.
Flight Engineers Carl Walz (EV1) and Dan Bursch (EV2) started out half an hour earlier than expected, egressing at 6:38 am EST. Thanks to exquisite preparation by ground support teams and computer-based Virtual Reality training, the crew (who had no time for neutral buoyancy training in the water tank) performed briskly and smoothly all the way, staying an hour ahead of the timeline. Their excursion was also the first EVA with an IV (intravehicular crewmember) on the ground, not in space: in the person of Astronaut Joe Tanner. His running guidance of EV1 & EV2 proved instrumental to the success of the EVA (which rated a "full 10" as judged unanimously by Flight Control). Carl and Dan ingressed the JAL shortly after 12:00 noon EST, concluding the outing with hatch closure at 12:25 pm, after a duration of 5 h 47 min (43 minutes less than expected). [This brings the number of Expedition 4 spacewalks to three (total time: 17 h 49 min), of ISS-based EVAs to 9 (total time: 40 h 50 min), and the total ISS assembly EVAs including those from the Shuttle airlock to 34 (208 h 5 min).]

Bursch and Walz completed all scheduled tasks:
· Mating CID (circuit interrupt device) umbilicals of two power system DDCUs (dc-to-dc converter units) for checkout by the ground (intentionally left mated);
· Retrieving 8A tools from the Z1 truss for stowage inside the JAL to lighten the workload on 8A EVAs in April;
· Removal of four shroud panels from the Z1;
· Retrieval of a Russian grapple fixture from the PMA-1 (pressurized mating adapter #1) for stowage on the FGB and an American grapple fixture adapter for protective bagging and taking inside into the JAL; and
· Securing latches on the JAL's oxygen/nitrogen HPGTs (high pressure gas tanks) with wire ties.
· In addition, they inspected and photographed MMOD (micrometeorite/orbital debris) hits on radiators and took pictures of the MISSE (Materials ISS Experiment) payload, which, when seen from a distance, seems to have some material samples peeling from their base. They also found the time to inspect and image ten ammonia QDs (quick disconnects) of the ETCS (external thermal control system).

CDR Yuri Onufrienko observed the spacewalk from inside, working on EVA camera management. Live coverage was provided flawlessly by PD-100 camcorders in the Lab, the JAL, the DC-1 docking module and by SSRMS/Canadarm2 camera, with their routing to the ground and on to Moscow handled by MCC-H. The best and most important footage was recorded on VTR1 (video tape recorder #1) for later downlink. To accommodate the large video channel HRFM (high-rate frame multiplexer) bandwidth required for the coverage (32 Mbps), the Payload Operations and Integration Center (POIC/Huntsville) temporarily allocated some payload bandwidth to MCC-H before the EVA.

At about 9:05 am EST the two spacewalkers paused briefly to commemorate John Glenn's momentous accomplishment 40 years ago. Later today, at about 4:00 pm EST, former Senator Glenn and NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe are scheduled to mark this day by talking to the ISS crew from NASA Headquarters, on NASA TV.

Onufrienko also performed the regular daily systems tasks, i.e., inspection of the BRPK-1 water condensate separator and status checks of the autonomous UF-1 payloads in the Lab. He continued the twice-daily control of the IK0501 gas analyzer, taking partial pressure measurements with the IGZ gas meter to check on Russian CO2 reading (which seems to be "stuck" at 2.5 mmHg).

After the successful calibration tests of the Russian BINS strap-down inertial guidance system on 2/18 using the VP-2 pilot sight and Puma portable sight (PVP), MCC-H yesterday voiced concern about possible interference of the subsequent BINS correction, planned for Friday, 2/22, with the software transition of the US segment from Release 1 (R1) to R2, scheduled at the same time. This open issue was resolved this morning when RSC-Energia agreed to move the BINS correction forward one day (Thursday, 2/21), to essentially eliminate the conflict.

During his replacement of the IPK-1 gas mask in the FGB on 2/18, Onufrienko noted that the IPK-1 case has a 4 cm long crack in it. The crew did not open the case to inspect the mask, but a digital picture of the crack was taken for downlink and MCC-M assessment.

Investigation by an MCC-Houston ART (anomaly resolution team) of the AV-1 condensate water vent line's "T" connection in the Lab, which had briefly leaked during a water dump on 1/20, has shown that the condensate QDs were only hand tightened during assembly on the ground, not torqued down. The plan now is to have the crew use a torque wrench to tighten the quick disconnects to the required torque.

