STS-106 MISSION ARCHIVE (COMPLETE) Updated: 09/20/00 Space Station Assembly Mission 2A.2b By William Harwood CBS News/Kennedy Space Center The following copy originally was posted on the Current Mission space page at http://cbsnews.cbs.com/network/news/space/current.html. Comments, suggestions and corrections welcome! TABLE OF CONTENTS -NASA mulls plan to break station flight into two missions (01/05/00) -Shuttle mission needed to refurbish Russian module (01/10/00) -NASA presses ahead for station refurb mission (01/27/00) -Crew revised for shuttle mission (02/16/00) -Atlantis glides to picture-perfect touchdown (05/29/00) -Atlantis in good shape after landing (05/31/00) -STS-106 flight plan updated (06/19/00) -Service module docking on tap (07/24/00) -Service module safely in orbit; Atlantis readied for launch (08/08/00) -STS-106 mission preview (09/01/00) -Shuttle countdown begins; weather 60 percent 'go' (09/05/00) -Shuttle in good shape for launch (09/06/00) -Atlantis 'go' for launch; weather remains an issue (09/07/00) -Shuttle Atlantis rockets into orbit (09/08/00) -Shuttle closes in on space station (09/08-09/00) -Atlantis docks with international space station (09/09-10/00) -Spacewalkers successfully wire up Zvezda module (09/10-11/00) -Astronauts enter international space station (09/11-12/00) -Astronauts install new batteries in space station(09/12-13/00) -Station toilet connected; battery problem crops up (09/13-14/00) -Battery 5 troubleshooting deferred to ISS-1 crew (09/14-15/00) -Astronauts install space station treadmill (09/15-16/00) -Astronauts complete space station work, re-seal hatches (09/16-17/00) -Atlantis undocks from international space station (09/17-18/00) -Astronauts test re-entry systems; prepare for landing (09/18-19/00) -Shuttle Atlantis glides to smooth touchdown (09/19-20/00) =================================================================== NASA considers plan to break station logistics flight into two missions (01/05/00) With launch of the Russian service module on hold pending resolution of Proton rocket problems, NASA managers are considering a plan to break up the agency's next space station mission into two parts and to mount a quick-response mission in March or April to refurbish the station's aging Zarya module. The station currently consists of Zarya and a U.S. node called Unity that will serve as a gateway to future modules. Zarya, also known as the FGB, originally was certified by its builder, Krunichev, for on-orbit operations through March 2000. While the module undoubtedly will continue to operate beyond its certified lifetime, the spacecraft needs repairs before Krunichev will officially certify it for extended operations. As a result, NASA likely will break up its next space station mission, assembly flight 2A.2/STS-101, into two back-to-back flights, 2A.2A and 2A.2B, both of which will be launched on Atlantis and include earlier than March 16, assuming at least some of the same crew members. The 2A.2A mission, which would retain the STS-101 shuttle designation, is targeted for launch noNASA can complete on-going shuttle wiring repairs. The 2A.2B would become shuttle mission STS-106. The goal of the first flight would be to install a new battery and other electrical gear to restore Zarya's power system to good health. At present, four of its six on-board batteries are operating normally. One of the other two has a bad cell and the other has problems with associated circuitry. Along with refurbishing the power system, a spacewalk would be mounted to move a cargo boom from Zarya's hull to a stowage point on one of Unity's pressurized mating adaptors. This is get-ahead work to make sure service module thruster firings down the road do not impact the boom. One month after the service module is launched - at least eight weeks after 2A.2A's launch - Atlantis would take off again on mission 2A.2B/STS-106. The goal of this flight is to outfit the module and deliver supplies. Depending on how optimistic one is about the service module's eventual launch date, Atlantis's second flight could get underway as early as July 8. But it appears more likely the flight will slip into the fall timeframe when all is said and done. As of this writing, the launch schedule is in flux and launch dates are highly speculative. This page will be updated as more information becomes available. =================================================================== Shuttle mission needed to refurbish Russian module (01/10/00) Editor's Note... Portions of the following report were written by this writer for Space News magazine. While NASA continues to list March 16 as the target date for launch the shuttle Atlantis on a space station assembly mission, on-going work to fix numerous wiring defects almost certainly will push the flight into April. As of this writing, Atlantis is four to six weeks behind the March 16 target and shuttle managers at the Kennedy Space Center are assessing alternative processing strategies to reduce the turnaround time. NASA is particularly eager to get Atlantis off the ground as soon as possible to service a Russian space station module already in orbit. The international space station currently consists of a multi-hatch U.S. node called Unity and a propulsion and power module called Zarya, also known as the FGB, that was built by Krunichev under contract to NASA. Both were launched in late 1998. Atlantis originally was scheduled for takeoff one month after the Russian launch of the service module Zvezda atop a Russian Proton rocket. The service module will provide the space station's initial crew quarters and take over primary propulsion from the less capable Zarya module. Subsequent U.S. components cannot be launched until Zvezda is in orbit. But launch of the service module is now off until June at the earliest - and possibly until July or August - because of work to recover from two recent Proton launch failures. In the Jan. 10 issue of Space News magazine, a senior official at the Russian Aviation and Space Agency [Rosaviakosmos] said "We don't have a back-up module and, therefore, we will not launch the service module until we carry out all necessary ground tests of the rocket's engines to make sure they don't fail." The service module will not be committed to flight until at least three Protons have successfully flown. "All this makes us look at July or even August as the earliest possible" target date for launch, the Rosaviakosmos official told Space News. But that presents a problem for space station planners in both countries because Zarya's major components are only certified for operations through March. When Zarya was launched in November 1998, NASA and the Russians were confident the service module would be in orbit long before March 2000. But Russian funding problems delayed completion of the service module and the recent Proton failures have caused additional slippage. In the meantime, Zarya has started showing signs of wear and tear after a full year in orbit. Only four of its six batteries are working properly and while the module undoubtedly will continue operating past its certified lifetime, station planners want to ensure its health until the service module can be launched. Zarya's builder, the Krunichev company, has tentatively agreed to re-certify the module for operations through Dec. 31 if NASA launches a shuttle mission to repair the power system and to make other upgrades. "We're working on it right now," said Robert Cabana, a veteran shuttle commander who manages international operations for NASA's station program. "We're pressing ahead to put everything in place." NASA's next station assembly flight, a mission known as 2A.2, had been scheduled for launch one month after the service module reached orbit. The goal of the flight was to outfit the new module and to deliver supplies for the first full-time crew. It now appears NASA will break assembly flight 2A.2 into two back-to-back missions, both using the shuttle Atlantis and at least some of the same crew members. Contrary to recent news reports, some changes in Atlantis's current crew are expected. The first flight, which would be known as 2A.2A, would be launched as soon as possible. "The rationale is FGB lifetime extension," Cabana said in a Jan. 5 interview with Space News. "That's the real reason for this flight." Atlantis's crew would replace an 800-amp battery known to have a bad cell and install two current converters and a controller that would give Zarya a full complement of six operational batteries once again. Cabana said the astronauts also would replace a harmful contaminant filter cartridge, install a fan, a new smoke detector and a memory unit for the module's radio telemetry system. In addition, one spacewalk likely would be staged to move a cargo boom on Zarya's hull to another location to prevent thruster damage after the service module arrives. Under this scenario, Atlantis's second flight - 2A.2B - would not take off until one month after the service module's launch. As with the original 2A.2 flight, the second Atlantis mission would be devoted to outfitting the service module and delivering supplies. Assuming the service module does, in fact, slip to mid summer, launch of the first full-time station crew would be delayed to the October timeframe. Subsequent U.S. flights to deliver a truss element, solar arrays and the U.S. laboratory module would slip accordingly. =================================================================== NASA presses ahead for station refurb mission (01/27/00) NASA managers today formally agreed to press ahead with plans to launch a shuttle mission in April to refurbish the international space station's NASA-financed Russian-built Zarya module. Shuttle flight STS-101 originally was scheduled for launch about one month after delivery of a Russian service module to the station that is intended to provide propulsion and crew quarters. But launch of the service module is on hold pending resolution of problems with the Proton rocket needed to boost it into orbit. In the meantime, the Zarya module currently providing power and propulsion for the station has suffered a variety of problems. Based on the assumption the Russians will be unable to launch the service module before the end of June or July, NASA is now pressing ahead with plans to launch a Zarya servicing mission aboard shuttle Atlantis. The flight, known as shuttle mission STS-101 and station assembly flight 2A.2A, would take off around 8:44 p.m. on April 13 and return to Earth around 4:44 p.m. on April 23. Along with replacing a failed battery, the astronauts would install control equipment to restore a second battery to operation along with other equipment to improve fire detection, hazardous gas detection and communications with the ground. A spacewalk would be carried out on April 16 (see the next entry for details about the goals of this mission). "We have lost one battery and one electronics system that controls [another] battery, so effectively we have lost two batteries out of six on board the station," said station program manager Tommy Holloway. "So the primary driver is to replace the failed battery and the electronics system." If the service module is, in fact, delayed past June, NASA may elect to mount an additional mission to carry up hardware and equipment for the first crew, material originally bookmarked for the original STS-101 mission (assembly flight 2A.2). The new flight would be called STS-106/2A.2B and would be considered the second half of the original STS-101 mission. But if the Russians can launch the service module in late May or early June, NASA likely will scrub the planned April 13 mission and launch a single flight, STS-101, as originally planned one month after the Russian module reaches the station. Crew assignments for these scenarios have not yet been announced. Here are two near-term launch schedule possibilities based on when the service module is launched: Scenario 1: Service module launch in July or August 04/13/00...STS-101/2A.2A....Zarya refurbishment mission 07/??/00...Proton...........Service module 08/19/00...STS-106/2A.2B....Station outfitting mission 09/21/00...STS-92/3A........Z1 truss 11/??/00...Soyuz............First permanent crew is launched 11/30/00...STS-97/4A........Solar arrays 01/18/01...STS-98/5A........U.S. lab module Scenario 2: Service module launch in May 05/20/00...Proton...........Service module 06/22/00...STS-101/2A.2.....Station outfitting 07/20/00...STS-92/3A........Z1 truss 08/??/00...Soyuz............First permanent crew 08/24/00...STS-97/4A........Solar arrays 10/23/00...STS-98/5A........U.S. lab module 11/30/00...STS-102/5A.1.....Station outfitting Sources say the issue boils down to implementation of proposed modifications to increase reliability of the Proton rocket in the wake of two failures last year. NASA managers apparently want the Russians to stick with one set of already tested modifications and to launch the service module around May 20. The Russians are considering additional modifications that, if implemented, would push the launch into the July/August timeframe. "The Russians have finished their investigation and they are well into manufacturing certification and ground testing of a modification that should improve the robustness of the pump in question that was associated with the two accidents," Holloway said. "They currently are in the process of evaluating that, plus some proposed other mods, and I really think it would be inappropriate for me to talk a lot about the Russian technical problem." Even so, Holloway said, "we would like to launch the service module as soon as the Proton is ready to fly. If they could do that in April ... I would be delighted." "It appears, though, that April is not possible in terms of the mods they already have certified and ground tested," he went on. "It appears that might be possible later ... like in May or June. Or July. To go and make some additional mods still in the design phase is going to be longer and the Russians have said perhaps August, in fact. That's the date you hear in all the press releases out of Moscow. "The Russians are currently in a process of evaluating whether they would recommend that we launch on this engine that has been ground tested and certified or whether they would like to do additional mods." Assuming Atlantis takes off April 13, the earliest the orbiter could be turned around for the STS-106 mission would be Aug. 19. Shuttle planners are assessing whether STS-106 can be flown in July on a different orbiter, but that issue is unresolved. The preliminary STS-101/2A.2A flight plan has been posted below. It will undoubtedly change between now and flight, but it provides a useful overview of the mission as it is now envisioned. =================================================================== Crew revised for shuttle mission (02/16/00) NASA's latest internal space station assembly sequence - not yet formally approved - shows nine assembly flights this year: Four shuttle missions, launch of the Russian service module, three Russian Progress supply ships and launch of the first full-time crew aboard a Soyuz ferry craft. The preliminary manifest assumes the service module launches between July 8 and July 14, as proposed by the Russians in a Feb. 11 meeting in Moscow. Assuming that date holds up, NASA will stick with previously announced plans to split the next shuttle assembly mission STS-101/2A.2 into two parts - STS-101/2A.2a and STS-106/2A.2b - both aboard the shuttle Atlantis. The original STS-101/2A.2 crew will be split up for these two missions. While the new crews have not been announced, sources say the new STS-101 crew will be made up of: Commander: James Halsell Pilot: Scott Horowitz MS1: Mary Ellen Weber MS2/EV1: Jeffrey Williams MS3/EV2: James Voss MS4: Susan Helms MS5: Cosmonaut Yuri Usachev Halsell, Horowitz, Williams and Weber were assigned to the original STS-101 mission, along with Edward Lu and cosmonauts Yuri Malenchenko and Boris Morukov. It now appears Lu and the Russians will be assigned to the STS-106 mission, along with commander Terrence Wilcutt, pilot Scott Altman, Daniel Burbank and Richard Mastracchio. Voss, Helms and Usachev make up the station's second permanent crew, known as Expedition 2. They have been added to the STS-101 crew because of their familiarity with the Zarya module and their prior shuttle training (Voss and Helms are shuttle veterans). The goal of the STS-101 mission is to repair and refurbish the aging module because of delays getting the service module into orbit (see the next two entries for complete details). =================================================================== Atlantis glides to picture-perfect touchdown (05/29/00) The shuttle Atlantis glided to a smooth nighttime landing early today, touching down on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center to close out a near-flawless space station repair mission. With veteran commander James Halsell and pilot Scott Horowitz at the controls, the black-and-white spaceplane dropped out of darkness and into the glare of runway spotlights a few seconds before touching down at 2:20:17 a.m. "Wheels stopped, Houston," Halsell radioed after Atlantis coasted to a halt. "Roger wheels stopped, Atlantis. Jim, congratulations to you and the crew on just a super mission to the international space station," replied astronaut Rick Sturckow from mission control. "Smiles around the cabin here, appreciate your help," Halsell called. It was the fourteenth night landing in shuttle history, the ninth at the Kennedy Space Center. Mission duration was nine days 20 hours nine minutes and eight seconds. "I've been in this business of human spaceflight for over 20 years and it never ceases to amaze me how wonderful a machine the space shuttle really is," said shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore. "We had a wonderful mission, everything worked just right and the ground teams, process teams, mission control teams and the flight crew made everything look easy. And believe me, it takes a lot of work ... to do the job you have seen over the past 10 days. These crews did a wonderful job and we had a very successful mission." The international space station, meanwhile, sails on in orbit after a complex orbital overhaul. During six days docked to the outpost, Atlantis's crew replaced four of the Zarya module's six batteries; installed new battery control equipment; replaced a faulty radio antenna on the U.S. Unity module; installed a replacement telemetry unit in Zarya; and transferred 1.5 tons of supplies and equipment to the station that will be used by the lab's first full time crew after arrival late this year. They also installed 10 new smoke detectors, new fans to improve air circulation, fresh water for the next crew and a computer cable that will enable flight controllers in Moscow to activate critical Zarya systems through NASA's communications link. Flight controllers say the station's systems are operating flawlessly and that all systems are go for arrival in July of a new Russian command module that will take over many of Zarya's functions. Thanks to repairs by Atlantis's crew, Zarya's systems are now healthy and more than up to the task of docking with the passive command, or service, module. Once the service module is attached, station assembly will pick up this fall with a quick succession of shuttle assembly flights and arrival of the first full-time crew in early November. "Once we get into the fall, it's off to the races," Dittemore said. Three of Atlantis's crew members will be following station developments with more interest than most. Cosmonaut Yury Usachev, Susan Helms and James Voss plan to spend four to six months aboard the space station next year as the lab's second full-time crew. All three appear eager to return to the unfinished complex. "It felt like home," Helms said late Saturday. "It was just beautiful, I was very, very impressed." Helms, Usachev, Voss, Halsell, Horowitz, Mary Ellen Weber and Jeffrey Williams were out of Atlantis about an hour after touchdown. All seven will spend Memorial Day at the Kennedy Space Center before flying back to Houston early Tuesday. "Thanks for coming out," Halsell said to well wishers and technicians on the runway. "I know it's bad hours for the arrival but we are certainly glad to be back home, we were glad to have had a successful mission, we're glad to be part of the beginning stages of the international space station and we just feel priviledged to have been a part of it all. Halsell then thanked his crewmates for the "outstanding work they did and I'd like to say thank you to the outstanding ops team back at the Johnson Space Center who were with us every step of the way. And finally and most importantly, I'd like to say thank you to the Kennedy Space Center. This vehicle hasn't flown for a couple of years and yet it flew in an outstanding fashion with no significant problems and it just served us so very well. "Thanks a lot for coming out tonight," Halsell concluded. "We're going to go have a shower, have a home-cooked meal and good night. Thanks a lot!" =================================================================== Atlantis in good shape after landing (05/31/00) The shuttle Atlantis is being readied for launch around Sept. 8 on space station assembly and servicing mission STS-106/2A.2b. The goal of the 99th shuttle mission is to deliver supplies and equipment for the Russian service module Zvezda, scheduled for launch in mid July. A launch time for mission STS-106 has not yet been determined. Flight dynamics officers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston are reassessing the international space station's orbit following a reboost by Atlantis during the just-concluded STS-101/2A.2a mission. This page will be updated as soon as a reliable launch date and time are known. See the Previous Mission page for complete coverage of the STS-101 flight of shuttle Atlantis. =================================================================== STS-106 flight plan updated (06/19/00) The STS-106 flight plan posted below has been updated to reflect NASA's latest estimate of Atlantis's launch time. Based on analysis of the international space station's current orbit and projected changes, Atlantis is expected to blast off around 8:31 a.m. on Sept. 8. This time likely will change by a few minutes as launch gets closer. Updates will be posted here as warranted. Atlantis's crew plans to outfit and activate the Russian service module Zvezda, currently scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 12:53 a.m. EDT on July 12. Here is a list of upcoming milestones, including actual times where known: DATE......TIME.........EVENT 06/23..................Mini joint program review in Moscow to assess Zvezda status 06/26..................General designer's review in Moscow 06/28..................Zvezda is loaded with propellant 06/29..................A NASA readiness review is held at the Johnson Space Center 07/03..................Russian managers formally clear Zvezda for launch 07/05..................Zvezda is mated to its Proton launcher 07/07..................The Proton is moved to the launch pad 07/12.....12:53 a.m....Zveza launch (10:53 a.m. Baikonur time) 07/26..................Zvezda docks with ISS 08/02..................Russian Progress supply ship launched 08/04..................Progress docks with space station 09/08.....08:31 a.m....Launch 09/10.....01:31 a.m....Atlantis/space station docking 09/11.....12:51 a.m....Spacewalk begins 07:21 a.m....Spacewalk ends 10:46 p.m....Space station ingress 09/12.....02:01 a.m....Progress ingress 05:16 a.m....Progress unloading begins 09/16.....06:31 a.m....Station egress 11:16 p.m....Atlantis undocks from space station 09/19.....03:12 a.m....Atlantis lands at the Kennedy Space Center Extensive coverage of the Zvezda launch, including detailed background and frequent updates, will be posted on the Space Station page beginning June 26 and continuing through ISS docking. =================================================================== Service module docking on tap (07/24/00) The Russian Zvezda command module is poised for docking with the international space station Tuesday evening after two weeks of check out and activation. Based on the latest radar tracking, the two spacecraft are expected to dock at 8:44:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday as they pass over Russian ground stations. Should the automatic KURS docking approach fail, the space station's Zarya propulsion module has enough propellant for at least one more docking attempt and possibly two. If all else fails, two Russian cosmonauts will be standing by for launch around Aug. 10 aboard a Soyuz rocket to carry out a manual docking using the backup TORU system. Complete coverage of the final rendezvous and docking will be provided on the CBS News Space Station page and on the Spaceflight Now website. In the meantime, a detailed mission overview, including background on the docking procedure, is available below in a 3,000-word story posted July 6. =================================================================== Service module safely in orbit; Atlantis readied for launch (08/08/00) With the Russian Zvezda command module now in place, NASA engineers are in the final stages of readying the shuttle Atlantis for blastoff Sept. 8 on a mission to outfit and activate the new module. The station's first full-time crew is scheduled to arrive in early November. Early Sunday, engineers towed Atlantis from its processing hangar to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building for attachment to a set of solid-fuel boosters and an external fuel tank. Early Saturday, Atlantis will be moved from its assembly bay to VAB high bay 2 as part of a "safe haven" fit check. High bay 2 was recently modified to house assembled space shuttles to provide protection in case of a hurricane. The VAB now has three shuttle-capable high bays, although only two of them can be used to actually assemble a shuttle stack for launch. If all goes well, Atlantis will be hauled to launch pad 39B starting around 11 p.m. Aug. 13. The shuttle's seven-man U.S.