STS-113 MISSION ARCHIVE (COMPLETE) Updated: 12/09/02 Space station assembly mission 11A (P1 truss) By William Harwood CBS News/Kennedy Space Center The following copy originally was posted on the Current Mission space page at http://cbsnews.com/network/news/space/current.html. Comments, suggestions and corrections welcome! TABLE OF CONTENTS Soyuz, shuttle set for launch to station (10/24/02) Engineers study hold-down post firing circuit (10/28/02) Soyuz taxi flight set for station docking (10/31/02) Soyuz docks with station (11/01/02) Countdown begins for Monday launch (11/08/02) Soyuz taxi crew lands; shuttle launch time revealed (11/09/02) Shuttle launch delayed by oxygen leak (11/10/02) Launch delayed at least a week (11/11/02) Oxygen leak repair leads to robot arm damage (11/12/02) Oxygen leak repaired (11/13/02) Fatigue believed to blame for oxygen leak (11/14/02) Shuttle, Delta 4 delayed (11/15/02) Robot arm options assessed (11/18/02) Endeavour cleared for flight; countdown restarted (11/20/02) Shuttle on track for launch; official launch time released (11/21/02) Launch scrubbed due to bad weather in Spain (11/22/02) Shuttle Endeavour rockets into orbit (mission preview) (11/23/02) Astronauts test equipment; Thomas 'hurt' by reassignment (11/24/02) Endeavour docks with space station; new crew takes over (11/25/02) P1 truss installed during first spacewalk (11/26/02) Crew moves equipment to station; handover activities (11/27/02) Thanksgiving Day spacewalk accomplishes all objectives (11/28/02) Change-of-command ceremony; crew news conference (11/29/02) Third EVA successful despite lack of robot arm (11/30/02) Astronauts enjoy time off; final station transfers (12/01/02) Endeavour undocks from space station; MBS plans (12/02/02) Astronauts pack for landing; CBS News interview (12/03/02) Cloudy weather blocks shuttle landing (12/04/02) More bad weather triggers second entry delay (12/05/02) Shuttle delayed a third time by weather (12/06/02) Endeavour finally returns to Earth (12/07/02) Shuttle crew says ISS-5 astronauts in good shape (12/08/02) =================================================================== Soyuz, shuttle set for launch to station (10/24/02) Engineers at the Kennedy Space Center are readying the shuttle Endeavour for launch Nov. 10 or 11 on a mission to deliver a fresh three-man crew and a 14.5-ton solar array truss segment to the international space station. Launch is tentatively targeted for between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m. Nov. 10, but the flight could slip a day to give the space station's crew - Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, Sergei Treschev and Peggy Whitson - a bit more time between the departure of a Soyuz taxi crew and the arrival of Endeavour. The three-man taxi crew is scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:11 p.m. EST on Oct. 29. Docking is targeted for around midnight Nov. 1. Commander Sergei Zalyotin, Yuri Lonchakov and Belgian flier Frank DeWinne are delivering a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to replace the one currently docked to the Zarya module's downward facing port. Soyuz spacecraft, which a station crew could use in an emergency to bail out and return to Earth, must be replaced every six months. The Soyuz "taxi" crew originally was scheduled for launch Oct. 27 (eastern time), but the flight was delayed following the explosion last week of an unmanned Soyuz booster. In addition, the planned reboost of the station by an unmanned Progress supply ship, needed to synchronize the lab's orbit for the Soyuz rendezvous, came up a bit short. That alone prevented an on-time launch for Zalyotin's crew barring an additional reboost session. Given the current launch date, the taxi crew will undock from the space station around 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 9 for a landing around 7 p.m. that evening. Assuming NASA sticks with Endeavour's Nov. 10 launch target, the shuttle's crew would head for the pad to strap in the already fueled orbiter within a few hours of the Soyuz landing. Again, assuming a Nov. 10 launch, shuttle commander James Wetherbee will guide Endeavour to a docking with the space station late in the evening of Nov. 11. The next day, the P1 solar array truss segment mounted in the shuttle's cargo bay will be picked up by Endeavour's robot arm and then handed off to the station's Canadarm2 space crane for installation on the left, or port, side of the central S0 truss. The station's solar array truss eventually will consist of 11 segments. The first segment, S0, was attached to the upper hull of the Destiny laboratory module in April. The first right-side, or starboard, segment - S1 - was installed earlier this month. The attachment of P1 on the port side will extend the backbone to three segments. S1 and P1 contain the station's primary ammonia cooling system, including pumps piping and six huge radiator panels, three per truss segment. Heat generated by the station's electrical systems will be transferred from internal water loops to external ammonia lines in heat exchangers and then routed outboard to the S1/P1 radiator panels. Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington plan to stage three spacewalks to connect electrical cables, data lines and ammonia fluid jumpers between P1 and S0. They also will install a second CETA cart, a sort of astronaut rail car that will help future spacewalkers move along the truss. The second primary goal of the 112th shuttle mission is to ferry the station's next full-time crew to the lab complex - Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit. Pettit was added to the crew this summer after the original ISS-6 science officer, Donald Thomas, was unexpectedly removed because of an undisclosed medical issue. The ISS-5 expedition was launched to the station June 5. Assuming Endeavour launches Nov. 10, Korzun, Treschev and Whitson will have logged 168 days in space when they land Nov. 21. Bowersox and his crew plan to remain aboard the station until mid to late March. A detailed mission preview will be posted here next week, after mission briefings and the traditional crew news conference Monday. In the meantime, a generic flight plan targeted for the opening of the shuttle's official launch window is posted below, along with links to astronaut bios, mission personnel and flight hardware assignments. =================================================================== Engineers study hold-down post firing circuit (10/28/02) NASA and contractor engineers are working "around the clock" to find out why one of two circuits used to detonate the massive bolts holding the shuttle Atlantis to the launch pad failed to fire earlier this month. While the healthy circuit operated normally and all eight of the "hold down" bolts anchoring the shuttle vehicle to the pad detonated as required, a failure in such a "crit-1" system is of some concern. As such, the issue must be resolved before the shuttle Endeavour