Keith’s note: We threw away Mir to make room for ISS since “there could be only one”. Just remember: once we splash ISS its capability – and decades of blood, sweat & tears – will become a coral reef. If we’re not creative enough to build permanent things in space then we will never truly become a spacefaring species. Just sayin’

The skies. The limits: The international space station is one of humanity’s great engineering triumphs. But what is it for?, Washington Post “So even if the station’s life is extended beyond 2020, it is coming down, eventually. NASA could try to salvage a piece here and there, but there are no plans to deconstruct it, so the controlled de-orbit will be a spectacular, fiery event. Too big to burn up […]

Our economy needs a robust space program, editorial, Houston Chronicle “It would be prudent to keep the space shuttles flying with new missions to maintain a vital back-up contingency, until replacement spacecraft and commercial space transportation achieve reliable operations. The space shuttle’s unique capability to launch heavy payloads into space, or return hardware from orbit, is the only means available of flying critical replacement components to support the $100 billion […]

Dec 20: While repressurizing the BKV-3 (air conditioner) today, one of the coolant lines apparently leaked. The shift flight director reported that approximately 500g of freon leaked into the atmosphere. The precise location of the leak is unknown, but telemetry is showing that the leak has stopped. An onboard concentration of 1.7g/m3 has been estimated. The JSC toxicology group is investigating, but believes this concentration to be within acceptable NASA […]

NASA MIR Program / Mir 24 / NASA 6 Status Date: Monday, January 12, 1998 // MD 160/109 Mir Station System/Subsystem Activities The crew performed separation on the Base Block cooling loops KOB-1 and KOB-2 this afternoon after flight controllers detected air in those loops. All other systems continue to operate nominally as previously reported. The pressure in the primary airlock (ShSO) has decreased to below 570 mmHg. Russian ground […]

Mir 24 / NASA 6 Status Date: Thursday, January 1, 1998 Mission Day: Mir 24 / NASA 6 MD 149/98 Mir 24 CDR: Anatoly Solovyov Mir 24 FE: Pavel Vinogradov NASA 6 FE: Dave Wolf Mir Station System/Subsystem Activities Temperatures in the Base Block have been running between 28-32 C; in Kvant-2, 39-41 C, and in Priroda, 28-31 C. PAYLOAD ACTIVITIES FB:HSR:I:23 CHAPAT Daily Check (Crew Rest) OTHER ACTIVITIES Nothing […]

Date: Tuesday, December 23, 1997 // MD 140/89 Mir Station System/Subsystem Activities This past weekend, during changeout of the Base Block air conditioner compressor unit, a check valve failed inside the air conditioner unit (not the new compressor) resulting in a Freon 218 leak of approximately 500 grams. The Moscow Operations team is assessing options to deliver a new air conditioner and compressor either on Shuttle or Progress. The manifesting […]

NASA MIR Program Mir 24 / NASA 6 Status Date:09 Wednesday, December 17, 1997 Mission Day:09 Mir 24 / NASA 6 MD 134/83 Mir Station System/Subsystem Activities All primary major systems continue to operate nominally. Inspector activities were terminated today due to a problem with the Inspector star tracker. The crew kept receiving an input that the star tracker was overheating. The logic of the Inspector payload is such that […]

NASA MIR Program / Mir 24 / NASA 6 Status Date: Thursday, November 20, 1997 // MD 107/56 Mir Station System/Subsystem Activities Today’s major activities centered on preparation and execution of the Cooperative Solar Array experiment. The test consisted of disconnecting, measuring, and connecting multiple solar cells on the Cooperative Solar array (Kvant -Z axis) and the disconnection and re-connection of the Russian Solar array (Kvant +Z axis – installed […]

Date: Wednesday, November 19, 1997// MD 106/55 Mir Station System/Subsystem Activities Health of the major systems continue to remain unchanged (Kvant Electron working (periodically turned off/on for power), 11 gyrodynes holding attitude, Condensate System working, Urine Recycling System working). After continuing discussions with different Russians on last Friday’s solar array test, we have learned the experiment was performed to test the Cooperative Solar Array and NOT the newly installed Kvant […]