-Russian crew will participate in a dress-rehearsal countdown Aug. 18, setting the stage for launch around 8:31 a.m. on Sept. 8. The goal of the flight is to deliver supplies and equipment to the international space station and to activate various systems before arrival of the first full-time crew in November. A detailed mission preview will be posted here soon. =================================================================== STS-106 Mission Preview (09/01/00) Editor's Note... The following mission preview was written for Spaceflight Now and is reprinted here by permission. By WILLIAM HARWOOD Spaceflight Now The shuttle Atlantis is poised for blastoff to the international space station Sept. 8 on a curtain-raising flight to outfit and activate the growing lab complex before arrival of its first full-time crew in early November. The 99th shuttle mission follows the successful but long-delayed launching of the Russian command module, Zvezda, in July and a Progress supply ship in August, kicking off the most ambitious 12 months of U.S.-Russian launch activity in station history. "Beginning with the Zvezda launch a few weeks ago, we're beginning a year in which we should have about 15 launches, which is the most intense period of flight operations human spaceflight has ever undertaken," said James Vaan Laak, deputy space station program manager. "We're very excited about that, but I think we're all very awed by the challenge it represents." If all goes well, another shuttle crew will deliver stabilizing gyroscopes in October, the first permanent crew will arrive in November, a huge NASA solar array section will be installed in December and the U.S. laboratory module, Destiny - the scientific heart of the orbital outpost - will be attached in January. And throughout the assembly phase, the Russians will be launching a steady stream of unmanned Progress supply ships, ferrying equipment and fuel to the station to keep the lab at the proper altitude. "Those of us who are working on the program right now feel as though we're riding on a roller coaster that has crested the top of the first hill and has begun to accelerate down the backside," Van Laak said. Said veteran shuttle flight director Wayne Hale: "The floodgates have been opened and we're in high gear." Atlantis is scheduled to lift off from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 8 with launch targeted for the moment Earth's rotation carries the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. As of this writing, the launch window is expected to open around 8:45 a.m., but that time will be adjusted slightly based on final radar tracking of the space station. At the controls will be commander Terrence Wilcutt, pilot Scott Altman and flight engineer Richard Mastracchio. Their crewmates are Edward Lu, Daniel Burbank and two Russian cosmonauts, Mir-veteran Yuri Malenchenko and physician Boris Morukov. Wilcutt, Altman, Lu and Malenchenko are space veterans while the rest are rookies. Assuming an on-time liftoff, Atlantis will catch up with the international space station on Sept. 10 - flight day three - approaching from behind and below before looping up in front of the target and then on to a point 450 feet directly above. From there, Wilcutt will manually guide Atlantis straight down to a docking around 2:12 a.m. Atlantis will lock itself to a pressurized mating adaptor, or PMA, attached to one end of the multi-hatch Unity node, launched by NASA in December 1998. At the other end of the Unity module is another PMA that connects to the Russian-built NASA-financed Zarya propulsion module, launched in November 1998. Zarya, in turn, is attached to the Zvezda module and the Progress 251 supply ship is docked to a port at the far end of the new command and crew module. Once docked, the 128,000-pound (58,000 kilogram) space station will tower some 130 feet above Atlantis's cargo bay. "When we get there, the station's going to be about the height of a 13-story building, so it is going to be a very visually imposing structure," said Lu. The astronauts will not immediately enter the station or even open any hatches. First, Lu and Malenchenko are scheduled to stage a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk the day after docking to connect four power cables between Zarya and Zvezda and four video and data cables. The power cables, in a strip of four stretching 26.9 feet, will permit electricity generated by future U.S. solar arrays to power systems in Russian modules if needed. The video-data cables stretch 16 feet. "As the station gets bigger and the solar arrays start to get blocked, we need to share power between the different segments and the different modules," said lead flight director Phil Engelauf. "And these external cables will be connected up in anticipation of ... when we will start generating power." The spacewalkers also plan to hook up a 20-foot-long fiber optic telemetry cable that will be used during future Russian spacewalks and re-mount a Russian magnetometer on an extended boom near the rear of Zvezda. The magnetometer will provide a backup means of determining the station's orientation in space. The magnetometer is located near the far end of Zvezda. To get there, Lu and Malenchenko will ride the shuttle's robot arm from Atlantis's payload bay to Zarya and then pull themselves, hand over hand, along tether wires and handrails up to the magnetometer work site. "When they're working on the magnetometer boom, they'll be about 110 feet away from the space shuttle, which is twice as high as astronauts were when we worked on the top of the Hubble Space Telescope," said Mike Hess, a NASA spacewalk planner. "So it'll be a very different view for this crew, it'll be the equivalent of working on about the 11th story of a 13-story building when they're working on the magnetometer." Lu, whose spacesuit will have red identifying stripes, said he and Malenchenko are "really looking forward to getting a chance to see this view, of looking down and seeing the space shuttle with the Earth in the background. We're expecting a pretty incredible view." Hess said in an emergency, Lu and Malenchenko could get back into Atlantis's airlock in less than 15 minutes. Each spacesuit has a 30-minute supply of emergency oxygen. "The added risk involved in the EVA is in terms of rapid safing," Hess said. "From a rapid safing standpoint, we're still within our 30-minute limit, which is what the suit can easily take care of. So we should easily be able to get back inside if there's a problem." Once the magnetometer head is mounted on its 10-foot (three meter) boom, Lu and Malenchenko will work their way back "down" down the station stack toward the shuttle, stopping at the Zvezda-Zarya docking interface to hook up the power and data cables. Once the spacewalk is complete, the astronauts will float into the space station the next day - flight day five - to begin transferring supplies and equipment into the outpost. The goal is to outfit and activate the Zvezda module, which will provide the station's initial crew quarters and the propulsion needed to maintain a safe orbit. Running two years behind schedule because of Russian funding shortfalls and recent problems with Proton boosters, Zvezda was finally boosted into space July 12, clearing the way for arrival of the lab's first full-time crew in November and opening a floodgate of shuttle assembly flights. To save weight, Zvezda was launched with many of its modular life support and control systems incomplete. Some of the missing equipment, along with crew supplies, food and other material, was launched Aug. 6 aboard the Progress 251 vehicle now docked to the far end of Zvezda. Additional equipment and supplies will be launched aboard Atlantis in a double Spacehab module mounted in the shuttle's cargo bay. The astronauts will be hard pressed to completely unload both vehicles during the five days Atlantis is docked to the station. "There are over 600 kilograms of cargo in the Progress cargo hold," Morukov said. "We made an attempt to load the cargo in the sequence that would best fit the unloading process and the accommodation aboard the station. "Some of the cargoes are packed in U.S.-made bags that are very easy to accommodate on the station and which have specified preset locations," he added. "Other cargos - large components in boxes for the various systems - will be installed into the locations where they will be operated subsequently. This cargo complement includes very important components of the life support system. "Probably the most important objective of the Progress flight is to deliver propellant to the station. However, the crew is not involved in the propellant transfer." The Atlantis astronauts will, however, use spare fuel aboard the space shuttle to boost the station's altitude by a few miles, saving the station's propellant for use when the shuttle is not available. Morukov is responsible for orchestrating the Progress unloading. Burbank will direct stowage and assembly operations in the space station while Mastracchio will organize the unloading of the Spacehab module. "Not only are we taking cargo and logistics from the orbiter but we're also bringing them across the hatch from the Progress into the service module," Burbank said. "It's going to be a major exercise in choreography. The key to all that is just doing the homework ahead of time." Along with moving supplies into the station, the astronauts will assemble a Russian Elektron oxygen generator, a carbon dioxide removal system and major components of the station's toilet. They will also assemble a NASA-supplied treadmill and install laptop computers and equipment to set up a local area network. Two new batteries will be installed in the Zarya module - four were replaced during the most recent shuttle visit in May - and three batteries and their charge-discharge controllers will be installed aboard Zvezda, giving the module a full complement of eight. All told, Atlantis will carry another 4,817 pounds (2,186 kilograms) of gear that will be transferred to the station, including 722 pounds of Russian hardware, 858 pounds of food, 784 pounds of fresh water generated by the shuttle and 236 pounds of equipment needed by future assembly crews. The Progress 251 vehicle is loaded with some 1,313 pounds (588 kilograms) of material, including components for the Elektron oxygen generator, the carbon dioxide air scrubber, laptop computers and toilet components. "One of the primary goals of STS-106 is to get that vehicle off loaded because we will need an additional vehicle, Progress 2, to deliver the remaining supplies that are required to meet the early initial conditions for the crew, to have all the necessary supplies," Engelauf said. "In addition, we will be off-loading a significant amount of cargo from the Spacehab," he said. "After we arrive, we'll move some of the supplies from the Zarya into Zvezda, we'll unload some equipment out of the Zarya that is no longer required. ... In addition, we'll be transferring a couple of science payloads." Other objectives include: -Installation of new software into computers in the Unity module to help control the P6 solar array when it arrives later this year. -Measurements of air quality in the station and the background acoustic environment -Installation of air ducts and fans in Zvezda. -Removal of no-longer-needed manual docking control equipment in the Zarya module to make room for other equipment. -Installation of U.S.-to-Russian power converter units to enable Russian equipment to use power generated by the P6 solar array. -Installation of a bar code reader system to track station inventory and stowage locations. -Removal of launch restraint bolts from fire extinguishers in the Zvezda module. -Removal of Zarya's aft docking probe, which is no longer needed. "We've basically got a house up there that we're trying to get ready for somebody else to move into but half the systems aren't installed," Lu said. "We're going to show up with two big moving vans - a shuttle and a Progress - and we've got five days once we get up there for all of us to unload all that stuff, get it put together, install it in its proper place and ... get a lot of systems up and running or ready for the Expedition One crew to do that themselves." Because of the sheer volume of material to be transferred, stored and set up in the station, NASA managers are holding open the option of extending Atlantis's mission by one day. "It's very aggressive and our list of things that we can do productively on this flight exceeds the amount of time we're going to have available," Engelauf said. But a decision to extend the flight likely will not be made until after the shuttle is in orbit, based on the shuttle's actual power consumption. If the flight is not extended, Atlantis will undock from the station around 11:32 p.m. on Sept. 16. "We'll put the vehicle in the same orientation as when we docked, with the orbiter out on the radial outward side from the Earth relative to the stack," Engelauf said. "We'll separate away to a distance of about 450 feet from the center of gravity of the vehicle and the crew will initiate a fly around. This is going to be our first opportunity to do a good exterior inspection of the Zvezda since we arrived on orbit." Over the next two days, the astronauts will relax and enjoy a bit of time off before testing re-entry systems and gearing up for landing at the Kennedy Space Center around 4:45 a.m. on Sept. 19. "This is a tremendously important mission," Altman said. "We're preparing the international space station for its first occupants. So I feel a heavy responsibility as far as putting things together, making sure everything is up and ready for them when they arrive, so that they can get right to work without having to deal with any of the hassles of basically building a new house. We want to have it ready for move-in when we're complete." =================================================================== Shuttle countdown begins; weather 60 percent 'go' (09/05/00) The countdown began today for the shuttle Atlantis's launching Friday on a mission to outfit and activate the international space station. The countdown began on time at 11 a.m. and if all goes well, Atlantis will blast off on the 99th shuttle mission around 8:45 a.m. Friday. Forecasters are predicting a 60 percent chance of favorable weather. "We're working no significant issues at the pad, all the flight and ground systems appear to be in good shape and we are looking forward to launch on Friday morning," said NASA test director Jeff Spaulding. The only technical concern as the countdown began was possible lightning damage to a TACAN navigation system at the nearby shuttle runway. The extent of the damage is not yet known, but NASA managers are confident the system can be repaired in time to support a launch attempt Friday. Atlantis's launch window will open at the moment Earth's rotation carries pad 39B into the plane of the space station's orbit. Launching into the plane of the orbit maximizes the shuttle's performance and minimizes the amount of fuel needed to reach the target. As of this writing, the in-plane launch time is 8:45:28 a.m. But flight controllers expect that time to change by a few seconds based on final radar tracking of the space station to determine its precise orbit. Likewise, the duration of the launch window will not be known until early Friday, after Atlantis is loaded with a half-million pounds of rocket fuel. NASA managers recently decided to shorten space station launch windows to maximize the chances of reaching the lab and completing a mission even if the shuttle's main engines failed to perform at full power. The duration of the launch window will be based on the shuttle's actual weight, the station's actual orbit, winds aloft and other factors. Ascent flight director Wayne Hale said last week he believes Atlantis's window will run between four and five minutes. The shuttle's crew - commander Terrence Wilcutt, pilot Scott Altman, Edward Lu, Richard Mastracchio, Daniel Burbank and two Russian cosmonauts, Mir-veteran Yuri Malenchenko and physician Boris Morukov - flew to the Cape from Houston Monday evening. The crew dodged thunderstorms and lightning before arriving around 8 p.m. "You have no idea, unless you're looking at this storm, how great it is to be here on the ground at KSC. What a trip!" Wilcutt told reporters at the Shuttle Landing Facility. "We're ready to go. We've been training for about seven months and I don't think there's any stone that's been left unturned." Said Lu: "We're all excited about starting this. And it's not just us, it's all of NASA right now. Because as you all know, there are an awful lot of launches coming up in the next year and space station's really going to be taking shape and we're all looking forward to getting this off on the right foot." Forecasters are predicting generally favorable weather Friday with a 40 percent chance of coastal showers that could delay launch. The odds improve to 70 percent "go" on Saturday and 80 percent go on Sunday. But Spaulding said today NASA will only make two back-to-back launch attempts before standing down for 48 hours to top off on-board supplies of liquid oxygen and hydrogen for the shuttle's electricity producing fuel cells. See the STS-106 countdown table below for a more detailed look at the STS-106 countdown to launch. =================================================================== Shuttle in good shape for launch (09/06/00) Despite an overnight lightning strike at pad 39B, work to ready the shuttle Atlantis for blastoff Friday remained on track today with the loading of liquid oxygen and hydrogen for the ship's electricity producing fuel cells. Forecasters continue to predict a 60 percent chance of acceptable weather during Atlantis's four-minute-or-so launch window, which will open around 8:45:28 a.m. Friday. Landing is now targeted for 4:45 a.m. on Sept. 19 for a mission duration of exactly 10 days and 20 hours. NASA test director Steve Altemus told reporters today instrumentation at the pad indicated a lightning strike during violent overnight thunderstorms had no apparent effect on the space shuttle or its payload. The storms did, however, delay normal processing but engineers said they could make up the lost time today during a four-hour built-in hold in the countdown. To reach the international space station, Atlantis must take off within five minutes of the moment Earth's rotation carries pad 39B into the station's orbital plane. The overall launch window, then is 10 minutes long. But NASA managers recently decided to target station assembly missions for launch at the instant the pad is "in plane" with the target's orbit. To maximize performance and the odds of completing a successful mission, the launch window will extend between two-and-a-half and nearly five minutes. The exact duration of Atlantis's window has not yet been computed. The shuttle's countdown, however, is set up to reach zero at the opening of the full 10-minute window. A final adjustable 40-minute hold at the T-minus nine-minute mark will be extended about five minutes to set up an in-plane launch. The STS-106 countdown chart posted below, which originally assumed the holds were targeted for the in-plane launch time, has been corrected to reflect the actual hold start and stop times. =================================================================== Atlantis 'go' for launch; weather remains an issue (09/07/00) Engineers are readying the shuttle Atlantis for fueling late tonight and blastoff early Friday at 8:46 a.m. on curtain-raising mission to outfit and activate the international space station. There are no technical problems of any significance at pad 39B and forecasters continue to predict a 60 percent chance of favorable weather. The big question mark is the possibility of coastal showers that could force a 24-hour delay. Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, meanwhile, updated the shuttle's launch time early today based on the space station's actual orbit, Atlantis's projected weight when fully fueled and a variety of other factors. Here are the latest times for launch attempts Friday and Saturday: WINDOW OPENS......LAUNCH TIME.......WINDOW CLOSES 09/08 08:40:28 a.m......08:45:47 a.m......08:50:28 a.m. 09/09 08:17:53 a.m......08:23:12 a.m......08:27:53 a.m. At liftoff Friday, the international space station will be sailing above Hungary near the Croatian border (46.34 degrees north latitude, 17.59 degrees east longitude), 6,600 statute miles ahead of Atlantis. The launch times listed above mark the moment Earth's rotation carries 39B into the plane of the space station's orbit, which minimizes fuel consumption and increases the odds of a successful mission. The window close times listed above mark the maximum possible duration. The actual duration of Atlantis's launch window, which will not be known until after the shuttle is fueled for flight, will be somewhere between two-and-a-half and five minutes. Work at pad 39 is proceeding smoothly as engineers ready the ship for fueling. If all goes well, the team will begin pumping a half-million gallons of supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket fuel into Atlantis's external tank around 11:50 p.m. Fueling should be complete by 3 a.m. Friday and NASA's live television coverage of launch preparations will begin at 3:30 a.m. Commander Terrence Wilcutt, pilot Scott Altman, Edward Lu, Richard Mastracchio, Daniel Burbank and two Russian cosmonauts, Mir-veteran Yuri Malenchenko and physician Boris Morukov are scheduled to make the trip from crew quarters to pad 39B at 5 a.m. They should be strapped in and the shuttle's hatch closed for flight by 6:45 a.m. As with all space station missions, the countdown is timed to end at the moment the shuttle's theoretical launch window opens, in this case 8:40:28 a.m. But a final 40-minute hold in the countdown at the T-minus nine-minute mark will be extended to hit the "in-plane" launch target of 8:45:47 a.m. Atlantis's flight is the first of more than a dozen U.S and Russian space station assembly missions planned over the next 12 months. After Wilcutt and company outfit the new Russian Zvezda module and activate critical life support systems, another shuttle crew will deliver stabilizing gyroscopes in October. The lab's first full-time crew will arrive in early November and later that month, yet another shuttle crew will deliver a huge solar array package. Then in January, the U.S. lab module, Destiny, will arrive. "Some time ago I talked to you about one of these days, the dam was going to burst and we would be ready to launch shuttles as fast as we could get them ready and that we would really embark on that journey to put the space station together," said shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore. "Well,that time is just about here. There's nothing that we see in our way that keeps us from pressing forward on that journey." And that journey, Dittemore said, "is going to be a challenging one, it's going to be as complex and difficult as anything we've ever done at NASA, including landing a man on the moon." Space station program manager Tommy Holloway said Wilcutt and his crew "are going to kick off an incredible set of missions over the next year and indeed, if all goes well, for the next five years as we put this million pounds of hardware in orbit." "By this time next year, our plans would have us with a fully functional space station with adequate power to run our laboratory and keep the home running, which by the way is about the size of a three-room house, bigger than the Skylab in terms of internal volume and bigger than the Mir once we get the lab on board." The increased flight rate will pose a major challenge to the launch team at the Kennedy Space Center where shuttles are processed for flight. Dittemore said NASA spent the spring and summer preparing for the upcoming flight surge, hiring new engineers and managers to beef up the workforce, conducting tests to identify weaknesses and implementing plans to shore up areas that needed improvement. As a result, the next three station assembly missions are generally on track and well ahead of schedule. But next year, as those shuttles return to Earth and are "turned around" for their next flights, the ground team will be put to the test. "NASA is going to hire some 500 people this year to increase the civil servants throughout the agency, by the end of this month, by the end of this fiscal year, and the contractor here in Florida has increased its workforce on the order of 200 and that was completed some months ago," Dittemore said. "We have spent this summer testing and training ourselves with a lot of that increased workforce in hand to try and understand exactly what our capabilities are," he said. "And we have found in some areas we didn't have enough people, in other areas our skills weren't quite what we needed and we have shored those areas up." And that, he said, "puts us in an even better posture for processing vehicles in January and the spring of next year. That's where the real benefit will come from. The test has not been this summer, nor will it be this fall because we've had a lot of time to get ready . The test will be next spring, after we fly (assembly missions) 3A, 4A and 5A and turn these vehicles around. That's where the real test will be. So we still have some amount of time to get ready. But right now, I think we're in pretty good shape to fly that manifest." Looking beyond the space station era, Dittemore said that with the proper care, maintenance and upgrades to replace obsolescent equipment, NASA's fleet of space planes could fly another two to three decades. "This machine, we've been flying for almost 20 years," he said. "It's relatively young, we've only had 25 or 26 flights out of a hundred of its certified life. It can go for many, many years to come if we take care of it. If we do the right structural inspections, if we make the right improvements, there's no reason this machine cannot be flying for 20 to 30 more years. "It can be the B-52 of the space fleet, there's no question about that. If we take care of it," he said. "Until we have a technology breakthrough in propulsion or lightweight structures, I think pound for pound this shuttle can compete with anything that anybody can think of." =================================================================== Shuttle Atlantis rockets into orbit (09/08/00) 05:30 a.m. Update: Astronauts board shuttle; weather still 'iffy' for launch The Atlantis astronauts began strapping into the fully fueled space shuttle at 5:30 a.m. in preparation for a launch attempt at 8:45:47 a.m. on a flight to the international space station. As of this writing, the sky is generally clear over the Kennedy Space Center but forecasters continue to predict a chance for coastal showers during Atlantis's short launch window that could delay liftoff. Hoping for the best, commander Terrence Wilcutt, pilot Scott Altman, Edward Lu, Richard Mastracchio, Daniel Burbank and two Russian cosmonauts, Mir-veteran Yuri Malenchenko and cosmonaut-physician Boris Morukov, left crew quarters and headed for pad 39B around 5 a.m. They should be strapped in and the shuttle's cockpit hatch closed for flight by 6:45 a.m. There are no technical problems at pad 39B this morning and Atlantis appears ready for launch on its 22nd flight, the 99th in shuttle history. If the weather or any other problem prevents a launch today, Atlantis will be recycled for blastoff at 8:23:12 a.m. Saturday. If the shuttle is not off the ground by then, the flight will be delayed two days to top of on-board supplies of hydrogen and oxygen for the ship's electrical generators. Here is the timeline for the remainder of this morning's countdown: DATE/TIME...EVENT Launch Day: Sept. 8, 2000 06:45 a.m....Shuttle hatch closed and latched 07:30 a.m....Begin a 10-minute hold at T-minus 20 minutes 07:40 a.m....End 10-minute hold; T-minus 20 minutes and counting 07:51 a.m....Begin final 40-minute hold at T-minus nine minutes 08:37 a.m....Resume countdown 08:41 a.m....Hydraulic power system (APU) activation 08:46 a.m....Launch The goal of this is mission is to outfit and activate the international space station and to prepare it for arrival of its first permanent crew in early November. For a complete overview of mission STS-106, see the detailed flight preview immediately below. 