After four months of down time, the
primary oxygen generator aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is back
online.
Space station commander Sergei Krikalev and flight
engineer John Phillips, the eleventh ISS crew, reactivated the orbital
laboratory's oxygen generator Monday at 9:41 a.m. EDT (1341 GMT), NASA
officials told SPACE.com.
While the generator appeared to
function normally at first, it had failed into backup mode by the day's end, NASA
spokesperson Kylie Clem said.
"It is still running," she said.
The Russian-built oxygen generator,
known as an Elektron device, produces oxygen and hydrogen from water through
electrolysis. Despite a series of repairs, the station's Elektron failed
in May 2004.
Last week, Krikalev
replaced the Elektron's liquids unit with a spare
that arrived
at the ISS aboard the unmanned Progress 19 resupply
ship on Sept. 10 in order to repair it. The astronauts, as well as U.S. and
Russian flight controllers, continue to monitor the system.
While the Elektron device was
offline, Krikalev and Phillips relied on oxygen
supplies stored in tanks aboard the ISS and the unmanned Progress cargo ships.
Before the arrival of Progress 18, which docked
at the ISS in June, the two astronauts also used solid fuel oxygen generator
"candles" to maintain their atmosphere.
Krikalev and Phillips were never in any
danger of running out of oxygen, NASA officials said at that time.
The ISS Expedition 11 astronauts are
nearing the end of their space station mission and are expected to return to
Earth aboard their Soyuz spacecraft on Oct. 10 EDT, though it will be Oct. 11
local time at their Kazakhstan landing site when they touchdown. Returning to
Earth with Krikalev and Phillips will be U.S.
scientist and entrepreneur Greg Olsen, who is paying $20 million to become the
third space tourist to visit the ISS.
Olsen will fly to the space station
with NASA astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery
Tokarev, the crew of ISS Expedition 12. Their Soyuz
spacecraft will launch toward the ISS on Sept. 30 at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 Oct.
1 GMT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome
in Kazakhstan.
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