The International Space Station is now operating with three of its four control moment gyroscopes (CMG) following a 5h 40min spacewalk-repair of gyro 2 by Mike Fincke and Gennadi Padalka, the ISS's current crew, on 2 July. CMGs 3 and 4 are also operational, but CMG 1 failed in 2002 and will be replaced during the next Shuttle mission, STS 114 Discovery, some time after March 2005.
Space Systems/Loral says seven years' worth of extra propellant on board Apstar 5/Telstar 18 after a "full-weight" equatorial ocean-based Sea Launch means that the satellite - stranded in a lower orbit because of a Block DM stage malfunction - is not likely to have a shortened life. The incident, on 29 June, was the third malfunction on a Sea Launch flight.
Source: Flight International