06:40 a.m. Update: Mission control refines launch window Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston have re-computed the shuttle Atlantis's actual launch window. The preferred "in-plane" window will open at 8:45:47 a.m. and close at 8:49:44 a.m. for a duration of three minutes and 57 seconds. Forecasters at the Kennedy Space Center, meanwhile, are growing somewhat pessimistic about the odds for a liftoff today. Off-shore rain showers are approaching the Kennedy Space Center and at this time, it would appear NASA's weather criteria for a return to launch site abort could be violated. If Atlantis fails to get off today, NASA managers could order a second attempt Saturday or they could elect to stand down until Sunday when weather conditions are expected to be 80 percent "go." By delaying to Sunday, the crew would have two back-to-back launch opportunities, both of which feature a flight day three rendezvous with the space station. The forecast for Saturday calls for a 40 percent chance of bad weather. If NASA opted to try Saturday and Atlantis failed to get off the ground, the flight would be delayed two more days to top off on board supplies of hydrogen and oxygen. Stay tuned! 07:15 a.m. Update: Weather improves somewhat NASA forecasters now say the weather at the Kennedy Space Center is improving as the sun comes up. A band of off-shore rain showers continues to threaten an on-time launch, but flight controllers are hopeful conditions will be good enough to permit a launch today. This one is too close to call, so stay tuned! 08:55 a.m. Update: Shuttle Atlantis rockets into orbit Editor's Note... Correcting number of flights scheduled over next 12 months - nine instead of 10 as originally posted. This story was written for Spaceflight Now. It is reposted here by permission. By WILLIAM HARWOOD CBS News/Kennedy Space Center The shuttle Atlantis dodged coastal showers and blasted into orbit today, setting off after the international space station and kicking off the most ambitious shuttle launch schedule since the pre-Challenger era. With commander Terrence Wilcutt and pilot Scott Altman at the controls, Atlantis blasted off at 8:45:47 a.m. EDT (0846 GMT), the precise moment Earth's rotation carried pad 39B into the plane of the space station's orbit. "We have booster ignition and liftoff of the space shuttle Atlantis, opening the door to a permanent human presence in space," said NASA commentator Bruce Buckingham as Atlantis roared away. Joining Wilcutt and Altman aboard the veteran shuttle were Edward Lu, Richard Mastracchio, Daniel Burbank and two Russian cosmonauts, Mir-veteran Yuri Malenchenko and physician Boris Morukov. With its twin solid-fuel boosters spewing fire and thunder, Atlantis majestically climbed skyward and arced east over the Atlantic Ocean, disappearing behind off-shore clouds as it raced away up the East Coast of the United States. At the moment of liftoff, Atlantis's unmanned quarry - the space station - was passing above Hungary near the Croatian border some 6,600 miles ahead of Atlantis. Over the next two days, Wilcutt and Altman will carry out a series of carefully timed rocket firings to catch up with the space station for a docking shortly after 2 a.m. EDT Sunday. After a spacewalk Monday to connect electrical and data cables between the new Russian command module Zvezda and the rest of the station, the astronauts will spend at least five days moving equipment and supplies into the lab complex and activating critical life support systems. If all goes well, the station's first full-time crew will arrive in early November and from that point forward, the orbital laboratory will be permanently staffed. "We are going to have a world-class laboratory on orbit with a permanently manned presence in the very, very near future," said veteran shuttle commander Robert Cabana, a senior space station manager. "And it's going to be something spectacular." Over the next 12 months, NASA plans to launch nine shuttle missions - eight of them devoted to space station assembly - tying a mark set in 1985. At that time, NASA planned to launch 16 missions in 1986, but the schedule was cut short by the Jan. 28, 1986, Challenger disaster. Building the million-pound $60 billion space station is "going to be as complex and difficult as anything we've ever done at NASA, including landing a man on the moon," said shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore. "It offers different challenges, but it's extremely complex." Added station program manager Tommy Holloway: "I sort of feel like a father - maybe that's really a grandfather - that's expecting triplets or something. It's really (a time of) great expectations. Very shortly, the space station's going to come to life and literally be born." The 99th shuttle mission follows the successful but long-delayed launching of the Russian command module, Zvezda, in July and a Progress supply ship in August, kicking off the most ambitious 12 months of U.S.-Russian launch activity in station history. "Beginning with the Zvezda launch a few weeks ago, we're beginning a year in which we should have about 15 launches, which is the most intense period of flight operations human spaceflight has ever undertaken," said James Vaan Laak, deputy space station program manager. "We're very excited about that, but I think we're all very awed by the challenge it represents." Atlantis will lock itself to a pressurized mating adaptor, or PMA, attached to one end of the multi-hatch Unity node, launched by NASA in December 1998. At the other end of the Unity module is another PMA that connects to the Russian-built NASA-financed Zarya propulsion module, launched in November 1998. Zarya, in turn, is attached to Zvezda and the Progress 251 supply ship is docked to a port at the far end of the new command and crew module. Once docked, the 128,000-pound (58,000 kilogram) space station will tower some 130 feet (40 meters) above Atlantis's cargo bay. The astronauts will not immediately enter the station or even open any hatches. First, Lu and Malenchenko are scheduled to stage a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk early Monday to connect four power cables between Zarya and Zvezda and four video and data cables. The spacewalkers also plan to hook up a fiber optic telemetry cable that will be used during future Russian spacewalks and re-position an orientation-sensing magnetometer on an extended boom near the rear of Zvezda. "When they're working on the magnetometer boom, they'll be about 110 feet away from the space shuttle, which is twice as high as astronauts were when we worked on the top of the Hubble Space Telescope," said Mike Hess, a NASA spacewalk planner. "It'll be the equivalent of working on about the 11th story of a 13-story building." Once the spacewalk is complete, the astronauts will float into the space station Monday evening to begin transferring supplies and equipment into the outpost. The goal is to outfit and activate the Zvezda module, which will provide the station's initial crew quarters and the propulsion needed to maintain a safe orbit. To save weight, Zvezda was launched with many of its modular life support and control systems incomplete. The Progress 251 vehicle launched Aug. 6 and now docked to Zvezda's aft port, is loaded with some 1,313 pounds (588 kilograms) of gear, including components for an Elektron oxygen generator, a carbon dioxide air scrubber, laptop computers and components for the station's toilet. Atlantis will carry another 4,817 pounds (2,186 kilograms) of supplies and equipment, including 722 pounds of Russian hardware, 858 pounds of food, 784 pounds of fresh water generated by the shuttle and 1.150 pounds of exercise equipment. Two new batteries will be installed in the Zarya module - four were replaced during the most recent shuttle visit in May - and three batteries and their charge-discharge controllers will be installed aboard Zvezda, giving the module a full complement of eight. Atlantis's crew will be hard pressed to completely unload both vehicles during the five days Atlantis is docked to the station and NASA managers are holding open the option of extending the mission by one day if power and propellant margins permit. Assuming the flight is, in fact, extended one day, Atlantis will return to Earth two hours before dawn on Sept. 20. 10:30 a.m. Update: Crew circularizes orbit; payload bay doors open Commander Terrence Wilcutt and pilot Scott Altman have circularized the shuttle Atlantis's orbit and their crewmates have opened the ship's 60-foot-long cargo bay doors after a flawless climb to space. Just before 10:30 a.m., flight director Wayne Hale gave the seven-man crew a "go" for orbital operations, meaning the shuttle completed its ascent in good condition. The NASA television schedule is being updated to reflect Atlantis's actual launch time - 8:45:47 a.m. - and a revised time for docking with the international space station: 1:53 a.m. EDT on Sept. 10. The revised television schedule will be posted below as soon as it becomes available. =================================================================== Atlantis docks with international space station (09/08-09/00) 10:15 p.m., 09/08/00, Update: Crew awake; shuttle continues station chase The Atlantis astronauts, sailing high above the south Atlantic Ocean, were officially awakened at 9:46 p.m. this evening by a recording of Edwin McCain's "I'll Be" radioed up from mission control. Wishing the crew a good morning was astronaut Shannon Lucid, making her first appearance in mission control since her record-setting stay aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1996. "Good morning, Atlantis," Lucid called from Houston. "And welcome to your first full day in space." "Copy, Shannon," commander Terrence Wilcutt replied from orbit. Wilcutt and his six crewmates blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 8:46 a.m. today, rocketing up the East Coast on a trajectory to rendezvous with the international space station. At launch, the station was about 6,600 miles ahead of Atlantis, but that distance is steadily closing and if all goes well, Wilcutt will manually guide the shuttle to a gentle docking around 1:53 a.m. Sunday. The astronauts plan to spend most of their first full day in orbit readying Atlantis for the station linkup, checking out rendezvous tools and computers and testing the three spacesuits on board to make sure they are operational. Two of those suits - one is a spare - will be used Monday by astronaut Ed Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko during a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. Wilcutt and pilot Scott Altman, meanwhile, are scheduled to carry out three overnight rendezvous rocket firings to fine-tune the shuttle's approach to the international space station. In addition, the orbiter's 50-foot-long robot arm will be unlimbered for a photo survey of Atlantis's cargo bay and part of the shuttle's docking system will be extended in a routine pre-docking milestone. A mission status briefing scheduled for 7 a.m. Saturday will be carried live on NASA television. This status report will be updated as warranted, including notes from the morning status briefing. A detailed 2,500-word mission preview is available in the STS-106 Mission Archive while launch copy is posted at the bottom of this page in the Reporter's Notebook. 03:00 a.m., 09/09/00, Update: Atlantis appears in good shape for extra day in space In a morning message radioed to the shuttle Atlantis, flight controllers in Houston told the astronauts fuel conservation measures are working out as expected and that it appears likely the mission will be extended one day. An official decision, however, will not be made until it is certain Atlantis has enough on-board hydrogen and oxygen to power the ship's electrical generators for the additional day. "Right now we are about one or two hours away from showing a positive margin for the additional day," flight controllers said in the crew's morning "Execute Package" of daily instructions and updates. "Provided we stay on our pre-mission buyback and power plan, we anticipate being able to do a 12th mission day. We appreciate your efforts so far! Keep up the good work!" Extending the flight from 11 days to 12 would allow the crew to remain docked with the station for six days instead of five, giving the astronauts more time to stow supplies and assemble various station systems, including an oxygen generator and the lab's toilet. Again, an official decision on whether to extend a day will not be made until there is no doubt enough power will be available. Otherwise, there is little to report this morning. The astronauts have had very little to say as they work through the timeline and as of this writing, there has been no video from inside the shuttle. One of three previously planned rendezvous rocket firings was deleted from the flight plan while work to check out a faulty star tracker was added. The star tracker in question appears to be out of action, but no mission impact is expected. Here is an updated flight plan for the rest of the day (times given in EDT and mission elapsed time): TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/09/00 03:16 AM...00...18...30...Robot arm (RMS) payload bay survey 03:16 AM...00...18...30...Spacesuit checkout (1) 03:21 AM...00...18...35...Space station power drill battery charging 03:46 AM...00...19...00...RMS powerdown 04:16 AM...00...19...30...Space station power drill battery charging complete 04:46 AM...00...20...00...Crew meals begin 05:46 AM...00...21...00...Centerline camera mount for docking video 05:46 AM...00...21...00...Pre-ingress equipment setup; Spacehab transfer preparations 06:01 AM...00...21...15...Ergometer setup 06:16 AM...00...21...30...Docking ring extension 06:56 AM...00...22...10...Wireless network setup 07:01 AM...00...22...15...SOAR setup and activation 07:16 AM...00...22...30...Power drill battery charging 07:38 AM...00...22...52...NC3 rendezvous rocket firing 11:46 AM...01...03...00...Crew sleep begins (7 hours) 06:46 PM...01...10...00...Crew wakeup 09:00 a.m., 09/09/00, Update: Shuttle Atlantis closes in on space station Editor's Note... This update was written for Spaceflight Now and is reposted here by permission. The shuttle Atlantis closed in on the international space station today while the astronauts checked out their rendezvous computers, activated the shuttle's docking system and tested the spacesuits that will be used Monday during a planned spacewalk. If all goes well, commander Terrence Wilcutt will guide Atlantis to a gentle docking with the space station at 1:52 a.m. Sunday (0552 GMT) as the two spacecraft sail over Russian ground stations. The only technical problem of any significance is a balky star tracker, used to collect navigation and orientation data for the shuttle's inertial measurement units. Atlantis is equipped with two such star trackers, one that looks straight up along the so-called minus Z axis and another that looks out parallel to the left wing along the minus Y axis. After launch Friday, engineers noticed suspect data from the minus Z tracker, the one that would normally be used to "look" at the station for a navigation update just before the terminal initiation, or TI, rocket firing that begins the shuttle's final approach. Tests early today confirmed the minus Z tracker is acting erratically and it will not be used for future IMU alignments. But the failure will add only a slight complication to the crew's final rendezvous sequence, forcing the pilots to roll the orbiter 90 degrees to one side so the station will be visible to the minus Y star tracker. That only needs to be done once, just before the TI burn to begin the final rendezvous. Lead flight director Phil Engelauf said today the crew has trained for just that contingency and no problems are expected. The TI burn currently is scheduled for 10:59 p.m. (0259 GMT) with the shuttle trailing the space station by about eight nautical miles. For reference, the station's orbital path is known as the velocity vector, or V-bar. The imaginary line connecting the station with the center of the Earth is known as the radius vector, or R-bar. By convention, points on the line below the station are considered positive while points above it are negative. Likewise, the +V-bar is directly in front of the station. That said, here is Engelauf's description of the final stages of this evening's rendezvous: "We'll fly up underneath the station on the radius vector, what we call the plus R-bar, and as we cross the plus R-bar we'll brake almost to a stop and then initiate a manual fly around underneath the station, up and in front of it, up to a position directly radial out from the station. If you were looking up from the Earth, we would be on top of the station. "As the crew approaches the (minus) radius vector, they'll stop the flyaround and come pretty much to a stop in terms of relative motion on the radius vector and let the velocity between the vehicles near zero as we start to fall down to about 170 feet above the station, in a relative motion sense. "We'll stop at 170 feet and hold at that point until the timing is correct so that we arrive at the station over the Russian ground sites in order to provide for commanding to the Russian segment motion control system when we dock. Then we'll fly on in to about 30 feet at a predetermined time and measure the relative orientation between the two vehicles and make any minor corrections to the orbiter attitude to line it up with the station. "And then we will press in from 30 feet such that we arrive at contact at a point about two minutes after acquisition of the target by the Russian ground sites." In a pre-flight NASA interview, Wilcutt said the procedure is "not a difficult thing, but it is very delicate when you've got space vehicles that weigh 200,000 pounds apiece and you're going to bump them together." Once docked, the astronauts will stage a spacewalk early Monday before actually entering the station for the first time Monday evening. As mentioned in a previous status report, flight controllers now believe the crew will have enough electrical power to support a one-day mission extension, giving the crew six days to outfit and activate the station instead of five. But Engelauf said an official decision to extend the flight probably will not be made until next week. While there appears to be enough oxygen and hydrogen to power the shuttle's electrical generators an additional day, propellant margins for the ship's forward rocket pod are tight. That could be a factor in any decision to extend the mission because the shuttle's maneuvering jets will be used periodically to maintain the orientation, or attitude, of the station. "The risk here is that if docked attitude hold for the stack requires more propellant than we've projected, we could actually run out of forward propellant prior to the last docked day," Engelauf said. But at this point, he added, "we really don't think that's going to be a problem. ... We believe we're on track to protect the 12th day." Engelauf also provided a bit of insight into the mood at mission control as NASA embarks on its most ambitious launch schedule since the pre-Challenger era. The agency plans seven to eight shuttle missions a year for the foreseeable future with nine flights - eight station construction missions - in the next 12 months, the most ambitious launch schedule since 1985. "The whole team, on both the shuttle side and the station side, are extremely excited to be really kicking off a long string of assembly missions," Engelauf said early today. "We do have a very aggressive string of missions here that we have to put together and it's going to be real challenging from a manpower standpoint, from a training standpoint." "Rather than working in a very serial fashion, we're starting to work very parallel, many of us are working two or three or four missions in parallel with each other and the station team is starting to gear up for a lot more around the clock operations," he said. "It's a very exciting time for us, it's something people came here to do and they've been training for it with anticipation. We're really looking forward to it." 07:00 p.m., 09/09/00, Update: Crew awakened for space station docking The Atlantis astronauts were awakened at 6:46 p.m. EDT this evening to begin the final rendezvous sequence with the international space station. Docking is expected at 1:52 a.m. Sunday. "Good morning, Atlantis, and welcome to rendezvous day," astronaut Shannon Lucid called from mission control. "Good morning, Houston, looks like a great day," one of the Atlantis astronauts replied. "We're looking forward to it." "And we're looking forward to it down here, also, " Lucid said. The terminal phase of the rendezvous will begin at 10:59 p.m. when commander Terrence Wilcutt fires the shuttle's maneuvering jets to begin final approach. At that point, Atlantis will be trailing the station by about eight nautical miles. Shortly before this "terminal initiation," or TI, burn, the astronauts will roll Atlantis 90 degrees to one side to enable a star tracker that points out the left side of the orbiter to get a fix on the station. This maneuver is necessary because the normal rendezvous star tracker, which points upward with respect to the cockpit, malfunctioned Friday and is no longer operational. Lead flight director Phil Engelauf said the shuttle roll maneuver to enable the minus-Y star tracker to get a fix on the station is a relatively simple procedure that only has to be done once. Space station crews routinely train for such scenarios and while the additional maneuver is a slight complication, it should have no impact on this evening's rendezvous. Atlantis will approach the station from directly behind and below, passing about 600 feet underneath the target around 12:30 a.m. before looping up in front of it to a point 250 feet directly overhead. From there, Wilcutt will manually guide the shuttle to a gentle docking, pausing twice to ensure a linkup over