can be cleared for launch Nov. 10 or 11 on the next space station assembly flight. NASA managers plan to meet Thursday for a traditional flight readiness review to assess Endeavour's ground processing and to set an official launch date. Liftoff from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center currently is targeted for between midnight and 4 a.m. Nov. 10. But NASA managers may opt to delay the flight a day to give the station crew a bit of a breather and more time to shift their sleep cycles between the departure of a Soyuz deliver crew on Nov. 9 and the arrival of Endeavour. The new Soyuz lifeboat is scheduled for launch to the station at 10:11 p.m. EST Tuesday. The three-man crew aboard the new Soyuz will return to Earth Nov. 9 aboard the Soyuz currently docked to the outpost. While the station crew can certainly use a break between the Soyuz visit and the arrival of Endeavour, NASA is unlikely to delay the shuttle's launch by more than one day. Lead flight director Paul Dye said today a variety of factors, including two unmanned rocket launches and the changing angle between the sun and the plane of the station's orbit, leave NASA little choice when all is said and done. "We always like to get up as soon as we can, as soon as we're ready," Dye said. "The (station) crew is doing a good job of getting ahead for the (shuttle) mission and there is a sleep shift, but it's in the right direction. We have four days, something like that, starting on the 10th." The maiden flight of an unmanned Boeing Delta 4 rocket is targeted for Nov. 16 and because all rockets launched from the East Coast use the same Air Force tracking equipment, Endeavour must wait its turn. For new rockets, the Eastern Range provides three days of launch opportunities. Complicating matters, NASA plans to launch a new TDRS communications satellite Nov. 21 atop an Atlas 2A rocket. One wild card in NASA's launch planning is the ongoing investigation into what went wrong with the booster hold-down post circuitry during Atlantis' launching Oct. 7. Two fully redundant circuits are in place to fire the explosive bolts holding the shuttle "stack" to the pad - four massive 25-inch long, seven-and-a-half-inch-wide bolts at the base of each booster. Either circuit can deliver the power necessary to detonate the small explosives that fracture the nuts and free the shuttle for flight. During Atlantis' launch, only one circuit fired, leaving the crew one failure away from a potentially catastrophic event. Engineers initially believed the problem involved a problem with circuitry in the shuttle's mobile launch platform. But those circuits checked out fine, as did the two master events controllers in Atlantis. "We've only had the vehicle back for a week or so to be looking at this," Dye said. "So far, and they're still doing a lot of testing, so far they really have not found the smoking gun, they haven't gone in and found a disconnected cable or two pins that didn't mate. So they're still looking at it. "As a precaution, they have already replaced a lot of wire harnesses and connectors and I think there's a lot of confidence that while we don't have the complete answer right now, they'll have an answer or build some confidence in the system via testing between now and flight. So right now, it's still an ongoing investigation, they're going to talk about it at the FRR (Thursday). The folks are working around the clock on it trying to come to a conclusion. So we'll know more when we know more." Whether NASA managers will set an official launch date Thursday or wait until more data is available on the hold-down post issue is not yet known. But it may not be possible to clearly identify what caused the Oct. 7 failure. =================================================================== Soyuz taxi crew rockets into space (10/29/02) 11:30 a.m., 10/29/02, Update: Soyuz taxi crew set for launch Two Russian cosmonauts and a Belgian astronaut are preparing for launch tonight on a flight to deliver a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to the international space station. Liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan is targeted for 10:11:11 p.m. EST. If all goes well, commander Sergei Zalyotin will guide the Soyuz TMA spacecraft to a linkup with the station's Pirs docking module around 12 a.m. EST Nov. 1. This evening's launching carries a bit more drama than usual because of the catastrophic failure of a similar unmanned Soyuz booster two weeks ago, presumably due to contamination in its propellant system. Russian space officials cleared the manned Soyuz-FG booster for launch after implementing additional tests and inspections. The Soyuz serves as the space station's lifeboat, providing the lab's three-person crews with a way to bail out in the event of an emergency. The lifeboats are certified for about six months in space and the one currently docked to the station's Zarya module is nearing the end of its 200-day lifetime. The spacecraft set for launch this evening is the first "TMA" model, featuring larger seats and other changes needed to accommodate taller crew members, expanding the pool of astronauts and cosmonauts who can make long-duration flights aboard the space station. The Soyuz TMA can now be used by 95 percent of NASA's astronaut corps, agency officials say. Here is a bit of background from spacecraft-builder Energia: ---------- The Soyuz TMA manned transport spacecraft is a modification of Soyuz TM spacecraft distinguished for a high reliability and safety of flight for the crew which is proven by all the launches of the spacecraft implemented in the period of years 1986 -2002 for the purposes of servicing orbital stations. The basic modifications of the Soyuz TM spacecraft are connected with implementation of requirements for enlargement of crew anthropometric parameter range up to the values acceptable for the American astronaut contingent, and with increase of crew protection level from shock loads by decreasing landing speeds and improving shock-absorption of its chairs. To denote the modification of this spacecraft in design and general technical documentation, the name "Soyuz TMA" (anthropometric) was adopted. For implementation of the above requirements on the baseline Soyuz TM spacecraft the following basic modifications in layout, design and onboard systems of the descent module (DM) were made without increase of its dimensions: Three newly developed long Kazbek-UM amortization chairs with new four-mode dampers that provide chair adjustment, depending on the astronaut mass. A re-arrangement of equipment was made in the areas above and below DM chairs which allows one to accommodate longer chairs and astronauts with increased anthropometry and to enlarge the passage area through the access hatch. In particular, a new control panel decreased in height, a new cooling-drying assembly, data storage system and other new or modified systems are installed. On the DM primary structure in the area of right and left