CHAPTER 12 DAY IN THE LIFE: EMPTY HOUSE—DECREWING THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 212 Once these priorities were agreed to and established, the combined operations, engineering, and program teams set out to determine the best ISS configuration for decrewed operations. A lead flight director was assigned to integrate the operational aspects, develop a review schedule, and outline expectations for the team. At a high level, the team focused on the time available and actions required prior to decrewing, establishing the ISS and ground systems configuration, the operations plan (including emergency response) during decrewed operations, and developing a plan to recrew the ISS once the launch vehicle safety was reassured. A notional schedule (see Figure 1) was pulled together. This schedule outlined the 12 weeks that were available for the assessment. If, in the future, the potential to decrew the ISS arises again, a similar schedule would be used. S M T W T F S 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1 Today 45P Dock 28S Dock 27S Undock IMMT Go/No Go Decrewing Prep 42P Undock Unmanned Sim (TBR) Prelim Recs Final Recs Prelim Config 26S Undock Final Config Plan Approval SEPT OCT NOV Figure 1. Initial schedule for the 2011 ISS decrewing assessment. In the schedule, IMMT refers to the ISS Mission Management Team (see Introduction), 27S and 28S refer to the 28th and 29th crewed expeditions, respectively, and TBR indicates the date is To Be Reviewed. This timeframe allowed approximately 1 month to develop the recommended configuration. Once complete, the recommendation would be taken to the ISS Program for review and, hopefully, approval. One month prior to decrewing the space station, the ISS Mission Management Team (see also Introduction) would give final approval to implement the decrew configuration, which the team estimated would take 4 weeks of non-dedicated crew time—meaning the crew would continue scientific research, as well. Using these priorities, areas of focus, and schedule, the team divided into multiple groups to quickly assess the actions required. These groups jointly reviewed overall status biweekly, looking for concurrence on recommendations and requesting any assistance needed. The lead flight director then officially reported the status to the ISS Program management on a weekly basis.