Russian ground stations at 1:52 a.m. See the 9 a.m. status report directly below for a detailed overview of the rendezvous and docking procedure and additional details about the star tracker problem. Updates will be posted here throughout the evening, beginning with the TI burn at 10:59 p.m. 10:30 p.m., 09/09/00, Update: Flight controllers remain 'optimistic' about mission extension At 9:44 p.m., commander Terrence Wilcutt reported the crew's first visual sighting of the international space station. "Houston, Atlantis," he called down. "Tally ho the station." If all goes well, Wilcutt will fire Atlantis's maneuvering jets at 10:59 p.m. to begin the final phase of the two-day rendezvous with docking on tap at 1:52 a.m. Sunday as the two spacecraft pass over Russian ground stations. Shortly before 10:30 p.m., the shuttle completed a brief roll maneuver to enable the ship's minus-Y star tracker to get a fix on the space station. The upward-pointing minus-Z star tracker normally would have been used, but the device malfunctioned Friday and is no longer operational. The roll maneuver worked as planned, however, and the other tracker collected the necessary data with no problems. Here is a timeline of this evening's activities (times given in EDT and mission elapsed time): TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/09/00 10:59 PM...01...14...13...Terminal initiation burn 11:59 PM...01...15...13...Sunrise 09/10/00 12:15 AM...01...15...29...MC4 rendezvous burn 12:19 AM...01...15...33...Range:1500 feet 12:24 AM...01...15...38...Range: 1000 feet 12:25 AM...01...15...39...Range: 800 feet 12:29 AM...01...15...43...Orbital noon 12:29 AM...01...15...43...Range: 600 feet (+R bar arrival) 12:33 AM...01...15...47...Range: 500 feet 12:34 AM...01...15...48...Range: 400 feet (KU to low power) 12:44 AM...01...15...58...Range: 350-400 feet (+V bar crossing) 12:56 AM...01...16...10...Range: 250 feet (-R bar arrival) 12:58 AM...01...16...12...Range: 170 feet; start stationkeeping 12:59 AM...01...16...13...Sunset 01:15 AM...01...16...29...Station in attitude for docking 01:20 AM...01...16...34...Range: 170 feet; end stationkeeping 01:29 AM...01...16...43...Shuttle/ISS in range of TDRS-W 01:31 AM...01...16...45...Sunrise 01:41 AM...01...16...55...Start stationkeeping at 30 feet 01:46 AM...01...17...00...End stationkeeping; push to dock 01:48 AM...01...17...02...ISS in range of Russian ground stations 01:50 AM...01...17...04...Docking pane #1 opens 01:50 AM...01...17...04...Range: 10 feet 01:52 AM...01...17...06...SPACE STATION DOCKING 01:55 AM...01...17...09...Docking pane #1 closes 01:57 AM...01...17...11...Docking pane #2 opens 01:59 AM...01...17...13...Backup docking option 02:01 AM...01...17...15...Orbital noon 02:02 AM...01...17...16...Docking pane #2 closes 02:30 AM...01...17...44...Sunset Flight controllers, meanwhile, have been closely monitoring the shuttle's electrical power consumption in hopes of extending the mission by one day to get more work done on the space station. The shuttle is equipped with three fuel cells that generate electricity - and the crew's drinking water - by combining hydrogen and oxygen in a sort of reverse electrolysis. By limiting power consumption, the crew hopes to save enough hydrogen and oxygen to permit a 12th day in space. So far, the work is paying off. "Good morning Atlantis! Welcome to rendezvous morning!" mission control said in the crew's daily package of instructions and updates. "We are all looking forward to the rendezvous today. The big picture plan is for the rendezvous to be flown per the flight plan with the only exception being that the Y star tracker will be used instead of the Z. "We're seeing positive results from your continued efforts to conserve power. The current cryo margin is about one hour short of an additional day and creeping in the positive direction. We're looking forward to seeing how the energy uses go during the docked period, but so far we're optimistic about being able to add a 12th mission day. Keep up the good work!" Here is the latest update of the crew's flight plan for flight day 3 as radioed to the astronauts in their daily Execute Package from mission control (times given in EDT and mission elapsed time): TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/09/00 08:01 PM...01...11...15...Rendezvous timeline begins 09:27 PM...01...12...41...NC4 rendezvous rocket firing 09:46 PM...01...13...00...Middeck preparation 09:51 PM...01...13...05...Contingency water container (CWC) transfer setup 10:16 PM...01...13...30...Spacewalk tools configured; Spacehab prepped for EVA 10:59 PM...01...14...13...Terminal initiation rendezvous rocket firing 09/10/00 12:06 AM...01...15...20...CWC bag 1 full 01:52 AM...01...17...06...Atlantis docks with international space station 02:21 AM...01...17...35...Pre spacewalk tool configuration continues 02:26 AM...01...17...40...Orbiter docking system volume prep 02:28 AM...01...17...42...Hard docking confirmed 02:56 AM...01...18...10...ODS vestibule/PMA-2 pressurization 03:36 AM...01...18...50...Video playback of docking 03:56 AM...01...19...10...Node 1 remote air sample collection 05:11 AM...01...20...25...Group B computer powerdown 05:11 AM...01...20...25...CWC bag 2 water fill begins 05:26 AM...01...20...40...SAFER jet backpack checkout 06:11 AM...01...21...25...Cabin depressurized to 10.2 psi 06:26 AM...01...21...40...CWC bag 2 full 06:56 AM...01...22...10...Spacewalk (EVA) review 07:56 AM...01...23...10...Crew off duty time begins 11:46 AM...02...03...00...Crew sleep begins 11:00 p.m., 09/09/00, Update: Shuttle crew begins final station rendezvous Shuttle commander Terrence Wilcutt fired the shuttle Atlantis's maneuvering jets at 10:59 p.m. to begin the final phase of the crew's two-day rendezvous with the international space station. "Good burn, Atlantis," astronaut Chris Hadfield radioed from Houston. "You're on your way." Trailing the station by about eight nautical miles, the 10-second rocket firing changed the shuttle's velocity by 8 feet per second (5.5 mph), setting the stage for a docking at 1:52 a.m. as the two spacecraft pass over Russian ground stations. =================================================================== Atlantis docks with international space station (09/10/00) 02:10 a.m., 09/10/00, Update: Shuttle docks with international space station Streaking through space at five miles per second, the 120-ton shuttle Atlantis gently docked with the 67-ton international space station today as the two spacecraft sailed into sunlight over western Kazakhstan. The long-awaited linkup occurred right on time at 1:51:37 a.m., capping a two-day orbital chase that began with the shuttle's blastoff Friday from the Kennedy Space Center. "Houston, we have a capture light," said astronaut Daniel Burbank as Atlantis's Russian-built docking system engaged. "We copy," replied astronaut Chris Hadfield from mission control. Over the next half hour or so, hooks and latches in the docking system will close, firmly locking the two spacecraft together, and flight controllers will verify a tight seal across the mating interface. A video replay of the docking is scheduled for downlink around 3:36 a.m. and a mission status briefing by lead flight director Phil Engelauf is on tap at 5 a.m. Flying the shuttle manually from its aft flight deck, Wilcutt made the final rendezvous and docking look easy, prompting NASA commentator Rob Navias to describe the approach as a "textbook" rendezvous. There were no problems of any significance and the linkup came off without a hitch. "Atlantis, Houston. Congratulations on a fine rendezvous and docking," Hadfield called at 2:10 a.m. "That was letter perfect, great to watch." The astronauts will not actually enter the space station - or even open any hatches between the two vehicles - until Monday night. First, astronaut Edward Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko plan to stage a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk early Monday morning to electrically connect the new Zvezda command module. The crew will float inside the station for the first time around 11 p.m. Monday. This status report will be updated after the upcoming mission status briefing or as warranted. 01:50 a.m., 09/10/00, Update: Shuttle video shows first live views of international space station The shuttle Atlantis began beaming down spectacular video of the international space station at 12:42 a.m. today, giving U.S. and Russian flight controllers in Houston and Moscow their first live views of the overall lab complex since arrival of the new Zvezda command module in July. Including an unmanned Progress supply ship docked to Zvezda's aft port, the space station now stretches 143 feet and masses 67 tons. Running about 10 minutes behind on the docking timeline, Atlantis is slowly looping in front of the station on its way to a point 250 feet directly above the spacecraft. From there, commander Terrence Wilcutt will guide the 149,000-pound orbiter to a docking with the space station at 1:52 a.m. 07:45 a.m., 09/10/00, Update: Problem-free docking hailed by NASA Editor's Note... Portions of the following update were written for Spaceflight Now and are reposted here by permission. By WILLIAM HARWOOD CBS News Space Consultant Contrary to wire service reports, the shuttle Atlantis's docking with the international space station early today was a straight-forward affair with no problems of any significance and flight controllers were elated with the results. "The rendezvous went extremely well from our standpoint," lead flight director Phil Engelauf told reporters at a morning briefing. "The crew flew flawlessly, the vehicle performed flawlessly." As expected, commander Terrence Wilcutt had no trouble carrying out the final stages of the rendezvous despite the failure of an up-pointing star tracker Friday that normally would have been used to get a navigational fix on the station prior to the final rendezvous sequence. Instead, Wilcutt rolled the shuttle 90 degrees around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, took a fix with Atlantis's other star tracker - one that points to the shuttle's left - and rolled back to the normal orientation. The simple maneuver only had to be done once and there were no problems. But wire service accounts made it sound as if Wilcutt faced a much more difficult task. The Associated Press reported the rendezvous was "a complicated job made even tougher by a failed navigation device. ... Commander Terrence Wilcutt had to rely on a single star tracker for the rendezvous. Normally two star trackers are used, but only one was working aboard Atlantis." Reuters reported Atlantis was "partially blinded with the loss of a key navigational tool." In fact, the final stages of any space station rendezvous use just one star tracker: The upward pointing tracker that looks out along the shuttle's minus z axis, the one that failed aboard Atlantis on Friday. The only resulting change in today's rendezvous was the addition of the single 90-degree roll to bring the station into the field of view of the left-pointing minus-Y star tracker for a quick navigational fix. "Wilcutt flew as perfect a rendezvous as can be diagrammed on a drawing board," said one NASA official who asked not to be named. "It's just unfortunate that some don't understand the technical nature of how a rendezvous is actually executed." Even with the additional roll maneuver, Wilcutt managed to complete the rendezvous using less fuel than anticipated, which may permit NASA managers to extend the flight by one day. But a final decision to extend the flight from 11 to 12 days will not be made until early next week. Even so, flight controllers now project Atlantis will have enough propellant and electrical power to support the extra day. "We successfully docked and in the process we managed to make some gains on our propellant margins and have continued to make some small gains on our power production margins, which give us a little bit more confidence in being able to add the 12th day to the mission," Engelauf said. The only technical issue under discussion today concerns a brief power surge in one of the shuttle's main circuits shortly after the ship reached orbit. The spike did not trip any circuit breakers, but flight controllers want to understand what caused it. In August 1999, the shuttle Columbia suffered a short circuit seconds after liftoff that left the crew one failure away from an engine shutdown. After the mission, engineers found scores of wiring defects across NASA's shuttle fleet, prompting extensive repair work. But Engelauf said the current spike seen after Atlantis reached orbit does not raise any immediate concerns about more frayed wiring. "This didn't raise any significant flags in the sense of thinking we had a big problem," he said. "We are off looking, obviously, because any time you see any kind of behavior on the vehicle that you don't completely understand we go off and try to work that." The timing of the surge appears to be associated with the transition from ascent software to programs used for orbital operations. "Different systems on the vehicle are actuated at the time of that transition and we've just been combing through that to make sure there wasn't a piece of equipment that operated during that time that wasn't supposed to or to rule out the possibility of a short," Engelauf said. "But we're not looking at any other specific concern like the wiring problems that we'd had on a previous mission." Atlantis' crew, meanwhile, is pressing ahead with the flight plan and gearing up for a spacewalk early Monday to electrically connect the new Russian Zvezda command module to the rest of the station. The astronauts will not actually open hatches and enter the station until Monday evening. They did, however, open a hatch leading into a pressurized mating adapter - a tunnel connecting the shuttle and the U.S. Unity module - in order to draw an air sample through Unity's hatch before the station's air purifiers were turned on. Engineers on the ground want to find out how much material "out gases" from station components between shuttle visits. "Like in your car when it's hot in the summer and you open the door and you smell some chemical type smells that you didn't when it's cooler or the windows are open, that kind of thing," said station flight director Mark Ferring. "The materials inside the spacecraft out gas some of their chemicals into the air and over time, that acrues to certain levels to the point where it's above the point where our medical people want them to be," he said. Each module is equipped with filters, or "scrubbers," to clean the air before astronauts arrive. Wilcutt and company had hoped to take a sample of the air in Unity before the scrubbers were activated to get a sense of just how much out gassing actually takes place between shuttle visits. But the device needed to draw air through Unity's sealed hatch failed and Wilcutt was not able to obtain a sample. "It looks like there may have been a problem with the interface from the air sample to the node itself," Ferring said. "It isn't critical for our entry. The scrub of the node happens anyway and our flight rules require the scrub, so it doesn't impact the mission at all that we've had this problem." A sample presumably will be obtained by a future shuttle crew. For now, flight controllers are pressing ahead with the flight plan in anticipation of Monday's spacewalk and station entry. "We're warming up the shell with our heaters so the internal temperatures are at the right temperature for the crew to ingress," Ferring said. "We are performing an air scrub in all the modules to make sure the air is of good quality at the time they enter." And later tonight, U.S. station controllers will upload new software into Unity's flight computers that will enable the system to control a huge solar array package scheduled for attachment later this year. For now, though, flight controllers are focusing on Atlantis' mission and work to outfit and activate the new Zvezda command module before arrival of the station's first full-time crew in November. "It was really great to see that the station has changed since the last time we were there with the addition of Zvezda," Ferring said. "It really looks different." "And I think what we're going to see in the next couple of missions is every time we fly one of these things, it's going to change. So the assembly is starting to pick up speed and it's very exciting for us to see." =================================================================== Spacewalkers successfully wire up Zvezda module (09/10-11/00) 08:20 p.m., 09/10/00, Update: Crew awakes; prepares for spacewalk Editor's Note... Portions of the following update originally were written for Spaceflight Now and are reposted here by permission. The Atlantis astronauts were awakened at 8:01 p.m. this evening to begin preparations for a spacewalk to wire up the international space station's new Zvezda command module. Astronaut Edward Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko plan to float into Atlantis's cargo bay around 1:06 a.m. Monday to begin a six-and-a-half-hour excursion to connect four power cables between Zvezda and the Zarya module and four video and data cables. The spacewalk could begin a half-hour or so ahead of schedule if the astronauts are ready. The STS-106 spacewalk is not particularly challenging as these things go, but it will offer the astronauts one of the best views in the solar system as they make their way up the towering 142-foot-long spacecraft. Atlantis is attached to a pressurized mating adaptor, or PMA, attached to one end of the multi-hatch Unity node, launched by NASA in December 1998. At the other end of the Unity module is another PMA that connects to the Russian-built NASA-financed Zarya propulsion module, launched in November 1998. Zarya, in turn, is attached to the Zvezda module and the Progress 251 supply ship is docked to a port at the far end of the new command module. While Zvezda is physically attached to the station, it is not yet electrically connected. That is the job facing Lu and Malenchenko. The power cables they plan to install, in a strip of four stretching 26.9 feet, will permit electricity generated by future U.S. solar arrays to power systems in Russian modules as needed. The video and data cables, also in a strip of four, stretch 16 feet. "As the station gets bigger and the solar arrays start to get blocked (by other modules), we need to share power between the different segments and the different modules," said lead flight director Phil Engelauf. "And these external cables will be connected up in anticipation of ... when we will start generating power." The spacewalkers also plan to hook up a 20-foot-long fiber optic telemetry cable that will be used during future Russian spacewalks and re-mount a Russian magnetometer on an extended boom near the rear of Zvezda. The magnetometer will provide a backup means of determining the station's orientation in space. The magnetometer is located near the far end of Zvezda. To get there, Lu and Malenchenko, carrying cable spools and tools, will ride the shuttle's robot arm from Atlantis's payload bay to Zarya 45 feet away. From there, they will pull themselves, hand over hand, along handrails up to the magnetometer work site using two safety tethers each. "When they're working on the magnetometer boom, they'll be about 110 feet away from the space shuttle, which is twice as high as astronauts were when we worked on the top of the Hubble Space Telescope," said Mike Hess, a NASA spacewalk planner. "So it'll be a very different view for this crew, it'll be the equivalent of working on about the 11th story of a 13-story building when they're working on the magnetometer." Lu, who will be identifiable by red stripes on his spacesuit, said he and Malenchenko are "really looking forward to getting a chance to see this view, of looking down and seeing the space shuttle with the Earth in the background. We're expecting a pretty incredible view." That view comes at a price, however: The distance Lu or Malenchenko might have to quickly traverse in an emergency to reach the safety of the shuttle's airlock. But Hess said the spacewalkers could make it back into the airlock in 10 to 15 minutes if necessary and each spacesuit has a 30-minute supply of emergency oxygen. "The added risk involved in the EVA is in terms of rapid safing," Hess said. "From a rapid safing standpoint, we're still within our 30-minute limit, which is what the suit can easily take care of. So we should easily be able to get back inside if there's a problem." Once the magnetometer head is mounted on its boom, Lu and Malenchenko will work their way back "down" the station stack toward the shuttle, stopping at the Zvezda-Zarya docking interface to hook up the power and data cables. As they did going "up" the stack, the spacewalkers will take special care to avoid protruding antennas on the Zarya module and two docking targets on Zvezda's hull. "They'll snake over one target and under another," Hess said. The astronauts will float into the space station for the first time Monday night to begin transferring supplies and equipment into the outpost. The goal is to outfit and activate the Zvezda module, which will provide the station's initial crew quarters and the propulsion needed to maintain a safe orbit. 10:40 p.m., 09/10/00, Update: Updated spacewalk timeline Spacewalkers Ed Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko have been asked to inspect a possibly jammed solar array on the new Zvezda command module during this evening's spacewalk. In a morning message to the crew, flight controllers told the astronauts the panel in question does not appear to be fully extended. "The only very minor tweaks to the EVA flight plan are for Ed or Yuri, after the magnetometer installation task, to snap a quick photo of the solar array panel that is not deployed and for Rick (Mastracchio) to get a little video of the array while he is maneuvering the (robot) arm to the RMS viewing position," the message said. "These tweaks should be of no impact to your timeline!" Here is the updated flight plan for this evening's spacewalk, including KU-band television windows when TV from the shuttle is possible. This flight plan will be updated as warranted to reflect the actual start time of the spacewalk (times given in EDT and mission elapsed time): TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/10/00 10:01 PM...02...13...15...Spacewalk preparations begin 10:32 PM...02...13...46...Television window opens 10:44 PM...02...13...58...Television window closes 11:13 PM...02...14...27...Television window opens 11:31 PM...02...14...45...Lu and Malenchenko breathe pure oxygen 09/11/00 12:07 AM...02...15...21...Television window closes 12:41 AM...02...15...55...Airlockdepressurization procedures begin 12:49 AM...02...16...03...Television window opens 12:51 AM...02...16...05...Robot arm powerup 01:06 AM...02...16...20...Lu and Malenchenko exit airlock 01:06 AM...02...16...20...Cabin repress to 14.7 psi 01:36 AM...02...16...50...Spacewalkers prepare tools, cables 01:43 AM...02...16...57...Television window closes 02:01 AM...02...17...15...Television window opens 02:46 AM...02...18...00...Docking target manual deploy opportunity 02:51 AM...02...18...05...Magnetometer work begins 02:59 AM...02...18...13...Television window closes 04:02 AM...02...19...16...Television window opens 04:06 AM...02...19...20...Electrical cable connection work begins 05:00 AM...02...20...14...Television window closes 06:21 AM...02...21...35...Tool stowage, worksite cleanup 07:21 AM...02...22...35...Airlock ingress 07:36 AM...02...22...50...Airlock repressurization 07:36 AM...02...22...50...Robot arm powerdown 07:56 AM...02...23...10...Post-spacewalk Spacehab configuration 08:06 AM...02...23...20...Space station reboost maneuver begins 08:19 AM...02...23...33...Television window opens 08:50 AM...03...00...04...Television window closes 09:03 AM...03...00...17...Television window opens 09:06 AM...03...00...20...Spacesuit removal and servicing 09:16 AM...03...00...30...Television window closes 11:46 AM...03...03...00...Crew sleep begins 07:46 PM...03...11...00...Crew wakeup 01:05 a.m., 09/11/00, Update: Spacewalk officially underway Floating inside the shuttle Atlantis's airlock, astronaut Edward Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko switched their spacesuits to internal power at 12:47 a.m. today, officially beginning a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The duo floated out of the airlock's outer hatch 12 minutes later. The goal of the excursion - the 50th spacewalk in shuttle history - is to electrically hook up the new Russian Zvezda command module at the far end of the space station, which towers 142 feet above Atlantis's cargo bay. After collecting tools and cable spools, the spacewalkers will be lifted to the Russian Zarya module by the shuttle's robot arm. From there, they will pull themselves hand over hand to a point some 110 feet above the shuttle to mount an orientation-sensing magnetometer to a six-foot boom. The duo then will work their way back down the station, stopping to hook up four electrical cables, four data relay cables and one cable that will be carry telemetry from Russian spacesuits. Before the spacewalk began, the astronauts spent quite a bit of time photographing Zvezda's two solar arrays. A small panel on one of the arrays apparently did not unfold after the module reached orbit July 12. Lu and Malenchenko were asked to photograph the panel during their trek up the station. Here is an updated spacewalk timeline based on the actual start time of this morning's excursion (times given in EDT and mission elapsed time): TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/11/00 12:47 AM...02...16...01...Spacesuits to internal; official start time 12:49 AM...02...16...03...Television window opens 12:54 AM...02...16...08...Airlock hatch opened 12:59 AM...02...16...13...Lu and Malenchenko exit air lock 12:59 AM...02...16...13...Cabin repress to 14.7 psi 01:29 AM...02...16...43...Spacewalkers prepare tools, cables 01:43 AM...02...16...57...Television window closes 02:01 AM...02...17...15...Television window opens 02:39 AM...02...17...53...Docking target manual deploy opportunity 02:44 AM...02...17...58...Magnetometer work begins 02:59 AM...02...18...13...Television window closes 04:02 AM...02...19...16...Television window opens 03:59 AM...02...19...13...Electrical cable connection work begins 05:00 AM...02...20...14...Television window closes 06:14 AM...02...21...28...Tool stowage, worksite cleanup 07:14 AM...02...22...28...Airlock ingress 07:29 AM...02...22...43...Airlock repressurization 07:29 AM...02...22...43...Robot arm powerdown 07:56 AM...02...23...10...Post-spacewalk Spacehab configuration 08:06 AM...02...23...20...Space station reboost maneuver begins 08:19 AM...02...23...33...Television window opens 08:50 AM...03...00...04...Television window closes 09:03 AM...03...00...17...Television window opens 09:06 AM...03...00...20...Spacesuit removal and servicing 09:16 AM...03...00...30...Television window closes 11:46 AM...03...03...00...Crew sleep begins 07:46 PM...03...11...00...Crew wakeup 01:35 a.m., 09/11/00, Update: Spacewalkers begin trek up station Spacewalkers Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko, loaded down with strapped-on tools and bulky cable spools, began their trip up the international space station at 1:32 a.m., riding the shuttle Atlantis's robot arm up to a point about 50 feet above the ship's cargo bay adjacent to the Russian Zarya module. From there, the duo will pull themselves hand over hand to a point about 110 feet up to install a magnetometer boom. So far, the spacewalk is proceeding smoothly with no problems of any significance. 