chair footrests the cavities were stamped about 30 mm deep that allowed big cosmonauts and their long chairs to be accommodated. Correspondingly, the primary structure and the routing of pipes and cables were changed. A minimum of modification was made to elements of DM primary structure, instrument frame and brackets. The crew cabin was "cleared" as far as possible from projecting elements - one moved them to more convenient places, remade a valves unit of the spacesuit oxygen supply system. Two (of 6 single-mode) soft landing engines (SLE) were replaced with two new three-mode engines (SLE-M) For reduction of measurement errors the Kaktus-1V gamma-altimeter was replaced with a new Kaktus-2V instrument. ---------- Zalyotin, flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov and Frank DeWinne, representing the European Space Agency, plan to remain aboard the space station until Nov. 9, returning to Earth aboard the old Soyuz. For the station's current crew - Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson - the taxi crew's departure will kick off a busy few days of work and sleep shifting to prepare for arrival of the shuttle Endeavour, carrying a replacement crew and a 14.5-ton solar array truss segment. Endeavour currently is targeted for launch between midnight and 4 a.m. on Nov. 10. But the flight could slip a day to give Korzun's crew a bit more time to prepare. An official launch date is expected following a flight readiness review Thursday. Depending on the actual launch date, Endeavour will return to Earth Nov. 20 or 21, bringing Korzun and his crewmates home after nearly 170 days in space. But first, the Soyuz taxi crew must deliver the station's new lifeboat. Here is a timeline of major events, from launch through hatch opening (all times in EST and mission elapsed time): 10/29/02 10:11 PM...00...00...00...Launch of Soyuz S5 10/30/02 01:46 AM...00...03...35...DV1 rendezvous rocket firing 02:27 AM...00...04...16...DV2 rendezvous rocket firing 11:30 PM...01...01...19...DV3 rendezvous rocket firing 10/31/02 08:59 PM...01...22...48...Automatic rendezvous sequence start 09:17 PM...01...23...06...ISS maneuvers to docking orientation 09:22 PM...01...23...11...DV4 impulse 1 rendezvous rocket firing 09:32 PM...01...23...21...P6 solar arrays feathered 09:41 PM...01...23...30...Sunset 09:44 PM...01...23...33...Impulse 2 rocket firing 09:45 PM...01...23...34...Soyuz KURS-A activation 09:47 PM...01...23...36...Soyuz KURS-P activation 09:47 PM...01...23...36...Zvezda KURS-P activation 10:06 PM...01...23...55...Impulse 3 rocket firing 10:12 PM...02...00...01...Sunrise 10:26 PM...02...00...15...KU-band comm window opens 10:39 PM...02...00...28...Russian ground station loss of signal 10:39 PM...02...00...28...Range: 8 kilometers 10:39 PM...02...00...28...Ship-to-ship communications established 10:40 PM...02...00...29...Russian video routing checkout 10:40 PM...02...00...29...ISS crew monitors Soyuz approach 10:40 PM...02...00...29...KU-band handoff 10:42 PM...02...00...31...Noon 10:45 PM...02...00...34...KU-band comm window closes 10:47 PM...02...00...36...KU-band comm window opens 10:47 PM...02...00...36...Impulse 4 rocket firing 10:49 PM...02...00...38...Rendezvous targeting point 10:54 PM...02...00...43...Impulse 5 rocket firing 10:56 PM...02...00...45...Impulse 6 rocket firing 10:58 PM...02...00...47...Begin flyaround mode 11:07 PM...02...00...56...Begin stationkeeping 11:13 PM...02...01...02...Sunset 11:44 PM...02...01...33...Sunrise 11:46 PM...02...01...35...KU-band comm window closes 11:49 PM...02...01...38...Russian ground station acquisition of signal 11:51 PM...02...01...40...Begin final approach 11/01/02 12:00 AM...02...01...49...DOCKING 12:00 AM...02...01...49...ISS to free drift 12:09 AM...02...01...58...KU-band comm window opens 12:12 AM...02...02...01...Russian ground station loss of signal 12:15 AM...02...02...04...Noon 12:20 AM...02...02...09...Soyuz and Pirs hooks closed 12:20 AM...02...02...09...ISS maneuvers to XPOP orientation 12:20 AM...02...02...09...Russian segment solar arrays resume tracking 12:20 AM...02...02...09...P6 solar arrays return to autotrack mode 12:20 AM...02...02...09...ISS/Soyuz crews begin leak checks 12:46 AM...02...02...35...Sunset 12:46 AM...02...02...35...KU-band comm window closes 12:54 AM...02...02...43...KU-band comm window opens 12:55 AM...02...02...44...Transition to standard ops 12:55 AM...02...02...44...KU-band comm window closes 01:05 AM...02...02...54...ISS crew opens Pirs/Soyuz hatches 01:20 AM...02...03...09...U.S. segment resumes ISS attitude control 10:35 p.m., 10/29/02, Update: Soyuz rockets into orbit A new Soyuz lifeboat for the international space station was successfully launched tonight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan. Carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a Belgian astronaut representing the European Space Agency, the Soyuz TMA spacecraft blasted off on time at 10:11 p.m. EST, rocketing away through heavy fog and quickly disappearing from view. Live television from inside the spacecraft, available in the United States through an ESA webcast, showed the cosmonauts calmly following their checklists as the Soyuz vehicle accelerated into space. There were no apparent technical problems and the ship slipped into orbit eight minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff. Moments later, the spacecraft's two solar panels and antennas deployed as planned. If all goes well, commander Sergei Zalyotin, flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov and Belgian Frank DeWinne will dock with the international space station at midnight Thursday (12:00 a.m. EST Nov. 1). See the 11 a.m. status report below for a detailed rendezvous timeline and additional details. =================================================================== Soyuz taxi flight set for station docking (10/31/02) The three-man crew of a Russian Soyuz TMA spacecraft is closing in on the international space station, on track for a docking with the lab complex at midnight EST. There are no technical problems with the spacecraft and all systems are "go" for docking. NASA television coverage is scheduled to begin at 11 p.m. EST. In the meantime, here is an updated timeline of this evening's docking activities (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 10/31/02 09:00 PM...01...22...49...Automatic rendezvous sequence start 09:09 PM...01...22...58...ISS maneuvers to docking orientation 09:22 PM...01...23...11...DV4 impulse 1 rendezvous rocket firing 09:32 PM...01...23...21...P6 solar arrays feathered 09:41 PM...01...23...30...Sunset 09:44 PM...01...23...33...Impulse 2 rocket firing 09:47 PM...01...23...36...Soyuz KURS-A activation 09:49 PM...01...23...38...Zvezda KURS-P activation 10:06 PM...01...23...55...Impluse 3 rocket firing 10:12 PM...02...00...01...Sunrise 10:26 PM...02...00...15...KU-band comm window opens 10:39 PM...02...00...28...Russian ground station loss of signal 10:39 PM...02...00...28...Range: 8 