Jul 17 2007
From The Space Library
NASA announced the successful activation and operation of its new oxygen-generation system, which it had tested aboard the ISS between 11 and 14 July. Space Shuttle Discovery had delivered the 1,800-pound (816.5-kilogram) component during Mission STS-121 in July 2006, and the crew had installed it in the ISS’s Destiny laboratory. Since the new system’s installation, the crew had added several pieces of hardware and software to the ISS to support its operation. The crew had installed the last required part, a hydrogen-vent valve, during a spacewalk on Space Shuttle Atlantis’s Mission STS-117 in June 2007. Software updates to U.S. computers earlier in July had completed preparations for the system’s activation and operation. The new system, which would augment the Russian Elektron oxygen generator, would allow the increase of the ISS crew in 2009. NASA had designed the system to generate approximately 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms) of oxygen per day, enough for six people, but it was capable of providing as much as 20 pounds (9 kilograms), enough for 11 people. During the test, the system had generated approximately 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of oxygen.
NASA, “New NASA System Will Help Space Station Crews Breathe Easier,” news release 07-159, 17 July 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jul/HQ_07157_station_oxygen.html (accessed 11 June 2010).
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