All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below. Week 24 and Day 166 in space for Expedition 5.

After wake-up at the current sleep-shifted 11:00am EST, the crew completed Kentavr ("Centaur") preparations, postponed from 11/11, for their return to Earth. After the adjustment, CDR Valery Korzun tagged up with a Kentavr specialist at TsUP. [The Russian Kentavr garments are a protective anti-g suit ensemble to facilitate the return of a long-duration crewmember into the Earth gravity. Consisting of shorts, gaiters, underpants, jersey and socks, it acts as countermeasure for circulatory disturbance, prevents crewmember from overloading during descent and increases orthostatic tolerance during post-flight adaptation. Sizing consists of adjusting lacing on the outer side of the shorts and on the inner side of the gaiters to achieve a tight fit.]

CDR Valery Korzun, FE-2 Sergei Treschev and FE-1/SO Peggy Whitson today are occupied mostly with regular maintenance tasks in the Russian and US segments.

Korzun started out, at 1:45pm EST, with demating BITS2-12 telemetry connectors to allow changeout of two DS-7A smoke detectors (nos. 6 & 8) in the Service Module (SM). He will then reconnect the BITS TMI and re-enable fire detection mode on the controlling laptop.

Treschev is scheduled to work in the DC-1 docking compartment, changing out its two dust filters and cleaning the grills of the V1 and V2 ventilators.

Later, CDR Korzun moves to the FGB cabin to replace the filters of its PS1 & PS2 dust collectors, followed by cleanup of the removable screens on the FGB's three GZhT gas-liquid heat exchangers.

After lunch (6:30pm), Treschev is to switch absorption bed #1 of the harmful impurities removal unit (BMP) to the 24-hr. regeneration cycle, leaving channel 2 in Purify mode.

Sergei will then perform cleanup of the protective fan screens on the TsV1 & TsV2 ventilators in the FGB.

FE-1/SO Peggy Whitson is scheduled for similar servicing tasks in the US segment, conducting inspection and cleaning of bacterial filters and smoke detectors (SDs) in the Node, Lab and Joint Airlock (AL). [After the maintenance, the Node SD will not be enabled since it is suspect and may generate a false alarm, and the AL SD is already off and will stay off, since the CCAA (common cabin air assembly) air conditioner in the AL is not running.]

Whitson will power up the EVARM (EVA radiation monitoring) reader and conduct another pre-EVA background radiation reading from all twelve badges. She will then restow the badges in the reader lid.

Afterwards, Peggy is to conduct the regular weekly inspection of the RED (resistive exercise device), followed today by the monthly procedure of tightening the RED bolts. Along with Valery, she is also scheduled for the weekly maintenance of the TVIS treadmill, consisting of SLD (subject load devices) inspection before and after the exercising crewmember is harness-configured for the workout.

The crew again has time allotted for early prepacking and departure preparations for 11A.

The daily physical exercise program is scheduled for all crewmembers.

The daily routine servicing tasks of SOSh life support systems maintenance, IMS inventory delta file preparation for downlink, and Lab payloads status checkup will be performed by Korzun, Treschev and Whitson, respectively.

Peggy Whitson has completed the procedures review for the upcoming removal and replacement of the ASV valves of the CDRA carbon dioxide removal assembly, once the spare valve sets have arrived with 11A.

The crew was notified of the very dynamic event of tomorrow's Leonid meteor "bombardment" of Earth, which will visibly peak over Europe at 3:50 GMT on 11/19, i.e., 10:50pm EST on 11/18. This will be the last major outburst of this meteor shower for us, at least until the return of its parent comet, P55/Tempel-Tuttle, in about 30 years. [The ISS crew, which has the best viewing platform, was advised to use the Sony PD100 video camcorder, starting at 10:30pm, to record the shower from the DC-1 EVA hatch window #1 (looking into flight direction), the SM Transfer Compartment window, and the Lab nadir window. Meteor rates are expected to be 500-1000 per hour. The comet's discarded cloud of celestial dust thawed from its icy body back in 1766 when the comet streaked around the sun at about 75,000 mph. Each year in November, the Earth passes through some debris left by Tempel-Tuttle, but this year's passage should be extraordinary since Earth passes through the big 1766 cloud itself like last year. As it encounters the myriads of dust particles head-on, their fiery trails seem to radiate from a point within the constellation Leo (the Lion), and the annual showers are therefore called "Leonids".]