kilometers 10:39 PM...02...00...28...Ship-to-ship communications established 10:40 PM...02...00...29...Russian video routing checkout 10:40 PM...02...00...29...ISS crew monitors Soyuz approach 10:40 PM...02...00...29...KU-band handoff 10:42 PM...02...00...31...Noon 10:45 PM...02...00...34...KU-band comm window closes 10:47 PM...02...00...36...KU-band comm window opens 10:47 PM...02...00...36...Impulse 4 rocket firing 10:49 PM...02...00...38...Rendezvous targeting point 10:54 PM...02...00...43...Impulse 5 rocket firing 10:56 PM...02...00...45...Impulse 6 rocket firing 10:58 PM...02...00...47...Begin flyaround mode 11:07 PM...02...00...56...Begin stationkeeping 11:13 PM...02...01...02...Sunset 11:44 PM...02...01...33...Sunrise 11:46 PM...02...01...35...KU-band comm window closes 11:49 PM...02...01...38...Russian ground station acquisition of signal 11:51 PM...02...01...40...Begin final approach 11/01/02 12:00 AM...02...01...49...DOCKING 12:00 AM...02...01...49...ISS to free drift 12:09 AM...02...01...58...KU-band comm window opens 12:12 AM...02...02...01...Russian ground station loss of signal 12:15 AM...02...02...04...Noon 12:20 AM...02...02...09...Soyuz and Pirs hooks closed 12:20 AM...02...02...09...ISS maneuvers to XPOP orientation 12:20 AM...02...02...09...Russian segment solar arrays resume tracking 12:20 AM...02...02...09...P6 solar arrays return to autotrack mode 12:46 AM...02...02...35...Sunset 12:46 AM...02...02...35...KU-band comm window closes 12:54 AM...02...02...43...KU-band comm window opens 12:55 AM...02...02...44...KU-band comm window closes 01:00 AM...02...02...49...Transition to standard ops 01:05 AM...02...02...54...ISS crew opens Pirs/Soyuz hatches 01:17 AM...02...03...06...Sunrise 01:47 AM...02...03...36...Noon 02:18 AM...02...04...07...Sunset 02:50 AM...02...04...39...Sunrise 03:00 AM...02...04...49...U.S. segment resumes attitude control =================================================================== Soyuz docks with station (11/01/02) With smooth precision, a new Soyuz spacecraft docked with the international space station at 12:01 a.m. EST, giving the lab's full-time crew a fresh lifeboat to replace an aging spacecraft nearing the end of its certified 200-day orbital lifetime. "We have arrived!" one of the three Soyuz crew members radioed. The replacement lifeboat, the first of a new breed of upgraded Soyuz TMA spacecraft, was delivered by Soyuz commander Sergei Zalyotin, flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov and Belgian Frank DeWinne, a European Space Agency astronaut. The new TMA lifeboat features a variety of upgrades, including larger seats to accommodate taller U.S. astronauts. "Sergei, congratulations on your arrival," Russian ground control called. "Thank you," Zalyotin replied. Zalyotin guided the Soyuz TMA to a picture-perfect automated linkup with the Pirs docking compartment, an airlock module attached to a downward facing port on the station's Zvezda command module. Zalyotin, Lonchakov and DeWinne plan to spend eight days aboard the international space station before strapping into the lab's older Soyuz TM spacecraft, currently docked to the downward facing port of the Russian Zarya module, and returning to Earth for a landing around 7 p.m. EST Nov. 9. NASA had planned to launch the shuttle Endeavour to the station later that same night - in the early morning hours of Nov. 10 - setting up a docking the night of Nov. 11. But senior agency managers decided Thursday to delay the launching one day to give station commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson more time to prepare and to adjust their sleep cycles between the departure of the Soyuz taxi crew and the arrival of Endeavour. "Endeavour's flight will complete a year for the shuttle program that has included a complex overhaul of the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as four flights to add over 45 tons of components to the international space station," said shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore. "The shuttle team's achievements are remarkable and they have done a great job getting Endeavour ready to go." Endeavour's exact launch time will not be revealed until the day before liftoff. But NASA managers say liftoff will occur between midnight and 4 a.m. on Nov. 11. An updated flight plan, based on the new launch date and window, will be posted later today. The goal of the 112th shuttle flight is to deliver a third solar array truss segment to the station and a fresh three-man crew to replace the lab's current occupants. Korzun, Treschev and Whitson, the station's fifth full-time crew since permanent occupation began two years ago this Saturday, were launched to the outpost June 5. When they land aboard Endeavour on Nov. 21, they will have logged 169 days in space. Their replacements - Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit - plan to remain aboard the station for at least four months before returning to Earth around March 13. As mentioned above, Saturday marks the second anniversary of the permanent occupation of the international space station. The first full-time crew, launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, docked with the station Nov. 2, 2000. The outpost has been manned ever since, by five three-person crews. "In the past 12 months, 33 people have visited or lived aboard the orbiting complex," NASA said in a press release Thursday. "A total of 112 visitors have been aboard the station since it was launched, including men and women from six nations. The first crew members docked with the station to begin its permanent occupancy on November 2, 2000. Five three-person crews have lived aboard for durations ranging from four to more than six months. In its second year of occupancy, astronauts and cosmonauts have conducted 16 spacewalks for maintenance and assembly of the station." Over the past two years, the station has grown by more than 200,000 pounds and its internal volume has increased "from that of an efficiency apartment to a three-bedroom house," NASA said in the press release. This year, station assembly has focused on construction of a huge solar array truss that eventually will stretch longer than a football field, carrying more than an acre of solar panels. Two of the 11 segments needed to complete the truss are in place and Endeavour's crew - commander James Wetherbee, pilot Paul Lockhart and spacewalkers Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington - will deliver the third. That will increase the beam's length to 133 feet and complete the station's primary cooling system. =================================================================== Countdown begins for Monday launch (11/08/02) The shuttle Endeavour's countdown began early today for blastoff Monday, between midnight and 4 a.m., on a year-ending flight to the international space station. There are no technical problems at pad 39A and forecasters are predicting an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather. The goal of