CHAPTER 2 DAY IN THE LIFE: LIVING AND WORKING IN SPACE AND ON THE GROUND 24 in with other team members and ISS organizations as appropriate, given that day’s activities (Figure 3). Then the meetings begin, sometimes as early as 6:00 a.m., Houston time. The ISS Mission Management Team (IMMT) meets twice a week. The IMMT is chaired by by the ISS Operations Integration Manager Kenneth Todd and includes representatives from each of the international partner agencies, and from all offices within NASA’s ISS Program as well as flight operations, safety, engineering, and health and medical. The IMMT approves mission priorities and real-time Flight Rule changes and waivers, and conducts final readiness reviews for major activities including launches, dockings, landings, and EVAs, and dispositions major anomaly investigations. The chairperson usually conducts a series of one- on-one tag ups with various partner agencies and commercial vehicle teams before each IMMT. The increment lead flight director supports the process, as well. Twice a week, the NASA team meets internally with the ISS Operations integration manager at an operations tag up for more focused review of NASA internal topics, sometimes in preparation for an upcoming IMMT presentation to the rest of the partnership. Owing to the continuous operation of the ISS and the complexity of the systems, daily meetings between the operations team, the engineering support team, and the integration manager normally occur in between these more formal reviews. Photo courtesy of Robert C. Dempsey Figure 3. Lead Increment 44 Flight Director Michael Lammers works in the Flight Director’s Suite, a small office that overlooks the ISS Mission Control room in Houston. In parallel, the crew continues to follow the timeline. Each crew member is scheduled for two daily exercise sessions (Figure 4). The ISS has two treadmills and two stationary bikes— one of each in the Russian Segment and US Segment. The equipment also includes one resistive exercise system for strength training. Managing to get all six crew members scheduled for the exercise they need without double-booking the associated equipment can be a tricky planning problem, particularly on days when maintenance is needed on any of the exercise equipment, or even on other systems nearby. One hour of each crew member’s day is set aside for the “midday meal.” Attempts are made to line these up for all, or most, of the crew. The crew members can use this time as they see fit. This is a chance for them to take a break during a busy day, grab a bite to eat, and maybe hang out with their crewmates for a bit before getting into the afternoon schedule. Aligning the times for the entire crew also provides psychological support for long missions away from friends and family. As the afternoon progresses, the ground teams—in addition to following along with the crew members as they work through the timeline—are reviewing and updating the next day’s plan. The goal is to get an updated version on board before about 1730 GMT so that it is on board when the evening DPC takes place about an hour later. The evening DPC starts with a crew call to Houston, as with the morning DPC. The calls then go around the world to control teams again for any comments, questions, answers, and last-minute bits of news from the day, ending with Moscow. As soon as the DPC concludes, the crew’s workday is officially over. All interior camera views are turned off to provide the astronauts privacy during their “evening” time. Except for occasional conferences or short research activities, the crew’s evening is marked “presleep” on the timeline, followed by a 9.5-hour stretch marked “sleep.” NASA does not track how they use that time, and no one calls the crew members or otherwise disturbs them unless their help is needed right away to deal with a major problem on board.