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An ISS internal Quick Disconnect (QD) coupling failure during proto-flight vibration testing of ISS regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) hardware raised issues concerning the performance of the male QD housing seal design. The existing QD acceptance screening process does not address performance of redundant housing seals and therefore failure tolerance cannot be assured for hardware currently in service. The possibility of performance issues has large implications when considering that currently there are 399 similar units on orbit and approximately 1100 units on the ground integrated into flight hardware. Testing, analysis, and development of a plan to address this issue both for existing hardware and future hardware has been completed to assure system safety is not adversely affected.

A gaseous trace contaminant load model is presented for the Space Station Freedom Man Tended Capability (MTC) configuration at assembly flight MB-6. The model is based on offgassing data gathered in Spacelab missions SL-1, SL-3, SL-D1, SL-IML1, and human metabolic data documented in the NASA Bioastronautics Data Book. These data were extrapolated to create a list of contaminant generation rates for Space Station Freedom using materials data, mass properties data, and operations for the MTC configuration. Results of an evaluation of the gaseous contaminant load model against removal device performance are also presented. The evaluation was performed using a computer model to predict toxicological acceptability of the spacecraft cabin atmosphere at flight MB-6.