the 112th shuttle mission is to install the third segment of the station's massive solar array/cooling truss, to deliver the lab's sixth full-time crew and to bring the current Expedition 5 crew back to Earth after 169 days in space. The Endeavour astronauts - commander James Wetherbee, pilot Paul Lockhart, Michael Lopez-Alegria, John Herrington and the station's next full-time crew, Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit - flew to the Kennedy Space Center Thursday evening. Under NASA's post Sept. 11 security policy, the astronauts' arrival was not announced in advance and the shuttle's exact launch time will not be revealed until 7 p.m. Saturday. The forecast calls for an 80 percent chance of good weather during Endeavour's actual five-minute launch window Monday, but the odds drop to 70 percent "go" Tuesday and 40 percent go Wednesday. NASA test director Steven Altemus said today Endeavour has four days to get off the ground before standing down for the debut launch of a Boeing Delta 4 rocket from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. That launch is targeted for the afternoon of Nov. 16. But Air Force tracking systems used to support all East Coast rocket launches will be reconfigured for Delta 4 operations Friday, giving Endeavour's crew until Thursday night to get off the ground. Assuming an on-time launch Monday, Wetherbee will guide Endeavour to a docking with the international space station Tuesday night. Three spacewalks by Lopez-Alegria and Herrington are planned for next Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights to install and activate the new P1 truss segment. Undocking is planned for the night of Tuesday, Nov. 19, with landing on tap the evening of Thursday, Nov. 21. Joining Wetherbee, Lockhart, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington for the trip back to Earth will be Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson. They were launched to the station June 5. This weekend marks a particularly busy few days for space station operations. The Expedition 6 crew currently is hosting two cosmonauts and a Belgian astronaut, who delivered a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to the lab complex Nov. 1. Soyuz commander Sergei Zalyotin, Yuri Lonchakov and Frank DeWinne, strapped into the station's older Soyuz, are scheduled to undock Saturday at 3:41 p.m. for a landing at 7:05 p.m. Undocking activities will be carried live on NASA television. A detailed shuttle mission preview will be posted here later this weekend. The NASA television schedule will be posted, along with a detailed chart of remaining countdown milestones, as soon as the launch time is announced Saturday evening. =================================================================== Soyuz taxi crew lands; shuttle cleared for launch 11:00 a.m., 11/09/02, Update: Soyuz crew prepares for landing; shuttle countdown on track With the shuttle Endeavour's countdown ticking smoothly toward launch Monday on a flight to the international space station, two cosmonauts and a Belgian astronaut are gearing up to undock from the lab complex this afternoon after eight days aboard the outpost. Commander Sergei Zalyotin, Yuri Lonchakov and European Space Agency astronaut Frank DeWinne delivered a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to the space station Nov. 1. DeWinne then put in a busy week of research in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module before packing up for today's departure. Soyuz spacecraft serving as the station's lifeboat must be replaced every six months. Zalyotin's crew will leave the new Soyuz behind and return to Earth in the lab's older lifeboat, which is nearing the end of its certified lifetime. Zalyotin and his crewmates plan to undock at 3:41 p.m. today for a landing in centra Asia at 7:05 p.m. EST. Undocking activities will be carried live on NASA television beginning at 3 p.m. In the meantime, here is a timeline of today's activity (in EST): TIME.........EVENT 11:50 a.m....Russian segment assumes attitude control of station 11:55 a.m....Station maneuvers to duty attitude 12:04 p.m....Sunset 12:20 p.m....Soyuz hatch closed 12:40 p.m....Soyuz interface leak checks 12:40 p.m....Sunrise 01:08 p.m....Noon 01:13 p.m....Mode validity check inhibit 01:37 p.m....Sunset 02:12 p.m....ISS maneuvers to duty attitude 02:12 p.m....Sunrise 02:13 p.m....Transition to proximity operations mode 02:41 p.m....Noon 03:01 p.m....ISS maneuvers to undocking attitude 03:09 p.m....Sunset 03:31 p.m....Mode validity check inhibit 03:36 p.m....Russian ground station acquisition of signal 03:40 p.m....ISS to "free drift" mode 03:41 p.m....UNDOCKING 03:45 p.m....Sunrise 03:47 p.m....ISS maneuvers to duty attitude 03:47 p.m....Soyuz separation rocket firing 03:55 p.m....Russian ground station loss of signal 04:13 p.m....Noon 04:31 p.m....ISS transitions to standard operating mode 04:41 p.m....Sunset 04:50 p.m....U.S. segment resumes station attitude control 06:10 p.m....Soyuz deorbit burn begins 06:14 p.m....Deorbit burn complete 06:40 p.m....Russian ground station acquisition of signal 06:41 p.m....The Soyuz hits the discernible atmosphere 06:50 p.m....Command to open parachute issued 06:50 p.m....Sunrise 07:05 p.m....Soyuz landing With the departure of the Soyuz taxi crew, the station's crew - Expedition 6 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson - will focus on preparing the station for Endeavour's arrival Tuesday night and adjusting their sleep cycles to synch up with the shuttle crew's. At the Kennedy Space Center today, NASA test director Pete Nickolenko said Endeavour's countdown is proceeding without any problems, on track for a launch between midnight and 4 a.m. Monday. The exact launch time will be released at 7 p.m. this evening, along with the NASA television schedule. Both will be posted here as soon as they are available. "All our hardware, flight and ground systems are in great shape, we're tracking no technical issues, our teams are ready and we're all looking forward to a successful launch and mission," Nickolenko said. Forecasters continue to predict an 80 percent chance of good weather during Endeavour's actual five-minute launch window Monday, with light winds, scattered clouds and only a slight chance of isolated rain showers. The forecast drops to 70 percent "go" Tuesday and just 40 percent go on Wednesday as a frontal boundary pushes through central Florida. 03:50 p.m., 11/09/02, Update: Soyuz undocks from space station A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a Belgian astronaut undocked from the international space station today at 3:44 p.m. EST to close out eight days of joint activity. A black-and-white television camera mounted on the Soyuz showed the space station slowly receding against the black backdrop of space as the three-man capsule pulled away. If all goes well, Soyuz commander Sergei Zalyotin will fire the spacecraft's braking rockets at 6:10 p.m. for a landing in centra Asia at 7:05 p.m. EST. Zalyotin, flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov and European Space Agency astronaut Frank DeWinne docked with the station Nov. 1, delivering a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to the lab complex. They departed today in the station's old Soyuz, which is nearing the end of its six-month orbital lifetime. 