02:15 a.m., 09/11/00, Update: Lu frees jammed docking target on Russian module Astronaut Ed Lu, working 10 stories above the shuttle Atlantis's cargo bay, freed a jammed docking target on the Russian Zvezda command module early today. The docking target, which is no longer needed, failed to fully deploy after launch July 12 and engineers were worried the spring-loaded boom might unexpectedly pop open during a future spacewalk. As a result, Lu and fellow spacewalker Yuri Malenchenko were asked to manually pull it open before starting their already planned spacewalk tasks. "Things are marching along pretty quickly, you have a go to deploy the target," astronaut Mario Runco called from Houston. "OK," Lu replied. "Ready Yuri? Can you try holding my legs, Yuri, just to help stabilize me while I do this?" "OK." "All right, I'm grabbing the target now," Lu reported. "I'm swinging it out... locked in place." "OK, and you can check that it's locked?" crewmate Daniel Burbank asked from inside Atlantis's crew cabin. "Yes I can, it's locked." "Great job, we got a great camera view of that as well," Burbank said. "Houston, did you copy, the target is now deployed and locked in place." At the Kennedy Space Center, meanwhile, engineers are moving the shuttle Discovery to launch pad 39A for blastoff Oct. 5 on the next space station assembly mission, a complex four-spacewalk flight to attach the so-called Z1 truss and a package of four stabilizing gyroscopes. 03:15 a.m., 09/11/00, Update: Magnetometer boom installed; wiring work in progress Astronaut Ed Lu, assisted by cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, successfully mounted an orientation-sensing magnetometer on a six-foot boom sticking out from the side of the Russian Zvezda command module early today, accomplishing one of the primary goals of the 50th shuttle spacewalk. Working 110 feet above the shuttle Atlantis, Lu mounted the magnetometer head on the boom, used cable ties to secure wires leading into the space station and bolted the boom in place. Computers aboard the Zvezda module normally use data from star trackers to determine the station's orientation in space. But the star trackers field of view can occasionally be blocked by solar arrays or other station structures so Zvezda is equipped with a magnetometer that can use Earth's magnetic field to establish an attitude reference. At launch, the magnetometer head was stowed against Zvezda's hull. To work properly, it needed to be mounted on a boom, away from the metal skin of the station. After completing the magnetometer work, Lu and Malenchenko began working their way back down the space station "stack" to begin work connecting nine power and data cables between Zvezda and the Russian Zarya module. Flight controllers say the spacewalk is running about 40 minutes ahead of schedule and there have been no problems of any significance. 05:55 a.m., 09/11/00, Update: Space station wiring work complete Just before 5 a.m., astronaut Edward Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko finished connecting nine data, power and telemetry cables between the new Zvezda command module and the rest of the international space station. They are now heading back down to the shuttle Atlantis's cargo bay to stow tools, empty cable spools amd other gear before re-entering the shuttle's airlock. All spacewalk objectives were accomplished. 7:05 a.m., 09/11/00, Update: Lu, Malenchenko end successful spacewalk Astronaut Edward Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko re-enetered the shuttle Atlantis's airlock just before 7 a.m. today to wrap up a successful spacewalk to electically connect the new Russian Zvezda command module. The spacewalk officially ended at 7:01 a.m. when airlock repressurization began as the shuttle sailed high above eastern Europe. The excursion lasted six hours and 14 minutes. A news conference to discuss the results of the spacewalk is expected around 8 a.m. 07:30 a.m., 09/11/00, Update: Reboost maneuver on tap Today's six-hour 14-minute spacewalk by astronaut Edward Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko was the sixth carried out in the space station assembly program. U.S. and Russian astronauts and cosmonauts have now logged 42 hours 15 minutes building the orbital outpost. Overall, shuttle astronauts have carried out 50 spacewalks in 99 missions, logging a total of 310 hours and 51 minutes. With Lu and Malenchenko back inside the space shuttle, commander Terrence Wilcutt and pilot Scott Altman are gearing up to fire the shuttle's steering jets 36 times over a one-hour period to boost the station's altitude by about 3.5 statute miles. Two more such reboost maneuvers are planned later in the mission. 09:45 a.m., 09/11/00, Update: NASA managers pleased with spacewalk Editor's Note... The following update was written for Spaceflight Now and is reposted here by permission. Working up to 11 stories above the shuttle Atlantis's cargo bay, two high-flying spacewalkers hooked up power and data cables between the international space station and its newest module early today to accomplish one of the primary goals of the mission. If all goes well, Atlantis's seven-man crew will float into the space station late this evening to begin outfitting and activating the new Zvezda command module before arrival of the lab's first full-time crew in early November. "We've got a lot of work to do, clearly, once we ingress the modules," said Milt Heflin, a senior NASA manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston "It's a cabin we have that we're trying to get some furniture into to get it ready to move into," he said. "So it's just a tremendous amount of work and coordination that's required between now and the end of the flight to get it done." Before calling it a day, shuttle commander Terrence Wilcutt and pilot Scott Altman fired Atlantis's steering jets 36 times over a one-hour period to boost the station's altitude by about 3.5 statute miles. Two more reboost maneuvers are planned later in the flight. NASA mission management team, meanwhile, met early today in Houston to consider extending Atlantis's flight by one day to give the crew more time to complete all of the planned mission objectives. It appears likely, based on the shuttle's available supplies and the crew's conservation efforts, an extension will be granted at some point. But as of 9:30 a.m., an official decision had not yet been made. Today's problem-free spacewalk was the first of nearly two dozen such outings planned over the next few years to build the international space station. "This was the 50th shuttle-based spacewalk, the 89th spacewalk by U.S. astronauts and the sixth spacewalk performed on the international space station," said Mike Hess, a spacewalk planner at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We have a surge of spacewalks that are about to occur over the next year and a half or so, we have about 20 spacewalks planned and we're going to really start getting into the assembly of space station in very short order here," he added. "I feel like this spacewalk set the tone for what's about to come." Floating in Atlantis's airlock, astronaut Edward Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko began the excursion at 12:47 a.m. when they switched their spacesuits to internal power. They floated into the shuttle's cargo bay 12 minutes later. After attaching tools and bulky cable spools to their backpacks, Lu and Malenchenko hitched a ride on the shuttle's 50-foot-long robot arm to a drop-off point on the Russian-built, NASA-financed Zarya propulsion module. From there, the spacewalkers made their way, hand over hand, up the "stack," stopping along the way to free up a jammed docking target that failed to fully deploy after the Zvezda module reached orbit July 12. While the target is no longer needed, flight controllers worried its spring-loaded mast might suddenly jump free some day, possibly posing a hazard to future spacewalkers. So Lu floated up to the boom and gave it a push. "Deploying this target was very simple," Hess said. "Ed Lu approached it, described what he saw, Moscow gave the go-ahead to move in closer and he moved in and pushed on it. Once he pushed on it, it popped into the deployed position and locked in place and we were able to continue our EVA." Lu and Malenchenko then continued their ascent "up" the station, stopping at a point some 110 feet above Atlantis - twice as far from the safety of the shuttle's airlock as U.S. spacewalkers have ever ventured. Lu then mounted an orientation-sensing magnetometer on a boom and bolted it in place. Computers aboard the Zvezda module normally use data from star trackers to determine the station's orientation in space. But the star trackers field of view can occasionally be blocked by solar arrays or other station structures. So Zvezda is equipped with a magnetometer that can use Earth's magnetic field to establish an attitude reference. At launch, the magnetometer head was stowed against Zvezda's hull. To work properly, it needed to be mounted on a boom, away from the metal skin of the station. After completing the magnetometer work, Lu and Malenchenko began working their way back down the station to begin the hardest part of their work: Connecting nine power and data cables between Zvezda and the Russian Zarya module. "The first set of cables they laid were power system cables, there were four of those, and the connections really went without incident," Hess said. "The next set of cables that they set up were the television, communications and data handling cables, again the connections and routing of those cables went very smoothly." The spacewalkers had a bit of trouble with the last cable, a fragile fiber optic line that will carry telemetry from Russian spacesuits. In the end, however, "they were able to work through the routing of that cable relatively easily," Hess said. The spacewalk ended 16 minutes early at 7:01 a.m. after a duration of six hours and 14 minutes. U.S. and Russian spacewalkers have now logged 42 hours and 15 minutes in space station assembly over the past three years. Overall, shuttle astronauts have now carried out 50 spacewalks in 99 missions, logging a total of 310 hours and 51 minutes. "I've been working spacewalks for about 11 years now and this was one of the most challenging ones to put together from a planning perspective, primarily because we had to use two different water tanks in two different countries to choreograph this spacewalk," Hess said. "We did a lot of our training in Russia, 16 water tank runs in Russia and a number of water tank runs here in the U.S. We were never able to complete training for this spacewalk in one facility. And when it was all said and done, we finished up 16 minutes early today." =================================================================== Astronauts enter international space station (09/11-12/00) 08:00 p.m., 09/11/00, Update: Astronauts awakened; station entry on tap The Atlantis astronauts were awakened shortly before 8 p.m. to gear up for entry later this evening into the international space station. The flight plan calls for commander Terrence Wilcutt and his crewmates - pilot Scott Altman, Edward Lu, Richard Mastracchio, Daniel Burbank and cosmonauts Yuri Malenchenko and Boris Morukov - to formally enter the space station around 11 p.m. Opening a series of hatches as they move deeper into the complex, the astronauts are expected to enter the new Russian Zvezda command module around 1:15 a.m. Tuesday. The final hatch leading to a Progress supply ship docked to Zvezda's aft port should be open by 2:40 a.m. Revision B of the NASA television schedule has been posted below. An updated flight plan based on the crew's daily Execute Package from mission control will be posted here as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, here's a bit of background about the crew's upcoming work to outfit and activate the space station before arrival of its first full-time crew in early November (portions of the following were written for Spaceflight Now): To save weight, Zvezda was launched with just five of its eight batteries installed and with many of its modular life support and control systems incomplete. Some of the missing equipment, along with crew supplies, food and other material, was launched Aug. 6 aboard the Progress 251 vehicle now docked to the far end of Zvezda. Additional equipment and supplies were launched aboard Atlantis in a double Spacehab module mounted in the shuttle's cargo bay. The astronauts will be hard pressed to completely unload both vehicles during the five days Atlantis is docked to the station. "There are over 600 kilograms of cargo in the Progress cargo hold," Morukov said. "We made an attempt to load the cargo in the sequence that would best fit the unloading process and the accommodation aboard the station. "Some of the cargoes are packed in U.S.-made bags that are very easy to accommodate on the station and which have specified preset locations," he added. "Other cargos - large components in boxes for the various systems - will be installed into the locations where they will be operated subsequently. This cargo complement includes very important components of the life support system. "Probably the most important objective of the Progress flight is to deliver propellant to the station. However, the crew is not involved in the propellant transfer." The Atlantis astronauts will, however, use spare fuel aboard the space shuttle to boost the station's altitude by several miles, saving the station's propellant for use when the shuttle is not available. Morukov is responsible for orchestrating the Progress unloading. Burbank will direct stowage and assembly operations in the space station while Mastracchio will organize the unloading of the Spacehab module. "Not only are we taking cargo and logistics from the orbiter but we're also bringing them across the hatch from the Progress into the service module," Burbank said. "It's going to be a major exercise in choreography. The key to all that is just doing the homework ahead of time." Along with moving supplies into the station, the astronauts will assemble a Russian Elektron oxygen generator, a carbon dioxide removal system and major components of the station's toilet. They will also assemble a NASA-supplied treadmill and install laptop computers and equipment to set up a local area network. Two new batteries will be installed in the Zarya module - four were replaced during the most recent shuttle visit in May - and three batteries and their charge-discharge controllers will be installed aboard Zvezda, giving the module a full complement of eight. All told, Atlantis is carrying 4,817 pounds (2,186 kilograms) of gear that will be transferred to the station, including 722 pounds (327 kilograms) of Russian hardware, 858 pounds of food (389 kilograms), 784 pounds (356 kilograms) of fresh water generated by the shuttle and 1,150 pounds (522 kilograms) of exercise equipment. The Progress 251 vehicle is loaded with some 1,313 pounds (588 kilograms) of material, including components for the Elektron oxygen generator, the carbon dioxide air scrubber and toilet components. "One of the primary goals of STS-106 is to get that vehicle off loaded because we will need an additional vehicle, Progress 2, to deliver the remaining supplies that are required to meet the early initial conditions for the crew, to have all the necessary supplies," said flight director Phil Engelauf. "In addition, we will be off-loading a significant amount of cargo from the Spacehab," he said. "After we arrive, we'll move some of the supplies from the Zarya into Zvezda, we'll unload some equipment out of the Zarya that is no longer required. ... In addition, we'll be transferring a couple of science payloads." Other objectives include: -Installation of new software into computers in the Unity module to help control the P6 solar array when it arrives later this year -Measurements of air quality in the station and the background acoustic environment -Installation of air ducts and fans in Zvezda -Removal of no-longer-needed manual docking control equipment in the Zarya module to make room for other equipment -Installation of U.S.-to-Russian power converter units to enable Russian equipment to use power generated by the P6 solar array -Installation of a bar code reader system to track station inventory and stowage locations -Removal of launch restraint bolts from fire extinguishers in the Zvezda module -Removal of Zarya's aft docking probe, which is no longer needed The station's first full-time crew - commander William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev - will complete activation of Zvezda's life support systems after arrival in early November. "We've basically got a house up there that we're trying to get ready for somebody else to move into but half the systems aren't installed," Lu said. "We're going to show up with two big moving vans - a shuttle and a Progress - and we've got five days once we get up there for all of us to unload all that stuff, get it put together, install it in its proper place and ... get a lot of systems up and running or ready for the Expedition One crew to do that themselves." Because of the sheer volume of material to be transferred, stored and set up in the station, NASA managers are holding open the option of extending Atlantis's mission by one day. "It's very aggressive and our list of things that we can do productively on this flight exceeds the amount of time we're going to have available," Engelauf said. 11:00 p.m., 09/11/00, Update: Astronauts enter space station Running about an hour ahead of schedule, shuttle commander Terrence Wilcutt opened a hatch and floated into the international space station's U.S.-built Unity module at 10:47 p.m. But the crew is expected to stick with its original schedule for entering the station's other two Russian modules. The flight plan calls for the astronauts to enter the Zarya module around 1:16 a.m. and the new Zvezda command module just before 2 a.m. 10:20 p.m., 09/11/00, Update: Updated flight plan Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center have updated the flight plan for today's work aboard the international space station. Here are the latest numbers, along with times that television from the station is expected (times given in EDT and mission elapsed time): TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/11/00 10:07 PM...03...13...21...Television window opens 10:41 PM...03...13...55...Television window closes 10:46 PM...03...14...00...Daily briefing; Spacehab transfer preparation 11:01 PM...03...14...15...PMA-2 ingress 11:01 PM...03...14...15...Television window closes 11:16 PM...03...14...30...Television window opens 11:44 PM...03...14...58...Television window opens 11:46 PM...03...15...00...Node 1 (Unity module) ingress 11:56 PM...03...15...10...Arrange ducts between PMA-2 and node 1 09/12/00 12:16 AM...03...15...30...Node fan checkout 12:31 AM...03...15...45...PMA-1 ingress 12:36 AM...03...15...50...Television window closes 01:16 AM...03...16...30...FGB (Zarya module) ingress 01:19 AM...03...16...33...Television window opens 01:46 AM...03...17...00...FGB air sample 01:46 AM...03...17...00...Arrange FGB air ducts 01:51 AM...03...17...05...SM (Zvezda module) ingress 02:13 AM...03...17...27...Television window closes 02:16 AM...03...17...30...FGB TORU manual docking gear removed 02:46 AM...03...18...00...SM air sample 02:55 AM...03...18...09...Television window opens 03:06 AM...03...18...20...Set up SM fans and ducts 03:11 AM...03...18...25...Remove SM launch restraint bolts 03:11 AM...03...18...25...Progress ingress 03:31 AM...03...18...45...Television window closes 04:06 AM...03...19...20...Crew meals begin 04:33 AM...03...19...47...Television window opens 04:49 AM...03...20...03...Television window closes 05:00 AM...03...20...14...Mission status briefing on NASA TV 05:19 AM...03...20...33...Television window opens 05:34 AM...03...20...48...Television window closes 05:51 AM...03...21...05...Service module caution and warning panel activation 06:36 AM...03...21...50...PMA-2 air measurements 06:46 AM...03...22...00...Progress unloading begins 06:53 AM...03...22...07...Television window opens 06:56 AM...03...22...10...Clear panel 110 07:16 AM...03...22...30...Logistics transfers begin 07:43 AM...03...22...57...Television window closes 07:51 AM...03...23...05...Remove FGB docking mechanism 07:51 AM...03...23...05...Transfer dewar 08:11 AM...03...23...25...Stow docking probe 08:24 AM...03...23...38...Television window opens 08:31 AM...03...23...45...Video playback of ingress 08:39 AM...03...23...53...Television window closes 08:46 AM...04...00...00...Daily briefing 11:46 AM...04...03...00...Crew sleep begins 07:46 PM...04...11...00...Crew wakeup 12:15 a.m., 09/12/00, Update: Astronauts enter Russian Zarya module Pushing deeping into the international space station, the Atlantis astronauts floated into the Russian Zarya module around midnight - well over an hour ahead of schedule - as they make their way aft to the new Zvezda command module. 02:10 a.m., 09/12/00, Update: Astronauts enter Russian Zvezda module Wearing protective goggles and breathing masks as a precaution, the Atlantis astronauts floated into the international space station's new Zvezda command module for the first time early today, opening the door to a new era in space exploration. "It's absolutely beautiful," marveled shuttle commander Terrence Wilcutt as he looked about the pristine spacecraft. The Zvezda module, launched July 12 after two years of delays, will serve as the space station's nerve center during initial assembly, providing crew quarters, computer control and the propulsion needed to keep the station in a safe orbit. The new module measures 43 feet long - 95.5 feet across its two solar arrays - and weighs 42,000 pounds. It has three pressurized compartments, one of which can serve as an airlock for spacewalkers, two staterooms and 14 windows. It is attached to the Russian-built NASA-financed Zarya propulsion module, which in turn is docked to NASA's multi-hatch Unity module. Atlantis is docked to a pressurized mating adaptor on Unity's far side. The three-module station now stretches some 142 feet and weighs 67 tons. The space station's first full-time crew - commander William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev - is scheduled to take up residence aboard Zvezda in early November, spending four months aboard the station before being relieved by another crew. But first, Atlantis's crew must finish outfitting the lab complex and activating critical safety and life support systems in the Zvezda module. Before entering the module at 1:50 a.m., the astronauts donned protective eyewear and breathing masks as a precaution until they could get a chance to take samples and confirm the quality of the air. No problems were expected and indeed, moments later the astronauts took off the protective gear. Wilcutt then turned his attention to opening a final set of hatches at the far end of the Zvezda module to gain access to a Progress supply ship docked to the command module's aft port. At 2:08 a.m., Zvezda's outer hatch was opened, clearing the path to the Progress vehicle. =================================================================== Astronauts enter space station; install new batteries (09/12-13/00) 02:10 p.m., 09/12/00, Update: Mission extension approved NASA's mission management team today formally approved a one-day extension to the shuttle Atlantis's mission, giving the astronauts six days to complete their space station outfitting work. An updated STS-106 flight plan reflecting the overall mission extension from 11 days to 12 days has been posted, along with the latest revision (C) of the NASA TV schedule. 