Today's targets for the CEO (crew earth observation) program are Industrialized SE Africa (ideal low-sun opportunity to shoot industrial haze, looking both sides of track), Tuamotu-Austral Islands (crew was to focus on coral reefs), Sydney, Australia (nadir and a touch right; ESC [electronic still camera] requested), Jakarta, Indonesia (left of track on the N coast of Java; ESC. In the crew's line of sight, the smoking Papandayan Volcano should have been visible inland. Also, ISS passed almost directly over the famous Krakatau Volcano, an island situated in the narrow straight between Java and Sumatra), Lagos, Nigeria (a touch left of track on a coastal lagoon. It has been many weeks since the last good opportunity. ESC), Industrialized SE Africa (aerosol buildup. Particular request: views taken at the coast looking right of track back over the coastal lowlands towards the mountainous plateau escarpment. Smog densities differ strongly above and below the escarpment), and Johannesburg, South Africa (nadir pass. Looking left and right to document the Witwatersrand metroplex, the largest industrial complex south of the Sahara).

CEO images can be viewed at the website
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/

Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLSS) and Thermal Control (TCS):
Elektron O2 generator is powered On (32 Amp mode). Vozdukh CO2 scrubber is ON in MANUAL mode 5. U.S. CDRA CO2 scrubber is Off (failed). TCCS is operational. BMP Harmful Impurities unit: Absorbent bed #1 in Regeneration mode, bed #2 in Purify mode.

SM Working Compartment: Pressure (mmHg) -- 755; temperature (deg C) -- 25.2; ppO2 (mmHg) -- 138.1; ppCO2 (mmHg) -- 3.6.
SM Transfer Compartment: Pressure (mmHg) -- 751; temperature (deg C) -- 19.6.
FGB Cabin: Pressure (mmHg) -- 748; temperature (deg C) -- 21.0.
Node: Pressure (mmHg) -- 743.80; temperature (deg C) -- 22.4 (shell); ppO2 (mmHg) -- n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) -- n/a.
U.S. Lab: Pressure (mmHg) -- 747.85; temperature (deg C) -- 25.5; ppO2 (mmHg) -- n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) -- n/a;
Joint Airlock (Equip. Lock): Pressure (mmHg) -- 747.95, temperature (deg C) -- 25.6; shell heater temp (deg C) -- 22.7, ppO2 (mmHg) -- n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) -- n/a.
PMA-1: Shell heater temp (deg C) -- 23.5
PMA-2: Shell heater temp (deg C) -- 19.2
(n/a = data not available)

Propulsion System (PS): Total propellant load available (SM + FGB + Progress) -- 3793 kg (8362 lb) [as of 11/14/02].

Electrical Power Systems (EPS):
Both P6 channels fully operational. Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA) 2B and BGA 4B both in dual-angle mode (directed position).
SM batteries: Battery #3 is in "Cycle" mode; all other batteries (7) are in "Partial Charge": mode.
FGB batteries: Battery #3 is offline; all other batteries (5) are in "Partial Charge" mode.
Plasma Contactor Unit PCU-1 in Standby mode; PCU-2 in Standby mode.

Thermal Control Systems:
Air conditioner SKV-1 is Off; SKV-2 is On.

Command & Data Handling Systems:
C&C-1 MDM is prime, C&C-2 is back-up, and C&C-3 is in standby.
GNC-1 MDM is prime; GNC-2 is Backup (new patches loaded on both).
EXT-1 is On (primary), EXT-2 is off.
LA-1, LA-2 and LA-3 MDMs are all operating.
PL-1 MDM is On (primary); PL-2 MDM is off (diagnostic
APS-1 (automated payload switch #1) and APS-2 are both On.
SM Terminal Computer (TVM): 2 redundant lanes (of 3) operational. Lane 1 is down.
SM Central Computer (TsVM): 3 redundant lanes (of 3) operational.

Attitude Source:
3 CMGs on-line.
State vector -- U.S. SIGI-1
Attitude -- Russian segment (RS)
Angular rates -- U.S. RGA-1 (from RS attitude)

Communications & Tracking Systems:
All Russian communications & tracking systems are nominal.
S-band is operating nominally.
Ku-band is operating nominally.
Audio subsystem operating nominally.
Video subsystem operating nominally.
MCOR (medium-rate communications outage recorder) is operating nominally.

Robotics:
SSRMS/Canadarm2 at MBS PDGF3 (mobile base system/power & data grapple fixture 3) and mated to PDGF1 (11A park position), with Keep Alive power on both strings.
MBS: Keep Alive power on both strings. POA: Keep Alive power on both strings.
RWS (robotics workstations): Lab RWS is Off; Cupola RWS is Off.

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:43m EST [= epoch]):
Mean altitude -- 390.0 km
Apogee -- 399.3 km
Perigee -- 380.7 km
Period -- 92.36 min.
Inclination (to Equator) -- 51.64 deg
Eccentricity -- 0.0013763
Orbits per 24-hr. day -- 15.59
Solar Beta Angle -- 24.0 deg (magnitude increasing)
Altitude loss -- 210 (mean) in last 24 hours
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. '98) -- 22804
Current Flight Attitude -- LVLH (local vertical/local horizontal = "earth-fixed": z-axis in local vertical, x-axis in velocity vector [yaw: -13 deg, pitch: -9 deg, roll: 0 deg]). LVLH until 11A docking.

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

Source: NASA