07:05 p.m., 11/09/02, Update: Official launch time announced NASA announced the shuttle Endeavour's official launch time this evening, saying the shuttle is scheduled to blast off at 12:58:40 a.m. Monday. The 10-minute launch window actually opens five minutes earlier, at 12:53:39 a.m., and closes at 01:03:39 a.m. But if possible, NASA will launch Endeavour in the middle of the window, at the moment Earth's rotation carries pad 39A into the plane of the international space station's orbit. The NASA television schedule is posted below, along with an updated flight plan reflecting the official launch time and other recent changes. Here is the remainder of the shuttle's countdown to launch: TIME.........EVENT Saturday, November 9, 2002 08:00 p.m....Countdown enters a 13-hour 3-minute hold at T-11 hours 11:23 p.m....Communication systems activation begins Sunday, November 10, 2002 05:00 a.m....Launch pad gantry retraction 09:03 a.m....Countdown resumes at the T-minus 11-hour mark 02:03 p.m....Countdown enters a 2-hour hold at T-minus six hours 02:03 p.m....Mission Management Team meets to clear Endeavour for launch 04:03 p.m....Countdown resumes 04:03 p.m....Shuttle fueling begins 07:03 p.m....Fueling complete 07:03 p.m....Countdown enters a 2-hour hold at T-minus three hours 09:03 p.m....Countdown resumes at the T-minus three-hour mark 09:30 p.m....NASA TV coverage begins; replays of astronaut activities 10:53 p.m....EndeavourÍs hatch is closed and latched for launch 11:43 p.m....Countdown enters a 10-minute hold at T-minus 20 minutes 11:53 p.m....Countdown resumes 12:04 a.m....Countdown enters a 46-minute hold at T-minus nine minutes 12:50 a.m....Countdown resumes 12:54 a.m....Hudraulic power system start 12:59 a.m....Launch =================================================================== Shuttle launch delayed by oxygen leak (11/10/02) 03:00 p.m., 11/10/02, Update: Shuttle set for fueling The space shuttle Endeavour is being prepared for fueling this afternoon, setting the stage for an overnight launch to the international space station. A protective gantry was rolled away from the spacecraft just before dawn and if all goes well, engineers will begin pumping a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel into Endeavour's external tank beginning around 4 p.m. NASA television coverage is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. for a launch attempt at 12:58:40 a.m. Monday. The launch window closes at 1:03:39 a.m. The goal of the 112th shuttle mission is to carry a fresh three-man crew to the space station and to install a 14.5-ton solar array truss segment that is virtually identical to a segment installed during a mission last month. Endeavour also will bring the station's current crew back to Earth after 169 days in space. Landing is targeted for 8:17 p.m. on Nov. 21. There are no technical problems at pad 39A and forecasters continue to predict good weather for this evening's launch with only a slight chance of isolated showers that could cause problems. Here is the remainder of Endeavour's countdown: TIME.........EVENT 04:03 p.m....Countdown resumes 04:03 p.m....Shuttle fueling begins 07:03 p.m....Fueling complete 07:03 p.m....Countdown enters a 2-hour hold at T-minus three hours 09:03 p.m....Countdown resumes at the T-minus three-hour mark 09:30 p.m....NASA TV coverage begins; replays of astronaut activities 10:53 p.m....Endeavour?s hatch is closed and latched for launch 11:43 p.m....Countdown enters a 10-minute hold at T-minus 20 minutes 11:53 p.m....Countdown resumes 12:04 a.m....Countdown enters a 46-minute hold at T-minus nine minutes 12:50 a.m....Countdown resumes 12:54 a.m....Hudraulic power system start 12:59 a.m....Launch 04:35 p.m., 11/10/02, Update: Shuttle fueling begins With forecasters now predicting a 90 percent chance of good weather, engineers began pumping liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket fuel into the shuttle Endeavour's external tank at 4:32 p.m. to set the stage for launch. There are no technical problems with the orbiter or its payload and liftoff from pad 39A remains on track for 12:58:40 a.m. 09:35 p.m., 11/10/02, Update: Shuttle fueled; astronauts strap in for launch Under a clear fall sky, the shuttle Endeavour's seven-man crew arrived at launch pad 39A around 9:30 p.m. to begin strapping in for a launch attempt at 12:58:40 a.m. The weather appears ideal, but engineers are working an issue with the system that feeds oxygen into the astronauts' helmets during ascent and entry. One of the two systems used for this purpose has an apparent leak, amounting to about one pound per hour. Engineers are assessing the issue, attempting to isolate where the leak is located and to determine whether it could get any worse because of launch vibrations. The astronauts likely will be asked to close their visors for a test before hatch closing. This is a potential show stopper, sources say, but at this point it's too soon to say how it might play out. Otherwise, there are no technical issues of any significance. The shuttle's external tank is loaded with a half-million gallons of rocket fuel earlier this evening and all other systems are "go" for launch. Aboard the international space station, meanwhile, Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson are busy this evening repairing the Elektron oxygen generator in the Zvezda command module. They hope to have the work finished before bedtime and to see a videotape replay of Endeavour's launching. The station will be over the south Pacific Ocean at the time of liftoff. 09:50 p.m., 11/10/02, Update: Launch scrubbed by oxygen problem Launch of the shuttle Endeavour on a mission to the international space station has been scrubbed because of problems with an oxygen system in the orbiter's midbody. It is not yet clear what might be required to correct the problem or when another attempt can be made to launch Endeavour on the 112th shuttle mission. The launch team has been told to reconfigure systems for a 24-hour delay, but NASA spokesman George Diller described that as a mere "placeholder" and launch could be delayed even longer. The issue involves a leak in one of the two systems that feed oxygen to the crew's pressure suits during ascent and entry. Engineers are concerned the leak could get worse due to launch vibrations and possibly cause the crew to run out of oxygen in certain contingency operations, such as a return-to-launch site or trans-Atlantic aborts. If the leak is actually in the midbody of the shuttle, repairs could be lengthy. Whether that sort of work could even be done at the launch pad or not is not yet known. At the same