Today's targets for the CEO program were E. Mediterranean Dust and Smog (high pressure continues to dominate the eastern Mediterranean basin, favoring the accumulation of aerosols there. Crew was advised to look to the right of track as ISS crossed the Libyan coast over both the Mediterranean Sea and Turkey for oblique and limb views of this phenomenon), European Smog (with a cold front to the SE of the station, a cold stable air mass was settling in over the northern Mediterranean. Of interest, as the crew crossed the big island of Sardinia: aiming the Nikon F5 to the left of track, especially toward northern Italy for source areas for aerosols beginning to increase there), Fuego Volcano (Dynamic Event Site: A volcanic eruption is still considered to be imminent in southeastern Guatemala. This pass was just to the SE of the Fuego Volcano, so crew was asked to look just to the left of track with the ESC [electronic still camera] for any evidence of venting or a possible eruption in progress), and Eastern United States (cold high pressure is moving off the US east coast bearing aerosols out to sea. Pass was well off shore, and crew was to for limb shots to the left of track to help determine the thickness and extent of the pall in the atmosphere there).

Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLSS) and Thermal Control (TCS):
Elektron O2 generator is On (16 Amp mode, the lowest possible setting). Vozdukh CO2 scrubber is in MANUAL cycle mode #5 (vacuum pump failed). U.S. CDRA CO2 scrubber is in Standby.
BMP Harmful Impurities unit: Both absorbent beds (Filters #1 & #2) in Purify mode.

SM Working Compartment: Pressure (mmHg) -- 755, temperature (deg C) -- 25.8, ppO2 (mmHg) -- 160.9, ppCO2 (mmHg) -- 2.6 (? see Notes below and above)
SM Transfer Compartment: Pressure (mmHg) -- 762, temperature (deg C) -- 20.5; ppO2 (mmHg) -- n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) -- n/a.
FGB Cabin: Pressure (mmHg) -- 756, temperature (deg C) -- 22.0; ppO2 (mmHg) -- n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) -- n/a.
Node: Pressure (mmHg) -- 743.89, temperature (deg C) -- n/a (shell); ppO2 (mmHg) -- n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) -- n/a.
U.S. Lab: Pressure (mmHg) -- 746.33, temperature (deg C) -- 22.5, ppO2 (mmHg) -- n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) -- n/a;
Joint Airlock (equip. lock): Pressure (mmHg) -- 746.08, temperature (deg C) -- 21.7; shell heater temp (deg C) -- n/a, ppO2 (mmHg) -- n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) -- n/a.
PMA-1: Shell heater temp (deg C) -- n/a.
PMA-2: Shell heater temp (deg C) -- n/a.

(Note: Partial pressures ppO2 and ppCO2 in U.S. segment (USOS) not available because MCA [major constituent analyzer] is failed and in Extended Life mode [= a state that preserves mass spectrometer vacuum but produces no pp data]. Russian GA (gas analyzer) readings of ppCO2 in the SM are invalid).

Electrical Power Systems (EPS):
Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA) 2B in Autotrack mode, BGA 4B in Autotrack mode (during XPOP).
SM batteries: all batteries (8) in "partial charge" mode.
FGB battery #5 is offline; battery #6 is cycling; all other (4) batteries are in "partial charge" mode.
Plasma Contactor Unit PCU-1 in Standby mode; PCU-2 in Standby mode (were in Discharge during EVA).

Thermal Control Systems:
Air conditioner SKV-1 is Off (Freon leak). SKV-2 is On.

Command & Data Handling Systems:
C&C-2 MDM is prime, C&C-3 is back-up, and C&C-1 is in standby.
GNC-2 MDM is prime; GNC-1 is back-up.
LA-1, LA-2 and LA-3 MDMs are all operating.
APS-1 (automated payload switch #1) and APS-2 are both On.
SM Terminal Computer (TVM): 3 redundant lanes (of 3) operational.
SM Central Computer (TsVM): 2 redundant lanes (of 3) operational.

Communications Systems:
S-band is operating nominally.
Ku-band is operating nominally in open loop pointing mode.
Audio subsystem operating nominally.
Video subsystem operating nominally.
MCOR (medium-rate communications outage recorder) operating nominally.

Robotics:
SSRMS/Canadarm2 at Port Stow position, with Keep Alive power on both strings.
RWS (robotics workstations) are Off.

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:24am EST):
Mean altitude -- 381.3 km
Apogee -- 384.5 km
Perigee -- 378.1 km
Period -- 92.2 min.
Inclination (to Equator) -- 51.64 deg
Eccentricity -- 0.0004745
Orbits per 24-hr. day -- 15.62
Decay rate -- 370 (mean) in last 24 hours
Solar Beta Angle: -48.1 deg (magnitude increasing)
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. '98) -- 18583
Current Flight Attitude -- XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane [yaw: ~0 deg, pitch: 5 deg., roll: 0 deg])

For more on ISS orbit and naked-eye visibility dates/times, see
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html

Source: NASA