Space Station Status Report for July 18

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Sunday – crew rest day. Ahead: Week 7 of Increment 24.

Upon wake-up, FE-3 Kornienko performed the regular daily early-morning check of the aerosol filters at the Russian Elektron O2 generator which Maxim Suraev had installed on 10/19/09 in gaps between the BZh Liquid Unit and the oxygen outlet pipe (filter FA-K) plus hydrogen outlet pipe (filter FA-V). [FE-3 will inspect the filters again before bedtime, currently a daily requirement per plan, with photographs to be taken if the filter packing is discolored.]

FE-2 Caldwell-Dyson continued her support of the CFE (Capillary Flow Experiment), powering up the MPC (Multi-Protocol Converter) and starting data flow, with POIC (Payload Operations Integration Center) routing the on-board HRDL (High Rate Data Link) equipment and monitoring via HD video. About 3 hrs later, Tracy shut the experiment down again. [CFE has applications to the management of liquid fuels, cryogens, water-based solutions and thermal fluids in spacecraft systems. ICF is one of three CFE experiments, the others being Vane Gap (VG) and Contact Line (CL). Each of the CFE experiments is represented with two unique experimental units (1,2), all of which use similar fluid-injection hardware, have simple and similarly sized test chambers, and rely solely on video for highly quantitative data. Silicone oil is the fluid used for all the tests, with different viscosities depending on the unit. Differences between units are primarily fluid properties, wetting conditions, and test cell cross section.]…