time, it's possible engineers can isolate the leak and figure out a way to launch Endeavour without any extensive repairs. "I'd like to welcome you aboard, WX, but tonight's not our night," NASA test director Steven Altemus radioed commander James "WX" Wetherbee. "The MMT has declared a scrub for a potential leak in the O2 system. We're going to continue to troubleshoot that tonight and try to understand where we're at with that before we declear the length of the scrub necessary here. I know you guys are going to be disappointed but I think we want to give you a healthy vehicle before we cut you loose from the Cape here." "Absolutely, you guys are doing great. Thank you," Wetherbee replied from the cockpit. The forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of good weather Tuesday but only a 40 percent chance of acceptable conditions Wednesday due to passage of a frontal system. =================================================================== Launch delayed at least a week (11/11/02) 12:45 a.m., 11/11/02, Update: Shuttle launch off until at least Nov. 18 Launch of the shuttle Endeavour on a space station assembly mission is off at least a week - and possibly longer - because of troubleshooting to fix a leak in one of two systems that feed oxygen to the ship's crew cabin. But a seven-day delay to the evening of Monday, Nov. 18, is a best-case scenario and launch could slip even more depending on what is actually needed to fix the problem. NASA had hoped to launch Endeavour at 12:59 a.m. today on a flight to ferry a fresh three-man crew to the space station and to deliver a 14.5-ton solar array truss segment. But Sunday afternoon, when valves were opened to begin allowing oxygen to flow into the shuttle's crew cabin from tanks mounted below the ship's cargo bay, engineers noticed higher-than-expected concentrations of gaseous oxygen in the midbody area. Additional testing showed a one-pound-per-hour leak of oxygen in supply system No. 2. The leak is believed to be in an area just below the orbiter-station docking system in the forward part of the shuttle's cargo bay. In any case, mission managers decided to scrub the launch shortly after 9:30 p.m. Sunday, just as Endeavour's crew was beginning to strap in. "I'd like to welcome you aboard, but tonight's not our night," NASA test director Steven Altemus radioed commander James Wetherbee. "The MMT has declared a scrub for a potential leak in the O2 system. We're going to continue to troubleshoot that tonight and try to understand where we're at with that before we declare the length of the scrub necessary here. I know you guys are going to be disappointed, but I think we want to give you a healthy vehicle before we cut you loose from the Cape here." "Absolutely, you guys are doing great. Thank you," Wetherbee replied from the cockpit. Engineers, meanwhile, met to discuss possible repair options and told mission managers that if all goes well, Endeavour could be ready for another launch attempt next Monday night, between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. "It sure is disappointing to come and talk with you tonight and tell you we're not in a position to launch," shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore told reporters at an 11:30 p.m. news conference. "And it sure was a good evening to go have a launch and a good start to a fantastic space mission that we all anticipate." The leak showed up as soon as valves were opened in the shuttle's midbody. Those valves and associated plumbing are below the floor of the payload bay just forward of the aft end of the orbiter docking system. Engineers believe they can gain access to the area in a small gap between the forward end of the shuttle's payload, a 45-foot-long solar array truss segment, and the aft end of the docking system. Shuttle launch director Michael Leinbach said engineers hope to gain access to the area Wednesday, after the shuttle's external tank is drained, after the ship's internal tanks of hydrogen and oxygen are emptied and after payload bay liner blankets are removed. Five shifts of work - about two days - have been allocated to find and fix the leak, pressurizing the system with helium to pinpoint the problem area. "It could be as simple as a seal on the flex lines, or it could be a dynatube fitting on another portion of the line, either one of which is accessible with the plan we have to get underneath the payload bay liner to get to these lines. So once we get access, the repair itself will probably be fairly simple. It's the problem of getting detanked, getting access and then getting back into launch countdown that takes us all the way out to next Monday. The repair itself will probably go very quick." Said Dittemore: "With the size of this leak, it should be pretty easy to spot." If all of that goes well - and that's still a fairly big if regardless of Dittemore's current optimism - Endeavour could be ready for launch by Nov. 18. But that assumes the leak is where engineers currently suspect and that repairs are relatively straight forward. "The primary reason for us delaying today was the fact that we had done a pressure integrity check on this line already in the OPF (orbiter processing facility)," Dittemore said. "And both lines had passed successfully. The last time we flew this vehicle, they worked fine, there were no leaks. And we had done no work in these areas that would cause us to have any suspicions of an area that might have had some re-work. So it's like this leak just appeared out of the blue. "For that alone, and knowing we still have the shake, rattle and roll to go through to get to orbit, caused us to pause and want to understand it better. Granted, these are redundant systems, we could probably support this leak and not have any issue either for ascent or for landing. (But) it's the unknown, why this happened after it passed its checks, did we have some collateral damage, is it trying to tell us something, is it really worse than the data are indicating? We just couldn't go and launch in the blind." And so the launching was delayed. Endeavour's seven-man crew will remain in medical quarantine, but the astronauts will fly back to Houston to await word on when they'll get a second launch attempt. The crew of the international space station, when informed of the launch delay, offered a noncommital "copy that" in response. If anything, a one-week launch delay will give the crew more time to prepare for the shuttle's arrival and to adjust their sleep cycles to synch up with Endeavour's crew. One wild card in all of this is Boeing's new heavy lift Delta 4 rocket, scheduled to blast off Saturday on the program's maiden flight. All rockets launched from the East Coast, including the space shuttle, use radar tracking systems provided by the Air Force Eastern Range. Rockets making their first flights typically get three days of range support in case of technical glitches or bad weather. Depending on how the Delta 4 campaign actually plays