08:00 p.m., 09/12/00, Update: Astronauts awake; battery installations on tap The Atlantis astronauts were awakened at 7:46 p.m. by a recording of Van Morrisson's "Brown Eyed Girl" beamed up from mission control in Houston for flight engineer Richard Mastracchio. "Good morning, Atlantis, especially for Rick today," astronaut Shannon Lucid called from the control center. "Good morning, Houston," Mastracchio replied. "Looks like it's going to be a great day, a beautiful view outside." Now that all the hatches between Atlantis and the international space station's three modules are open, the astronauts face a busy timeline today with battery installations the major items on the agenda. Starting around 11 p.m., the crew will replace battery No. 6 in the Russian Zarya module. Four of Zarya's six batteries - Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 - were replaced during a shuttle flight in May. Batteries 4 and 6 will be replaced during Atlantis's current visit. Batteries are crucial to the space station. Every 45 minutes or so, the station swings into Earth's shadow and power from the lab's solar arrays stops flowing. The batteries carry the load until the station emerges into sunlight again when the batteries are recharged. To save weight, the new Russian command module Zvezda was launched with just five of its eight batteries and associated control systems in place. Atlantis's crew plans to install the final three batteries tomorrow morning, starting around 5:30 a.m. They also will install battery control equipment. Other items on the crew's flight plan today include installation of a cycle-ergometer exercise machine, the transfer of fresh water from the shuttle to the station and work to continue unloading a Russian Progress supply ship docked to Zvezda's aft port. A mission status briefing is scheduled for 5 a.m. At 7:51 a.m., commander Terrence Wilcutt and Mastracchio will participate in round-robin interviews with WHAS-TV, WAVE-TV and WLKY-TV. This status report will be updated as warranted after both events. 10:45 p.m., 09/12/00, Update: Posting updated timeline for flight day 6 The Atlantis astronauts have started work to replace an aging battery in the Russian Zarya module. Three other batteries are being installed in the new Zvezda command module to give it a full complement of eight powerpacks. Here is an updated timeline of overnight activities from the Daily Execute package of flight plan revisions and instructions radioed up to the astronauts earlier this evening (times are given in EDT and mission elapsed time0: EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/12/00 10:46 PM...04...14...00...Daily briefing 11:01 PM...04...14...15...Water bag (CWC) 3 fill begins 11:01 PM...04...14...15...FGB battery 6 replacement 11:01 PM...04...14...15...A405 battery component installation 11:41 PM...04...14...55...Logistics transfers begin 09/13/00 12:16 AM...04...15...30...A403 battery component installation 12:31 AM...04...15...45...CWC bag 3 full 01:01 AM...04...16...15...Progress unloading continues 01:16 AM...04...16...30...A401 battery component installation 01:51 AM...04...17...05...Clear panels107, 108 02:16 AM...04...17...30...Crew meals begin 02:46 AM...04...18...00...CWC water transfer (2 bags) 03:01 AM...04...18...15...CWC bag 4 water fill begins 03:16 AM...04...18...30...A303 battery component installation 04:16 AM...04...19...30...A305 battery component installation 04:16 AM...04...19...30...CWC bag 4 full 05:21 AM...04...20...35...Cycle ergometer installation 05:46 AM...04...21...00...800-amp battery A105 installation 06:46 AM...04...22...00...800-amp battery A103 installation 07:21 AM...04...22...35...Radiation dosimeters placed 07:31 AM...04...22...45...800-amp battery A101 installation 07:46 AM...04...23...00...A301 component installation 07:51 AM...04...23...05...PAO event with Wilcutt, Mastracchio 08:46 AM...05...00...00...Daily briefing 11:46 AM...05...03...00...Crew sleep begins 07:46 PM...05...11...00...Crew wakeup 02:55 a.m./06:15 a.m., 09/13/00, Update: Astronauts wield hammer and chisel to free bracket, gain access to electronics bay Editor's Note... The following story was written for Spaceflight Now and is reposted here by permission. Wielding a hammer and chisel, a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut resorted to brute force early today to remove a poorly placed bracket that was blocking access to a space station electronics bay. It was an unusually low-tech approach to solving a problem in the high-tech space station. But in the end, U.S. and Russian engineers agreed that sometimes, the simplest solution is the best solution. "The big picture is we're going to want to use the chisel to sever the head of the rivet," radioed Rex Walheim from the space station mission control center in Houston. "That would be the crimped part of the rivet, not the head of it." "Understand that," astronaut Daniel Burbank replied from orbit. "You're going to get the one-half-inch chisel and the dead blow hammer and the flat head punch from the ISS took kit," Walheim continued. "That'll be kit K and the location for that is Node 1, D4, G2." Burbank, a former Coast Guard "Perfect Storm" helicopter pilot, and physician-cosmonaut Boris Morukov were attempting to replace one of six batteries in the Russian-built NASA-financed Zarya propulsion module when they ran into trouble. Four of the module's six batteries were replaced during a shuttle flight in May. The other two are being replaced during Atlantis's current mission. Burbank and Morukov had no problems installing battery No. 6 and a charge-discharge controller early today in an electronics bay beneath Zarya's floor panels. But a bracket running across the bay in question prevented them from removing and replacing a voltage controller known by its Russian acronym, BUPT. The bracket, it turned out, was held in place by screws as well as rivets securing four nut plates. The nut plates inexplicably blocked access to screws that helped hold the bracket in place. The only way to move the bracket, then, was to chisel the offending rivets out. After collecting the proper tools, Burbank and Morukov did just that, with Burbank holding the chisel in place while Morukov hammered it in. After repeated blows, they were finally able to remove all four nut plates and move the offending bracket out of the way. "And Houston, Atlantis, we just got the bracket out and it looks like we're ready to go with the BUPT now," Burbank reported. "We copy that, Dan. Excellent work," Walheim replied. "Yeah, thanks for your ideas and working all that with Moscow. It worked out real well." A bit later, Russian flight controllers began charging the new battery and U.S. mission managers were pleased with the crew's impromptu efforts. "The crew did a little bit of garage work," said space station flight director Mark Ferring. "We proceeded to go whack at that a couple of times and we got the nut plates off and after the bracket was removed, the rest of the task went normally." Meanwhile, working in the new Zvezda command module, astronaut Edward Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko pressed ahead with work to install three new batteries and associated controllers. To save weight, the 42,000-pound Zvezda module was launched with just five of its eight batteries in place. Unlike their crewmates in the Zarya module, Lu and Malenchenko sailed through their battery installation work with no major problems. With the battery installation complete, the astronauts will focus Wednesday night and Thursday on transferring supplies and equipment to the station; assembling an Elektron oxygen generator; hooking up a holding tank to the station's toilet; and installing battery chargers for use by visiting Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. "There's a lot of activity yet to go," said Sharon Castle, overseeing logistics transfers from the shuttle to the space station. "We wanted to get some of those (battery) installations done first so we could get those down under the floor before we started transfers in earnest. "In the next couple of days it's going to be hot and heavy." =================================================================== Atlantis astronauts hook up toilet; run into battery problem (09/13-14/00) 08:00 p.m., 09/13/00, Update: Astronauts awake; battery, toilet installations on tap The Atlantis astronauts, awakened at 7:55 p.m. by a Russian recording of a tune called "Kombaht" beamed up from mission control, geared up for a busy day in orbit this evening, assembling the international space station's zero-G toilet, installing a final battery and transferring fresh water and supplies into the outpost. The toilet, which gets more than its fair share of attention in the media, will not be used or even tested during Atlantis's flight. The space station's first crew, scheduled to arrive in early November, will complete the toilet's activation and use it for the first time. "It's much like you'd find on a camper or out on a boat," said William Shepherd, commander of the station's first three-man crew. "This one's a little bit different, though, because it's got airflow and that keeps all the wastes going in the right direction. "We have a container below the toilet and when we're finished, every once in a while we take these containers, put them in our cargo vehicles and send them back to the surface of the Earth." It's not quite that bad. No longer needed, trash-filled cargo vehicles - and their contents - burn up in Earth's atmosphere and do not actually reach the ground. Phil Engelauf, lead flight director for Atlantis's current mission, said the astronauts will do little more than hook up the toilet's basic plumbing, starting around 4:15 a.m. Thursday. The work will take about one hour. "There's a tank and a hose connection," he said early today. "We're discussing right now possibly filling the tank with water and adding a preservative that eventually is used for preserving the wastes." Along with hooking up the toilet, the overnight flight plan calls for Atlantis's crew to: Install a new battery in the Russian Zarya module to provide a full complement of six new powerpacks Transfer more supplies and equipment into the space station from the shuttle and a Progress supply ship docked to Zvezda's aft port Transfer nearly 400 pounds of fresh water from the shuttle to the station Install a battery charger/discharger that will be used by visiting Russian Progress and Soyuz spacecraft Here's an updated timeline for this evening's activity based on the daily Execute Package of notes and changes radioed to the crew from mission control (times given in EDT and mission elapsed time): TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/13/00 10:46 PM...05...14...00...Daily briefing 11:01 PM...05...14...15...FGB battery 4 replacement 11:01 PM...05...14...15...Logistics transfers resume 11:06 PM...05...14...20...A301 battery component installation 11:46 PM...05...15...00...A304 battery component replacement 09/14/00 12:16 AM...05...15...30...Progress unloading resumes 12:31 AM...05...15...45...CWC bag 5 water fill begins 12:46 AM...05...16...00...Videotape replay 01:16 AM...05...16...30...CT-25 (Progress/Soyuz battery charger/conditioner) installation 01:41 AM...05...16...55...CWC bag 5 full 01:46 AM...05...17...00...Orlon No. 2 spacesuit rack removal 02:06 AM...05...17...20...The shuttle is used to boost the space station's altitude 03:01 AM...05...18...15...CWC bag 6 water fill begins 03:16 AM...05...18...30...Crew meals begin 03:36 AM...05...18...50...CWC water transfer (two bags) 04:16 AM...05...19...30...Service module toilet/hose installation 05:06 AM...05...20...20...CWC water transfer (two bags) 05:06 AM...05...20...20...CWC bag 6 full 05:16 AM...05...20...30...Toilet holding tank filled 05:46 AM...05...21...00...Inspect THML fan 05:46 AM...05...21...00...ACME screw fit check 06:16 AM...05...21...30...Wiener Power PC 06:41 AM...05...21...55...Treadmill vibration isolation system fan installation 08:11 AM...05...23...25...PAO event with Wilcutt and Burbank 08:46 AM...06...00...00...Daily briefing 11:46 AM...06...03...00...Crew sleep begins 07:46 PM...06...11...00...Crew wakeup 07:30 a.m., 09/14/00, Update: Engineers troubleshoot battery problem; logistics transfers go smoothly Editor's Note... The following story was written for Spaceflight Now and is posted here by permission. In what is becoming a fairly common occurrence, engineers in Russia are troubleshooting apparent problems with one of the eight batteries aboard the international space station's new Zvezda command module. What is causing the problems is not yet clear. But even if the battery in question is lost, officials say, Zvezda will have more than enough power to support the lab's first full-time crew starting in November. And that assumes the crew of a shuttle assembly flight next month does not replace it or store a spare on board before the station crew gets there. "Even if it turns out we don't recover this battery, we'll have seven fully functional batteries by the time the crew arrives," space station flight director Mark Ferring said early today. "Seven batteries is way more than we need for the crew at this point," he added. "If we do have a problem recovering this right now, we don't consider that an impact at all." The Atlantis astronauts, meanwhile, spent the day moving more supplies and equipment into the station from the shuttle and a docked Progress supply ship, installing a replacement battery in the Russian Zarya module as planned and two battery charge controllers in Zvezda. The astronauts also installed an electronic device in Zvezda that will be used to control battery charging in visiting Progress and Soyuz spacecraft. Four bags of fresh water, generated by the shuttle's electricity producing fuel cells, were transferred into the station, along with exercise equipment, a peg board-type tool panel and equipment to enable future crews to shoot large-format IMAX movies. Before going to bed, the astronauts planned to connect a hose and a waste holding tank to the space station's toilet. They also planned to fill the toilet's tank with water from the shuttle, but no valves will be opened to actually "wet" the system until the full-time crew arrives in November. Sharon Castle, the STS-106 launch package manager, said 1,900 pounds of equipment and supplies have now been transferred from the shuttle to the station and another 489 pounds of gear has been moved from the station to Atlantis for return to Earth. "The orbiter's in great shape and the crew is doing great," said lead flight director Phil Engelauf. "They got out into the station this morning about 25 or 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled time and immediately jumped right into the installation activities and have stayed pretty much ahead of the timeline the whole way." Along with moving equipment into the space station, the astronauts also used the shuttle's maneuvering jets to boost the station's altitude by about 3.5 miles. This was the second of four planned reboost maneuvers. When the shuttle departs, the station should be left in a circular orbit 235.8 miles high. "We finished yesterday's crew activities in very good shape, we were a little bit ahead on the Progress unstow and we were quite a ways ahead on the shuttle part of the transfers compared to what we had estimated the crew would be by that time," Engelauf said. "And we continued on today in that same fashion. We're looking at the ability to possibly add a couple of tasks to the flight that we didn't have on the list to begin with." Those items include a search for fungus growing behind panels in the Russian modules, work to stow equipment currently stored in the Zvezda module's two staterooms and filling the toilet's tank with water. "A lot of these are relatively secondary in nature," Engelauf said. "We're already installing the tank and the hoses on the toilet. Now we're going to collect some of the water from the shuttle and fill that to mix with the (waste) preservative that's in there as part of getting the toilet set up to operate." As for the search for fungus, "there's a lot of concern as we leave the vehicle closed up for a long period of time that any bacteria or fungus that are growing in there will have a chance to multiply," Ferring said. "And even though we didn't find anything on STS-101 (a shuttle visit in May), our Russian counterparts are very interested in having us go in there and look behind some panels and do a little bit of cleanup in those areas." The station's toilet continues to get quite a bit of attention in the media. And even aboard the space station. Shuttle pilot Scott Altman, taking flight controllers on another video tour of the Zvezda module, showed off the station's bathroom today, saying the Russians equipped it with "all the facilities, everything you need, including a mirror on the wall for doing that morning shave and getting ready to go, brushing your teeth and washing your hair." Pulling a curtain across the door, he added: "There's a privacy door on the bathroom, obviously, to make sure everybody can have their own moments alone." The toilet will not be used or even tested during Atlantis's flight. The space station's first crew will complete the potty's activation and use it for the first time. "It's much like you'd find on a camper or out on a boat," said William Shepherd, commander of the station's first three-man crew. "This one's a little bit different, though, because it's got airflow and that keeps all the wastes going in the right direction. "We have a container below the toilet and when we're finished, every once in a while we take these containers, put them in our cargo vehicles and send them back to the surface of the Earth." The space station's battery problems continue to be a concern, albeit a relatively minor concern at this point. Battery No. 5 in the Zvezda module was activated for the first time Wednesday. During subsequent passes over Russian ground stations, engineers noticed "some funny signatures," Ferring said, "and it's not clear it's charging normally." "The experts in Moscow have been analyzing the situation and it's inconclusive," he said. "We have the potential that battery number five will not be operational." Batteries are critical components on the station, storing power from its solar arrays for use when the complex passes into Earth's shadow. The station spends roughly half of each 92-minute orbit in darkness. But the Russians have had frequent problems with their space station batteries and associated control devices. Partly due to age, partly due to charging problems, four of the Zarya module's batteries were replaced during a shuttle visit in May and two more have been replaced during Atlantis's mission. In addition, one of the battery control computers in Zvezda malfunctioned after launch in July. It was replaced earlier today. To save weight, Zvezda was launched with just five of its eight batteries installed. When the station is unmanned, it can operate with as few as three. When a crew is on board, it needs six to be fully functional. "If you get down to five, you'd have do start doing some powerdowns and managing which systems would be on and when," Ferring said. "Anything below five, I think, would be tough to accommodate. So as you can see, we have a fair amount of margin there." 07:45 a.m., 09/14/00, Update: Space station puts on show over Florida The shuttle Atlantis, attached to the 14-story international space station, put on a dramatic sky show early today over Florida. Despite a fair amount of light from the rising sun, the shuttle-station stack was as bright as the brilliant star Sirius as it streaked overhead on a southwest to northeast trajectory a few minutes past 7:30 a.m. Readers with a chance to see the combined spacecraft are encouraged not to miss the show! 09:00 a.m., 09/14/00, Update: Commander says Zvezda module ideal home in space Editor's Note... The following story was written for Spaceflight Now and is posted here by permission. Despite pre-flight concern in some quarters, the new Russian command module Zvezda is not too loud, too smelly or otherwise uncomfortable, Atlantis commander Terrence Wilcutt said today. In fact, the new module's temperature and humidity remind the commander of a nice day in San Diego. "I think this is as solid and safe as you'll ever get up here," Wilcutt told a reporter. "It's well built." In other words, not a bad place to work, if you can get there. The 42,000-pound Zvezda module, which will provide the station's crew quarters, computer control and propulsion, was launched in July from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Critics said the module failed to meet U.S. safety standards and that internal noise levels might be unhealthy over long periods. Wilcutt said today as far as he's concerned, the critics were wrong. "We measured it, we took some readings with an acoustic dosimeter," he said. "And it's not very loud, it's certainly no louder than the shuttle, in my experience. We're not yelling at each other when we talk from end to end of the module, so I don't think it's very bad." As for the quality of the air in Zvezda, Wilcutt said "there wasn't any musty smell at all" when the crew first entered the module. "There was a little bit of lint or something like that in the air," he said. "We wore goggles in since this was a new module and the air filtration system hadn't had a chance to filter all that out yet. "But the place smelled great, it looked great, it was well lit - the ground had already turned the lights on for us - it was really beautiful. I think those were my first words when we came inside. It was very nice." Wilcutt said it initially felt a bit warm inside Zvezda, "but right now, I think it's about 72 degrees, it's about 50 percent relative humidity. So it's very, very comfortable. It makes me think of San Diego." The space station is now equipped with three pressurized modules stretching 143 feet end to end. Wilcutt said his biggest thrill was floating from one end of the structure to the other. "When you float from one end to the other - again, it's the equivalent of a 13-story buildling - you just can't imagine what it's like to float for that long without running into anything." =================================================================== Battery 5 troubleshooting deferred to ISS-1 crew (09/14-15/00) 10:30 p.m., 09/14/00, Update: Astronauts begin Progress stowage; more electronics work The Atlantis astronauts are pressing ahead with another busy night of work to move supplies and equipment from the shuttle to the international space station and to assemble critical life support systems that will be needed by the lab's first full-time crew. Major items on the overnight agenda include installation of four U.S.-to-Russian current converters that will enable power from U.S. solar arrays to be used in Russian modules; assembly of the station's main Elektron oxygen generator; and troubleshooting to check electrical connections on a suspect battery. To save weight, the new Zvezda command module was launched in July with just five of its eight batteries and control systems installed. Atlantis's astronauts installed the final three batteries earlier this week. But battery No. 5 is not charging properly and Russian engineers want the crew to doublecheck all the connections between the battery and its charge-discharge controllers. Cosmonaut Boris Morukov, meanwhile, will begin loading no-longer-needed packing material and equipment into the Progress-251 supply ship, which eventually will be jettisoned to burn up in the atmosphere. Some 1,300 pounds of equipment and supplies was unloaded from the Progress vehicle earlier this week. For readers scoring at home, here is a revised flight plan for the crew's overnight activities based on the daily Execute Package of instruction radioed up from mission control (times given in EDT and mission elapsed time): TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/14/00 10:46 PM...06...14...00...Daily briefing 11:01 PM...06...14...15...Logistics transfers resume 11:01 PM...06...14...15...Wilcutt exercises 11:06 PM...06...14...20...A21 U.S.