Space Station (ISS) Status 11/4/05

The Expedition 12 crew prepared for the mission's first spacewalk and
kept the station ship-shape this week.

Station Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev
reviewed procedures and prepared tools for the spacewalk. It starts
at 9:30 a.m. EST, Monday (11/7/05). Coverage on NASA TV begins at 8:30 a.m.
EST.


The spacewalk is the first using U.S. spacesuits since 2003. During
the 5.5 hour spacewalk, the crew will install a TV camera on the
station's port truss. The camera will be an important aid during
future assembly work. The crew also will remove an old experiment
from the top of the P6 truss, the station's highest point. The
experiment measured the electrical environment around the station.

The station passed the milestone of five years of human presence
aboard the complex.

The first station crew, Commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Sergei
Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, arrived at the complex on Nov. 2, 2000.

The crew also focused on hardware maintenance. Monday they
disassembled and measured air flow in the Trace Contaminant Control
System. It keeps a clean, healthy atmosphere by filtering out
contaminants in the air. Engineers noticed a reduction in the air
flow, and after the crew examined its components, determined that
replacement hardware may need to be delivered on a future supply
ship. After reassembling the device, the system is running at a
slightly reduced capacity, complemented by a fully operational and
complementary system in the Russian segment.

The crew also replaced a faulty pump in a thermal control loop and
smoke detectors in the Zvezda Service Module and cleaned ventilation
filters in the Zarya module.