-Russian current converter unit installed 11:31 PM...06...14...45...Russian packet communications tests 09/15/00 12:16 AM...06...15...30...Altman exercises 12:26 AM...06...15...40...A22 current converter installed 01:21 AM...06...16...35...Progress stowage begins 01:46 AM...06...17...00...A23 current converter installed 02:36 AM...06...17...50...Shuttle-space station reboost maneuver No. 3 03:06 AM...06...18...20...Current converter system check 03:21 AM...06...18...35...Crew meals begin 04:21 AM...06...19...35...A24 current converter installed 04:21 AM...06...19...35...Logistics transfers resume 04:46 AM...06...20...00...Burbank exercises 05:41 AM...06...20...55...Elektron oxygen generator component installation 06:46 AM...06...22...00...CWC bag 7 water fill begins 06:46 AM...06...22...00...Mastracchio exercises 07:46 AM...06...23...00...Lu exercises 07:56 AM...06...23...10...CWC bag 7 full 08:31 AM...06...23...45...PAO event with Wilcutt and Altman 08:51 AM...07...00...05...Daily briefing 11:46 AM...07...03...00...Crew sleep begins 07:46 PM...07...11...00...Crew wakeup 01:30 a.m., 09/15/00, Update: No obvious battery problems Astronauts aboard the international space station say there are no obvious signs of dirty or otherwise broken connections that might explain why a new battery in the international space station's command module, Zvezda, will not charge up properly. The battery in question - No. 5 - is one of three installed by the Atlantis astronauts earlier this week, pushing Zvezda's total to eight. During routine charging operations, however, Russian flight controllers realized battery No. 5 was not operating properly and it subsequently was taken off line. In a bid to figure out what might be wrong, the astronauts worked early today to inspect the myriad connections between the battery and a charge-discharge device known as a PTAB. No problems were found. But the trouble could involve a third device, a voltage regulator called a BUPT. The BUPT used by battery No. 6 cannot be inspected, however, without first removing an adjacent battery - No. 3 - from its normal slot. Russian flight controllers were considering a plan to have the astronauts do just that, but as of 1:30 a.m. there had been no decisions one way or the other. The space station's first full-time crew is scheduled to arrive in early November. Engineers say the station's first permanent residents can easily live aboard Zvezda with seven operational batteries and, with power conservation measures, as few as six. In the meantime, work to install four U.S.-to-Russian current converters, devices that will permit power from the station's U.S. solar arrays be used in the station's Russian modules, was held up at least briefly, when power ad jumper cables under the floor of the Zvezda module did not match what the astronauts expected. Russian flight controllers promised a quick answer. 07:30 a.m., 09/15/00, Update: Ground controllers give up - for now - on balky battery Editor's Note... The following story was written for Spaceflight Now and is reposted here by permission. After more overnight inspections by the Atlantis astronauts, Russian engineers decided to forego any additional work with a balky battery aboard the international space station's command module, deferring further troubleshooting until the lab's first full-time crew arrives in early November. Early today, the astronauts double-checked connections between battery No. 5 and its charge-discharge controller, called a PTAB, but there were no apparent problems that would explain the powerpack's failure to charge. To save weight, Zvezda was launched with just five of its eight batteries and associated control electronics. Atlantis's astronauts installed the final three, including battery No. 5, earlier this week. Engineers discussed the possibility of having the crew remove an adjacent battery - No. 3 - to gain access to battery No. 5's control computer, called a BUPT. It is possible a bent pin or debris of some sort in a connector could be causing the problem. But in the end, Russian flight controllers decided to simply disconnect the battery for now and to defer additional troubleshooting until the Expedition One crew arrives later this fall. "Yuri, as far as the battery is concerned, unfortunately from the telemetry we see that it's still non functional and the decision has been made to troubleshoot it when Expedition One is there," Moscow radioed shortly before 7 a.m. "Once you've (disconnected the battery), we will consider that battery 5 operations for you are complete." "Understand," replied cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. A few moments later, Atlantis and the space station sailed over Houston just before sunrise, giving flight controllers a spectacular view of the 13-story station-shuttle combination sparkling in the morning sunlight. "Atlantis, Houston, we're back with you," astronaut Ellen Ochoa radioed. "Both the station and shuttle flight control teams had a terrific view of you passing overhead, a really bright, big, beautiful satellite." "Oh, that's great to hear!" Atlantis pilot Scott Altman replied. "We were at the windows looking down awful hard at the same time and we had a good look at you going by." In parallel with the battery inspections earlier today, the astronauts pressed ahead with a full slate space station outfitting work, including the installation of four U.S.-to-Russian power converters in the Zvezda module that will enable Russian components to use power generated by U.S. solar arrays. Working in a maze of wiring beneath the module's floor panels, the astronauts had initial problems identifying the proper cables for installing the converters. But after consulting with engineers in Moscow they pressed ahead and completed the work. Other tasks completed today included tests of Zvezda's voice downlink circuits and work with the Russian packet communications system, which will be used to send data files to and from the station. The packet system had problems, but engineers believe that was due to a misconfiguration problem and additional tests are planned this evening to confirm that. The astronauts wound up their day in space by partially assembling a Russian Elektron oxygen generator. Once activated by the station's first full-time crew, the Elektron will use electrolysis to break water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen will be dumped overboard while the oxygen will be used by the crew. Sharon Castle, the STS-106 launch package manager, said the astronauts have now transferred 2.5 tons of hardware, supplies and other gear into the station from the shuttle and an attached Progress supply ship. Of that total, some 3,737 pounds came from shuttle Atlantis while another 1,300 pounds came from the Progress-251 vehicle. Another 730 pounds of equipment and trash has been moved from the station back to the shuttle for return to Earth. Eight bags of fresh water have been transferred to the station along with all of the food, office supplies, environmental monitors and medical kits that will be needed by the station's first full-time crew. "Things are going extremely well," Castle said. "We're very, very happy." The major items on the agenda this evening will be the battery No. 5 troubleshooting; assembly of the station's high-tech treadmill; and an inspection of a cable used to route telemetry from the Progress vehicle into the Zvezda module for downlink to Earth. Assembling the treadmill will take most of the crew's day. Unlike the typical exercise machines familiar to health club enthusiasts, the station's treadmill is equipped with a vibration isolation system to prevent a jogging astronaut from disturbing sensitive microgravity experiments. "They have to construct kind of an isolation cage that they build down into the floor of the Zvezda," said station flight director Mark Ferring. "This treadmill was designed so that it's got an active isolation system so that when we reach the point where we're flying a lot of these complicated payloads that want a microgravity environment, that when a crew member runs on this treadmill, it doesn't transmit any of the vibration or forces into the structure of the station. "The treadmill fits inside this cage and then it has isolating members that allow it to kind of free float within this cage and not transmit its forces to the structure. "It isn't really that complicated, but it takes a lot of steps to get it in the floor," Ferring said. "It's essentially going to take all day." =================================================================== Astronauts install space station treadmill (09/15-16/00) 08:00 p.m., 09/15/00, Update: Crew awake; treadmill assembly on tap The Atlantis astronauts were awakened at 7:46 p.m. by a recording of the University of Connecticut fight song beamed up from mission control for Connecticut native Richard Mastracchio. The astronauts will spend most of their time this evening assembling a high-tech treadmill equipped with a vibration isolation system to prevent future station joggers from disturbing sensitive microgravity experiments. The treadmill will be installed in the new Russian Zvezda command module, which will serve as crew quarters for the station's initial full-time occupants. Along with the treadmill, the station is equipped with a stationary bicycle and other exercise gear. "They have to construct kind of an isolation cage that they build down into the floor of the Zvezda," station flight director Mark Ferring said of the treadmill. "This treadmill was designed so that it's got an active isolation system so that when we reach the point where we're flying a lot of these complicated payloads that want a microgravity environment, that when a crew member runs on this treadmill, it doesn't transmit any of the vibration or forces into the structure of the station. "The treadmill fits inside this cage and then it has isolating members that allow it to kind of free float within this cage and not transmit its forces to the structure. "It isn't really that complicated, but it takes a lot of steps to get it in the floor," Ferring said. "It's essentially going to take all day." Other activities on tap overnnight include additional work to complete the transfer of supplies from the shuttle to the station. Members of the crew will participate in round-robin media interviews starting at 7:56 a.m. Saturday. An updated version of the crew's flight plan will be posted here shortly. 10:20 p.m., 09/15/00, Update: Updated flight plan, television schedule Here is the updated flight plan for the crew's overnight activities from the daily Execute Package radioed to shuttle Atlantis earlier this evening (times given in EDT and mission elapsed time): TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/15/00 07:46 PM...07...11...00...Crew wakeup 10:46 PM...07...14...00...Daily briefing 11:01 PM...07...14...15...Logistics transfers resume 11:01 PM...07...14...15...Treadmill vibration isolation system assembly preparations 11:06 PM...07...14...20...Burbank exercises 11:51 PM...07...15...05...Russian packet communications test and checkout 09/16/00 12:21 AM...07...15...35...Progress cable troubleshooting 12:36 AM...07...15...50...Malenchenko exercises 01:11 AM...07...16...25...Treadmill vibration isolation system assembly 01:46 AM...07...17...00...Mastracchio exercises 01:51 AM...07...17...05...Space station OCA reconfiguration and checkout 03:26 AM...07...18...40...Crew meals begin 04:26 AM...07...19...40...TVIS cage assembly 04:26 AM...07...19...40...Zarya module microbial sampling 04:26 AM...07...19...40...Common berthing mechanism ground strap removal 06:01 AM...07...21...15...TVIS installation 06:46 AM...07...22...00...Altman exercises 06:46 AM...07...22...00...Progress stow resumes 07:16 AM...07...22...30...Test Progress docking mechanism 07:46 AM...07...23...00...Install Progress docking probe 07:56 AM...07...23...10...PAO event with Altman and Lu 08:16 AM...07...23...30...Crew photo 08:51 AM...08...00...05...Daily briefing 11:46 AM...08...03...00...Crew sleep begins 07:46 PM...08...11...00...Crew wakeup 02:20 a.m., 09/16/00, Update: Astronauts struggle to assemble treadmill isolation system The Atlantis astonauts struggled today to complete assembly of a high-tech vibration isolation system needed by a treadmill intended for use aboard the international space station. Because of a slight gap between two sections of the device - about an eighth of an inch - the astronauts were unable to attach stabilizers needed to secure the unit in the station. After exploring the more obvious solutions, all to no avail, engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston told the crew to disassemble the isolation motor, flywheel and other components and then to bolt them back together again. The hope was that reassembling the unit would correct whatever misalignment might be causing the unwanted gap. 07:15 a.m., 09/16/00, Update: Treadmill assembled; NASA managers pleased with mission progress Editor's Note... This story was written for Spaceflight Now and is reposted here by permission. After a bit of a struggle, the Atlantis astronauts successfully assembled a high-tech vibrationless exercise machine aboard the international space station today, setting the stage for a final day of cleanup work before undocking Sunday night. "The only things we have left (are) what we call some bonus food, which is basically some special desserts and things for the crew and the two (water bags) that we filled yesterday," said Sharon Castle, the STS-106 launch package manager. "We're essentially complete with all the pre-flight planned work. Things are going extremely well and we're obviously very happy." The major item on the crew's agenda today was assembly of the treadmill and its vibration isolation system, equipment that effectively prevents vibrations from jogging space station crew members from disturbing future microgravity experiments. Early today, the astronauts ran into problems getting bolt holes and guides to line up. "We had a couple of hiccups early in the day," said station flight director Mark Ferring. "We were trying to install the right front stabilizer, which is one of the isolaters they use to ensure they get microgravity later in flight - it isolates the treadmill from the structure - and there's an alignment stud that they use to just align it properly, to line up the bolt holes. "For some reason, that alignment stud was not quite long enough to engage into a keyway slot," he said. "So what we ended up doing is taking off the keyway slot, since this alignment stud isn't a load-carrying piece of the structure and we had one other alignment pin that we did use. We lined up all the bolts, we put in the bolts and everything worked fine after that." While that work was going on, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko carried out additional tests of a Russian packet communications system that will be used to send and receive data to and from the ground. The system did not work properly Friday, but after reconfiguring on-board equipment it appeared to work normally today. The astronauts also disconnected and remated a telemetry cable leading into a Russian Progress supply ship docked to the aft port of the new Zvezda command module. "After demating and mating the cable and attempting to flow telemetry through that cable again, that was non functional still, so they think they have a hard failure somewhere in that Progress," Ferring said. The system is triply redundant and in any case, the Progress-251 vehicle, now loaded with trash and other discarded material, will be jettisoned to burn up in the atmosphere in a few weeks. On another front, Ferring said, "we're in the process of setting up an ISS video conference with the equipment in the (U.S. node module), which is another alternate means of communicating with the crew for Expedition One. We've run into some configuration problems on the ground that we're still working on, (but) we're confident we'll get that worked out." As of the close of business Friday morning, the astronauts had transferred 4,285 pounds of supplies and equipment from the shuttle to the space station and moved another 762 pounds of gear from the station to Atlantis for return to Earth. Earlier in the mission, 1,300 pounds of logistics were moved from the Progress-251 vehicle into the station. "At this point, we think we're going to get everything done," said lead flight director Phil Engelauf. "In fact, the crew was doing so well on the timeline yesterday that we spent some time ... trying to pull together any additional tasks we could do (before leaving). "Some of the shopping list of activities we have consists of re-stowing some items in a few different places and doing just a little bit more additional work to try to get different work sites in the vehicle set up in anticipation of the arrival of the Expedition crew to try to speed their work along a little better," he said. The astronauts face a busy "day" Saturday night and Sunday morning completing those add-on tasks, reboosting the station's altitude and gearing up for egress. "Tomorrow is mostly going to be an egress day," Ferring said. "They're going to button up the station, they're going to back out and make sure they have the right pressures across all the hatches and shut everything down gracefully. That's going to take the lion's share of the day. "They will complete a final TVIS (treadmill) checkout, they will be changing out some filters in the dust collector system in the Zarya, they'll also be changing out the harmful contaminant filter in the Zarya." If all goes well, Atlantis will undock from the international space station at 11:44 p.m. Sunday after six days of docked activity. Landing back at the Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 3:56 a.m. Wednesday. The only question mark at this point is the weather, with possible rain and high winds from tropical storm activity near the space center. Even with a one-day mission extension, Engelauf said the astronauts will have enough propellant and other supplies to make at least two landing attempts at either Kennedy or Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. "The weather looking towards the Cape seems to be headed in the wrong direction," he said today, "but I would also caution this far in advance it's real difficult to predict." =================================================================== Astronauts complete space station work, re-seal hatches (09/16-17/00) 08:00 p.m., 09/16/00, Update: Astronauts begin final day of station work The Atlantis astronauts were awakened at 7:46 p.m. to begin their final day of work outfitting and assembling the international space station. The crew will begin shutting internal hatches and turning out the lights shortly after midnight, starting with a Progress supply ship docked to the far end of the lab complex. Working their way back toward the shuttle some 13-stories "below," a 12th and final hatch will be closed around 8:30 a.m. Sunday, setting the stage for undocking around 11:44 p.m. that evening. "They're going to button up the station, they're going to back out and make sure they have the right pressures across all the hatches and shut everything down gracefully," said lead station flight director Mark Ferring. "That's going to take the lion's share of the day. Here's how astronaut Daniel Burbank summed up the final day of work in a pre-flight NASA interview: "When we do the egress activities themselves, we're going to be leaving the space station in a very specific, pre-planned configuration, with certain hatches closed, with valves in a certain configuration that would be necessary so that the ground, if there were a problem, could command those remotely," he said. "And we're going to basically be sweeping our way through the space station, kind of an all-hands evolution, tidying everything up and making sure all the cargo that we've got there is secured and ready to go and ready to receive the next mission." But first, Burbank and his crewmates plan to move a few final items into the station, including special desserts for the station's first full-time crew. Commander Terrence Wilcutt and pilot Scott Altman also will fire Atlantis's steering jets late this evening to boost the station's altitude - currently 228.9 by 236.9 miles - by about 3.5 miles. Their crewmates, meanwhile, plan to test a high-tech vibrationless exercise treadmill called TVIS that was installed early Saturday and do a bit of housekeeping before leaving. "They will complete a final TVIS (treadmill) checkout, they will be changing out some filters in the dust collector system in the Zarya (module), they'll also be changing out the harmful contaminant filter in the Zarya," Ferring said. The final hatch between Atlantis and the space station should be closed by 8:30 a.m. Sunday. Before leaving, however, the astronauts plan to bump up the station's air pressure to 14.9 psi, "getting the station holding as much gas as possible," said shuttle flight director Phil Engelauf. "In addition to that repressurization, as we do the backout we'll be setting up the tools on the shuttle flight deck in anticipation of undocking," he said. If all goes well, Atlantis will undock from the orbital complex at 11:44 p.m. Sunday, six days after the crew first entered the lab last Monday. Altman plans to guide Atlantis through two loops around the station for a detailed photo survey before departing for good around 1:30 a.m. Monday. Weather permitting, Atlantis is scheduled to land back at the Kennedy Space Center around 3:50 a.m. Wednesday. Just two weeks later, on Oct. 5, the shuttle Discovery is scheduled to blast off on the 100th shuttle mission, a complex four-spacewalk flight to equip the space station with a set of stabilizing gyroscopes. "It doesn't seem like it's been a hundred flights," mused Bill Gerstenmaier, manager of shuttle program integration. "But it has, and we've learned a tremendous amount during all those years. I think it's kind of fitting that the 100th flight comes during the build up of the space station. "The space station is also kind of a new era here for manned space flight for us and it's neat to see that bridge from the shuttle," he said. "We've done tremendous things with the shuttle, it's been an unbelievably versatile vehicle. Then to see it carry on and start building space station, which is really a huge endeavor for us, is really a neat thing to see." 12:30 a.m., 09/17/00, Update: Final station reboost maneuver complete Shuttle commander Terrence Wilcutt and pilot Scott Altman completed a fourth and final set of rocket firings early today that combined to boost the international space station's altitude by more than 14 miles. The space station is now in an orbit with a high point, or apogee, of 240 statute miles and a low point, or perigee, of 234.3 miles. By using spare fuel aboard the shuttle to increase the station's altitude, flight controllers are able to conserve the lab's limited on-board supplies. 08:30 a.m., 09/17/00, Update: Crew leaves space station; Hurricane Gordon threatens Florida Editor's Note... This story was written for Spaceflight Now. It is reposted here by permission. The Atlantis astronauts re-sealed the international space station early today, turning out the lights and closing a series of hatches behind them as they wrapped up six days of work to outfit and activate the orbital outpost. Commander Terrence Wilcutt closed the final hatch shortly after 8 a.m. as the two spacecraft sailed 237 miles above the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles. Total time spent working inside the space station was five days, nine hours, 21 minutes. "The station team's really enjoyed working with you guys over the past few days," Stephanie Wilson told Wilcutt from space station control. "You had a lot of work scheduled, you got all that done and you kept asking for more. "We think you did a fantastic job and we know the Expedition One crew will really appreciate all the effort you put in getting their new home set up. We look forward to seeing you in a few days." "Thanks a lot, station team," Wilcutt replied. "We did get a lot of work done, but we know that we don't operate along up here. We appreciate all you help and the fine team support you guys provided. Thank you." After an eight-hour sleep period this afternoon, the crew will be awakened at 7:46 p.m. and if all goes well, Atlantis will undock from the space station at 11:44 p.m. as the two spacecraft pass over Russian ground stations. Landing at the Kennedy Space Center is on tap early Wednesday. At the Kennedy Space Center, meanwhile, engineers are bracing for high winds and rain from Hurricane Gordon, expected to slam into Florida's west coast later today. But the predicted ground track passes northwest of the Kennedy Space Center and NASA managers decided early today not to haul the shuttle Discovery off its seaside launch pad and back to the protection of the Vehicle Assembly Building. Discovery is awaiting launch Oct. 5 on the next space station assembly mission, a high-stakes four-spacewalk flight to install another docking port and an 18,400-pound truss housing four stabilizing gyroscopes. Ascent flight director Wayne Hale, who also serves as flight director for Atlantis's landing Wednesday, said today it appeared Gordon would spare both Discovery and, hopefully, Atlantis. "They're getting quite a bit of rain this morning in Florida, they are forecasting flooding in many low lying areas," Hale said. "The storm track is projected to go through North Florida, miss the Cape and they will not have the high winds you would associate with a hurricane. "They will have some moderate winds and again, the main threat there is the heavy rainfall," he said. "So the decision that was made earlier this morning by the launch director and the Kennedy Space Center officials was not to roll Discovery off the launch pad." As a precaution, however, the Z1 truss and pressurized mating adaptor No. 3 were loaded into Discovery's cargo bay ahead of schedule. Loose items have been secured and protective weather panels and barriers have been erected around Discovery at pad 39A. "All the weather protections is in place, so Discovery is well protected at the launch pad," Hale said. But normal work at the spaceport has been suspended and Hale said it is likely the storm will use up all the contingency time left in Discovery's schedule. At this point, however, Oct. 5 remains the official launch target for the 100th shuttle mission. "It's really too early to tell," Hale said. "This does probably chew up most of our pad contingency time that we had on the STS-92 launch. So it might work out to be a day or two (late) or it might work out to be no impact to the launch date at all." The picture is cloudier - literally - for Atlantis, scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center around 3:56 a.m. Wednesday. "They are basically shut down and are not working at all (today)," Hale said. "We've been told that by midday Monday, they should be back up to full operations. "The outlook - and of course, this is Sunday morning and we're looking out to Wednesday - the weatherman tells us that following the storm, weather conditions in Florida should be pretty good." But for the next day or two, Kennedy is not available as a landing site in case of any problem that might force the crew to return to Earth ahead of schedule. Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert is the shuttle's prime landing site until the weather in Florida improves. "When we come around to Wednesday morning, we'll take a good hard look at the weather in Florida," Hale said. "If at all possible, we'd like to land back in Florida. If the weather's not good in Florida, we'll have a decision to make whether or not we want to go to California or wait a day and try to go back to KSC a day later." =================================================================== Shuttle Atlantis undocks from international space station (09/17-18/00) 07:50 p.m., 09/17/00, Update: Space station undocking on tap Editor's Note... This story was written for Spaceflight Now and is reposted here by permission. The astronauts aboard shuttle Atlantis are gearing up to undock from the international space station late this evening after six days of grueling work to move some three tons of supplies and equipment on board for use by the lab's first full-time crew. U.S. space station managers say so far, the 99th shuttle mission has been virtually flawless and that the station's first crew, scheduled to arrive in early November, will be in good shape to begin the lab's permanent occupation. "The reports from the (Atlantis) crew are very positive, they have good things to say about the environment they find there, the conditions relative to temperature, humidity, cleanliness, etc.," said former astronaut and shuttle manager Brewster Shaw, now vice president and general manager of Boeing's space station program. "And of course, they've brought on board supplies and a lot of equipment, equipment for the generation of oxygen, the reduction of carbon dioxide, exercise equipment, etc.," Shaw said. "So they're pretty much turning down the blanket and putting chocolate on the pillow for those guys when they show up." Atlantis skipper Terrence Wilcutt and his six crewmates floated out of the space station for the last time early Sunday, closing a final hatch a few minutes past 8 a.m. to wrap up five days nine hours and 21 minutes of station outfitting and activation. With pilot Scott Altman at the controls, the flight plan calls for Atlantis to undock form the now-dormant space station at 11:44 p.m. as the two spacecraft pass over Russian ground stations. Before leaving the lab for good, Altman plans to fly the shuttle through two complete loops at a distance of around 400 feet for a detailed exterior photo survey. Finally, at 1:34 a.m. Monday, Atlantis will leave the scene for good and the astronauts will set their sights on landing early Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center, weather permitting. Entry flight director Wayne Hale said early today the preliminary forecast calls for generally acceptable weather in the wake of Hurricane - now Tropical Storm - Gordon, which buffeted the Cape with high winds and heavy rain Sunday. "The outlook - and of course, this is Sunday morning and we're looking out to Wednesday - the weatherman tells us that following the storm, weather conditions in Florida should be pretty good," Hale said. "When we come around to Wednesday morning, we'll take a good hard look at the weather in Florida. If at all possible, we'd like to land back in Florida. If the weather's not good in Florida, we'll have a decision to make whether or not we want to go to California or wait a day and try to go back to KSC a day later." For now, however, the astronauts have their sights set on this evening's undocking, a carefully choreographed procedure that will give pilot Altman a chance to try his hand at the controls for an extended bit of manual flying. "Traditionally, the program has had the pilot do the flyaround, to get a little bit of extra 'stick time,' we call it, flying around the station," Altman said in a pre-flight NASA interview. "I'll be standing at the aft (flight deck) station looking out an overhead window up at the station and watching it go away," he said. "And it's not like it's a long ways away - it's right over the top of your head as you undock for the first time. "It's really amazing when I looked at that in the simulator and I just know it's going to be even more so when I see the real thing right there in front of me." Astronaut Daniel Burbank will actually push the buttons that cause Atlantis to undock from the space station. Powerful springs then will push the shuttle gently away and once at a safe distance, Altman will fire small steering jets to move out to the fly-around starting point. "We're going to go out to about 400 feet and then start this flyaround where we go all the way around the station two times," Altman said. "It's a challenge I'm really looking forward to and think will be an incredible, incredible event." Wilcutt said the primary goal of the flyaround is to shoot high resolution photos and video of the space station and its new Zvezda command module to give ground engineers a record of the lab's current condition. By making two complete orbits the astronauts will ensure good lighting at some point on all sides of the station. "We'll be documenting the outside of the station with photography, and we have engineers back here that study those photographs and study whether, for instance, even the paint would be peeling on the station or any other things that look different or out of configuration," Wilcutt said. "And we use that on the ground for future EVA (spacewalk) planning as well as more or less documenting how the station is doing in that environment." After final separation, the astronauts will hold a crew news conference at 3:11 a.m. Monday to discuss the flight with reporters at the Johnson and Kennedy space centers. A Russian media event is planned for 3:51 a.m. The astronauts will go to bed around 10:46 a.m. and wake up at 6:46 to begin readying Atlantis for Wednesday's return to Earth. This status report will be updated throughout the evening and a separate story will be posted after the crew news conference. 10:15 p.m., 09/17/00, Update: Undocking timeline; updated flight plan Here is an updated timeline for the shuttle Atlantis's undocking and departure from the international space station. Undocking remains on track for 11:44 p.m. Pilot Scott Altman plans to guide Atlantis through two complete loops of the station for a detailed photo survey before departing the area for good around 1:34 a.m. The R-bar, or radius vector, is an imaginary line connecting the station and the center of the Earth. The V-bar, or velocity vector, is the line marking the station's orbital path. By convention, the plus R-bar is directly below the station while the plus V-bar is directly ahead. The following times are given in EDT and mission elapsed time: TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/17/00 11:37 PM...09...14...51...Orbital sunrise 11:41 PM...09...14...55...1st Russian ground station AOS 11:44 PM...09...14...58...Undocking window opens 11:44 PM...09...14...58...Atlantis undocks from space station 11:57 PM...09...15...11...Last Russian ground station LOS 11:57 PM...09...15...11...Undocking window closes 09/18/00 12:02 AM...09...15...16...1st minus R-bar crossing 12:05 AM...09...15...19...Orbital noon 12:14 AM...09...15...28...1st minus V-bar crossing 12:25 AM...09...15...39...1st plus R-bar crossing 12:34 AM...09...15...48...Orbital sunset 12:37 AM...09...15...51...1st plus V-bar crossing 12:48 AM...09...16...02...2nd minus R-bar crossing 01:00 AM...09...16...14...2nd minus V-bar crossing 01:09 AM...09...16...23...Orbital sunrise 01:11 AM...09...16...25...2nd plus R-bar crossing 01:17 AM...09...16...31...ISS attitude maneuver 01:23 AM...09...16...37...2nd plus V-bar crossing 01:34 AM...09...16...48...3rd minus R-bar crossing 01:34 AM...09...16...48...Final separation burn 01:38 AM...09...16...52...Orbital noon Following separation from the space station, the astronauts will hold a news conference and enjoy a bit of time off. Here's the updated flight plan for the entire day, including times when television from the orbiter is possible: TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 09/17/00 10:15 PM...09...13...29...Television window opens 10:16 PM...09...13...30...Rendezvous tools checkout 10:46 PM...09...14...00...Group B computer powerup 11:01 PM...09...14...15...Undocking timeline begins 11:09 PM...09...14...23...Television window closes 11:23 PM...09...14...37...Television window opens 11:44 PM...09...14...58...Atlantis undocks from space station 11:47 PM...09...15...01...Television window closes 09/18/00 12:04 AM...09...15...18...Space station fly around begins 12:42 AM...09...15...56...Television window opens 12:47 AM...09...16...01...Television window closes 01:07 AM...09...16...21...Television window opens 01:23 AM...09...16...37...Television window closes 01:34 AM...09...16...48...Final separation burn; Atlantis leaves space station area 01:41 AM...09...16...55...Group B powerdown 01:56 AM...09...17...10...Crew meals begin 02:29 AM...09...17...43...Television window opens 02:59 AM...09...18...13...Television window closes 03:10 AM...09...18...24...Television window opens 03:11 AM...09...18...25...Crew news conference 03:51 AM...09...19...05...Crew off duty time begins 03:51 AM...09...19...05...Russian PAO event with Mastracchio, Malenchenko and Morukov 04:10 AM...09...19...24...Television window closes 04:21 AM...09...19...35...Television window opens 04:51 AM...09...20...05...Wilcutt exercises 05:15 AM...09...20...29...Television window closes 06:16 AM...09...21...30...Altman exercises 06:31 AM...09...21...45...Television window opens 07:26 AM...09...22...40...Television window closes 07:46 AM...09...23...00...Lu exercises 08:08 AM...09...23...22...Television window opens 09:02 AM...10...00...16...Television window closes 10:46 AM...10...02...00...Crew sleep begins 06:46 PM...10...10...00...Crew wakeup 11:50 p.m., 09/17/00, Update: Shuttle Atlantis undocks from international space station The shuttle Atlantis undocked from the international space station at 11:46 p.m. as the two spacecraft sailed high above central Asia. Undocking came about two minutes behind schedule because of time needed to reboot a crashed laptop computer that provides navigation data to the crew during the shuttle's separation and flyaround. Black-and-white video from the space station showed Atlantis slowly dropping away against the deep black of space while color views from Atlantis showed the station slowly separating against the blue backdrop of planet Earth. There are no technical problems of any significance and pilot Scott Altman remains on schedule to fly Atlantis through two complete loops around the station at a distance of about 400 feet. Final separation remains on track for a few minutes past 1:30 a.m. =================================================================== Astronauts test re-entry systems; prepare for landing (09/18-19/00) 07:20 p.m., 09/18/00, Update: Astronauts awakened; re-entry tests, cabin stow on tap The Atlantis astronauts were awakened at 6:46 p.m. to begin packing up loose gear and tidying up the space shuttle for re-entry and landing early Wednesday to close out a 12-day space station assembly flight. Commander Terrence Wilcutt, pilot Scott Altman and flight engineer Richard Mastracchio will spend about an hour this evening testing the shuttle's flight control system, firing up a hydraulic power unit and making sure the orbiter's aerosurfaces respond properly. They will then carry out a shorter reaction control system test, test firing a set of Atlantis's steering jets to make sure they will be ready for use during the plunge back to Earth early Wedensday. Their crewmates, meanwhile - Edward Lu, Daniel Burbank, Yuri Malenchenko and Boris Morukov - plan to begin stowing equipment in the shuttle's Spacehab cargo module before turning their attention to straightening up the ship's middeck area. All seven astronauts will take time out early Tuesday for a traditional crew portrait before holding an informal deorbit briefing to review re-entry procedures. Wilcutt and Altman will take turns practicing landing procedures using a computer simulator called PILOT. The shuttle's KU-band television antenna will be stowed around 7:31 a.m. Tuesday, bringing TV broadcasts from the orbiter to an end. Landing at the Kennedy Space Center currently is targeted for 3:56 a.m., weather permitting. Forecasters are predicting generally acceptable conditions with a chance of off-shore rainshowers within 30 nautical miles of the shuttle landing strip. Atlantis has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit an additional two days if necessary. But the crew must land by Friday morning one way or the other. 12:15 a.m., 09/19/00, Update: Revised deorbit and landing times Flight controllers have updated the shuttle Atlantis's re-entry and landing times for Wednesday morning. With forecasters predicting generally acceptable weather, flight director Wayne Hale says NASA will not staff Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Wednesday, opting instead to make two attempts on successive orbits to land in Florida. If the weather or some other problem prevents a Florida landing Wednesday, the astronauts will remain in orbit an additional 24 hours and try again Thursday. =================================================================== Shuttle Atlantis glides to smooth touchdown (09/19-20/00) 07:05 p.m., 09/19/00, Update: Shuttle crew gears up for landing Keeping tabs on rain showers near the Kennedy Space Center, the Atlantis astronauts late today began readying the space shuttle for re-entry and landing early Wednesday to close out a near-flawless 12-day space station outfitting mission. Showers soaked the Kennedy Space Center area late this afternoon, but forecasters are hopeful the area will be clear by the time flight director Wayne Hale has to make the go/no-go decision for re-entry. That decision is expected around 2:30 a.m. Hoping for the best, the seven-member crew will begin following a formal de-orbit timeline around 10:50 p.m. this eveing, four hours before deorbit ignition. The shuttle's payload bay doors will be closed for entry just after midnight and if all goes well, commander Terrence Wilcutt and pilot Scott Altman will fire Atlantis's twin braking rockets at 1:49 p.m. to begin the hour-long descent to Earth. The deorbit rocket firing is scheduled to last three minutes and 21 seconds, slowing the shuttle by just 234 mph. But that's enough to cause Atlantis to drop into the atmosphere over the south Pacific Ocean for a landing on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center around 3:56:24 a.m. For an on-time landing, mission duration would be 11 days 19 hours 10 minutes through 185 complete orbits (touchdown occurs a quarter of the way through orbit 186). Total distance travelled since blastoff Sept. 8: 4.9 million miles. If Wilcutt and company miss their first landing opportunity on orbit 185, they will simply fly around the planet one more time and give the weather a chance to improve. For orbit 186, deorbit ignition would come at 4:26:34 a.m. for a landing at 5:32:50 a.m. NASA is not staffing Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., today and if Atlantis misses both Florida landing opportunities the flight will be extended 24 hours for a third landing try Thursday. Here's the crew's timeline this evening for a deorbit to Kennedy Space Center on orbit 185: EDT...........EVENT 09/19/00 10:49:17 PM...Begin deorbit timeline 11:04:17 PM...Radiator stow 11:14:17 PM...Mission specialists' seat installation 11:20:17 PM...Data processing system configured for deorbit prep 11:24:17 PM...APU/hydraulic configuration 11:49:17 PM...Flash evaporator checkout 11:55:17 PM...Final payload deactivation 09/20/00 12:09:17 AM...Payload bay doors closed 12:19:17 AM...Mission control 'go' for OPS-3 computer transition 12:29:17 AM...OPS-3 entry software loaded 12:54:17 AM...Entry switchlist verification 01:04:17 AM...Deorbit firing plan update 01:09:17 AM...Crew entry review 01:24:17 AM...Commander, pilot don entry suits 01:41:17 AM...Inertial measurement units aligned 01:49:17 AM...Commander, pilot strap in; mission specialists don suits 02:06:17 AM...Shuttle steering check 02:09:17 AM...Hydraulic power system prestart 02:16:17 AM...Toilet deactivation 02:24:17 AM...Vent doors closed for entry 02:29:17 AM...Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 02:35:17 AM...Mission specialists seat ingress 02:44:17 AM...Single auxilliary power unit start 02:49:17 AM...Deorbit ignition 02:52:38 AM...Deorbit burn complete 02:47:58 AM...Shuttle communications through TDRS-West satellite 03:24:47 AM...Shuttle hits the discernible atmosphere 03:49:59 AM...Velocity less than Mach 2.5 03:52:04 AM...Velocity less than Mach 1 03:52:58 AM...Shuttle banks through 239-degree left overhead turn for runway lineup 03:56:24 AM...Landing on runway 15 Here's the timeline for a delayed deorbit rocket firing on orbit 186: EDT...........EVENT 09/20/00 04:06:34 AM...Mission control 'go' for burn 04:12:34 AM...Mission specialists seat ingress complete 04:21:34 AM...Single APU start complete 04:26:34 AM...Deorbit ignitionxxxx 04:29:56 AM...Deorbit burn complete 04:29:20 AM...AOS TDRS-West 05:01:18 AM...Shuttle in atmosphere 05:26:31 AM...Velocity < Mach 2.5 05:28:36 AM...V < Mach 1 05:29:01 AM...Shuttle on HAC (286-degree left turn) 05:32:50 AM...Landing For readers interested in statistics, this will be the 10th night landing at the Kennedy Space Center and the 15th in shuttle history. Here are the numbers: ................KSC........EAFB........WS........Total Night landings..09.........05..........00........14 Day landings....42.........40..........01........83 TOTAL...........51.........45..........01........97 Most recent.....05/29/00...03/31/96....03/30/82 Atlantis has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Friday. But Hale told reporters earlier today that if Atlantis fails to make it back to Earth on Wednesday, the astronauts will remain in orbit and extra day and land Thursday in either Florida or California. The weather at Edwards is expected to be ideal all week. Here are all of the shuttle's landing opportunities through Friday: DATE.......ORBIT...DEORBIT BURN...LANDING.......SITE 09/20/00...185.....02:49:17 AM....03:56:24 AM...Kennedy 186.....04:26:34 AM....05:32:50 AM...Kennedy 09/21/00...200.....01:53:00 AM....02:56:00 AM...Kennedy 201.....03:29:00 AM....04:32:00 AM...Kennedy 202.....05:00:00 AM....06:03:00 AM...Edwards AFB 203.....06:36:00 AM....07:39:00 Am...Edwards AFB 09/22/00...216.....02:28:00 AM....03:32:00 AM...Kennedy 217.....03:59:00 AM....05:03:00 AM...Edwards AFB 217.....04:05:00 AM....05:08:00 Am...Kennedy 218.....05:35:00 AM....06:39:00 AM...Edwards AFB 11:00 p.m., 09/19/00, Update: Astronauts begin final deorbit preparations As the crew of the shuttle Atlantis begins final preparations for a pre-dawn Florida landing, forecasters are continuing to monitor threatening rain showers near the Kennedy Space Center that could pose problems. While meteorologists remain hopeful the weather will cooperate, it appears flight director Wayne Hale could face a tough call deciding whether to clear the shuttle for an on-time re-entry. The astronauts have two landing opportunities Wednesday morning on successive orbits, at 3:56 a.m. and 5:33 a.m. 02:55 a.m., 09/20/00, Update: Shuttle begins descent to Earth Commander Terrence Wilcutt and pilot Scott Altman fired the shuttle Atlantis's twin breaking rockets for three minutes and 16 seconds today, slowing the ship by 233 mph to drop out of orbit for a one-hour 16-minute glide back to the Kennedy Space Center. Flying upside down and backward over the southern Indian Ocean, Wilcutt fired the shuttle's orbital maneuvering system rockets at 2:50:07 a.m. The "burn" went smoothly and Atlantis will fall back into the discernible atmosphere 400,000 feet above the southern Pacific Ocean around 3:25 a.m. At that point, the shuttle will be a half hour and 5,000 miles from touchdown. It is not yet clear which runway - 15 or 33 - Wilcutt will be directed to use. This status report will be updated as soon as possible after landing. 06:35 a.m., 09/20/00, Update: Shuttle Atlantis glides to smooth touchdown Editor's Note... The following story was written for Spaceflight Now and is posted here by permission. Plunging through a slightly hazy, moon-lit sky, the space shuttle Atlantis glided home today, closing out a trail-blazing flight to outfit the international space station for arrival of its first full-time crew in just six weeks. Falling into the glare of high-power spotlights, Atlantis settled to a tire-smoking touchdown on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:56:48 a.m. after a one-hour, 17-minute trip home from orbit. Moments later, commander Terrence Wilcutt brought the 110-ton spaceplane to a halt on the runway centerline, officially ending the 99th shuttle mission after a 12-day voyage spanning 4.9 milllion miles and 185 complete orbits since blastoff Sept. 8. "Houston, Atlantis, wheels stopped," Wilcutt said in a traditional call to mission control. "Atlantis, Houston, roger, wheels stopped," replied astronaut Gus Loria from Houston. "Welcome home, congratulations on an outstanding job. We are proud of you all, proud of this team." "Thank you. Good to be back." Unofficial mission duration was 11 days 19 hours 11 minutes and one second. Wilcutt, pilot Scott Altman, Edward Lu, Richard Mastracchio, Daniel Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Malenchenko and Boris Morukov plan to spend the day at the Kennedy Space Center before flying back to Houston early Thursday. "I'd just like to say thank you to the folks at KSC for preparing such a wonderful vehicle, Atlantis, which was absolutely superb," Wilcutt said after the crew's traditional runway walkaround. "We had a great time, we're all glad to be back and we can't wait to get back to our families." The astronauts accomplished all of the mission's primary objectives, delivering more than 2.5 tons of supplies and equipment to the international space station and unloading another half-ton of gear from a Russian cargo ship. During a six-hour 14-minute spacewalk on Sept. 11, Lu and Malenchenko electrically connected the new Russian Zvezda command module, which will provide the station's initial crew quarters, computer control and propulsion. The astronauts then spent six days outfitting and activating the new module, hooking up its toilet, assembling the station's primary oxygen generator and testing critical safety systems. They also installed exercise equipment, stocked the pantry with food and delivered office supplies, personal hygiene items and more than 800 pounds of fresh water. "To the general observer, it all just looked so easy," said veteran flight director Jeff Bantle. "The folks here on the ground and especially the crew, I thought they did an amazing job. They made everything look so easy." The station's first full-time crew - commander William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev - is scheduled to blast off Oct. 30 aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft. They will move into the station two days later for a planned four-month stay. From that point forward, the outpost will be permanently staffed by rotating crews. But first, NASA plans to launch the shuttle Discovery to the space station in just two weeks - on Oct. 5 - to deliver an 18,400-pound truss housing communications gear and four stabilizing gyroscopes. The so-called Z1 truss will be mounted atop the U.S. Unity module and serve as the foundation for a huge set of solar arrays scheduled for delivery in early December. Four back-to-back spacewalks will be required to electrically hook up the Z1 truss and to attach a pressurized docking port called a mating adaptor to Unity's Earth-facing hatch. It will be the most complex shuttle assembly mission to date. If all goes well, the U.S. laboratory module Destiny, the scientific heart of the space station, will be attached in late January during Atlantis's next mission as the pace of station assembly accelerates. "I think the entire team is real excited about these flights coming up and getting on with assembling the station," Bantle said. "From all accounts, it appears all the elements are ready. ... We're on schedule to go and everybody's real excited." As for Atlantis's just-completed mission, Bantle said the astronauts "moved us a significant step closer" to getting a full-time crew aboard the station. ===================================================================