out, Endeavour's flight could slip beyond next Monday regardless of the oxygen line repair work. Assuming a launch next Monday, however, Endeavour would land the day after Thanksgiving. Asked if ground crews might have to sacrifice holiday time off, Dittemore joked "no, I would expect they will be well fed for landing." =================================================================== Oxygen leak repair leads to possible RMS damage (11/12/02) 08:30 p.m., 11/12/02, Update: Oxygen leak repair work leads to possible robot arm damage Workers installing an access platform in the shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay for work to repair an oxygen leak inadvertently hit the ship's 50-foot-long robot arm today, tearing the fragile space crane's protective thermal insulation. Whether any other, possibly more serious, damage occurred is not yet known. The issue will be discussed at a management review Wednesday. Endeavour's countdown to an early Monday launch was called off Sunday night when engineers discovered one of two systems that feed oxygen into the shuttle's crew cabin was leaking. The leak is believed to be in the shuttle's midbody, just below the floor of the ship's cargo bay, forward of the aft end of the shuttle's space station docking module. The docking module is mounted in the front of the payload bay. Just behind it - or below it, when the shuttle is vertical at the launch pad - is the primary payload for mission STS-113, the 45-foot-long, 14.5-ton P1 solar array truss segment bound for the international space station. To gain access to the area where the oxygen leak is believed to be, engineers opened Endeavour's cargo bay doors and worked today to install a cargo access platform, or CAP, between the aft end of the docking module and the forward face of P1. Standing on this platform, workers can remove payload bay floor blankets to gain access the suspect oxygen line plumbing. As the platform was being maneuvered into place today, it came in contact with the shuttle's 50-foot-long robot arm, just above its shoulder joint. The arm's protective insulation was torn, but no other signs of obvious damage are apparent. "We did, in trying to get access to look at the (oxygen) line there, the platform did make contact with a very small area of some of the thermal blankets on robot arm," said NASA spokeswoman Lisa Malone. "We don't know if it's strictly cosmetic or anything beyond that." The Canadian-built robot arm is crucial for Endeavour's mission. To install the P1 truss on the station, the shuttle arm must pull the segment from the cargo bay and then hand it off to the station's Canadarm2 space crane. There may be nothing wrong with the shuttle arm other than the torn insulation, which can be fixed relatively easily. If so, and if engineers can repair the oxygen leak in short order, Endeavour could be ready for launch by Monday evening. While engineers are confident about fixing the oxygen leak, the arm incident is a wild card. NASA managers will discuss the status of the oxygen line repair work and what, if anything, might need to be done about the robot arm at a meeting Wednesday. But there is little actual work that can be done on the fragile arm, which cannot support its own weight in Earth's gravity, in the vertical orientation. =================================================================== Oxygen leak repaired (11/13/02) 09:45 a.m., 11/13/02, Update: Engineers find suspected oxygen leak Engineers working in the shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay at launch pad 39A have found what they believe is the oxygen leak that grounded the ship earlier this week. The leak, which one official said was audible, is believed to be in a flex hose assembly near a dynatube fitting at the forward bulkhead of the shuttle's cargo bay. There are no visible signs of damage, but engineers are preparing for work to remove and replace the suspect section of tubing. Engineers are still assessing what to do, if anything, about a gaseous nitrogen line that is structurally connected to the suspect oxygen line. Replacing the GN2 line would require additional work just to gain access and no decision has been made yet about how to proceed in that regard. Likewise, engineers are still assessing possible damage to Endeavour's robot arm. A cargo access platform extended into the payload bay Tuesday for the oxygen line work inadvertently hit the fragile crane, ripping its protective thermal insulation just about its shoulder joint. It's not yet known if the arm suffered any more serious damage. The 50-foot-long robot arm is crucial to Endeavour's mission to deliver and install a new solar array truss segment on the international space station. Troubleshooting possible arm damage is a challenge because the crane, which cannot support its own weight in Earth's gravity, cannot be moved at all when the shuttle is vertical on the launch pad. Beyond electrical continuity checks and visual inspections, it's not yet known what options are available for testing. The oxygen leak and arm issues will be discussed later today by senior NASA managers. NASA continues to hold out hope Endeavour can be ready for launch by Monday, but that assumes no major arm repairs are required and that the oxygen leak repair work goes smoothly. 11:00 p.m., 11/13/02, Update: Oxygen leak fixed; robot arm analysis ongoing Engineers pinpointed the source of a launch-delaying oxygen leak today, cut out a damaged section of metal-sheathed flex hose and inserted a replacement segment to complete a tricky repair job aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. Still unresolved is the status of Endeavour's 50-foot robot arm, which was hit by an access platform Tuesday during work to gain access to the leaking oxygen line. The cargo access platform, or CAP, scraped and dented a section of the arm's protective honeycomb shell and engineers are still trying to determine whether the arm suffered any more serious damage. The Canadian-built robot arm is crucial to Endeavour's mission to attach a 14.5-ton solar array truss segment to the international space station. Because of clearance issues, the station's Canadarm2 space crane cannot lift the P1 truss from the shuttle's cargo bay. Endeavour's initial extraction must be accomplished by the shuttle's robot arm, which eventually will hand the truss off to the station arm for installation. After removing protective insulation, engineers plan to use ultrasound Thursday to assess the integrity of the composite structure of the shuttle arm. A loads analysis also is underway to analytically determine what sort of forces the arm might have been subjected to when it was hit, or nudged, by the CAP. Officials say mission managers will meet Friday afternoon to assess the oxygen line repair and the status of the robot arm troubleshooting. The oxygen leak, discovered last Sunday evening a few hours before a planned early Monday launch, forced NASA managers to put the flight on hold. At the time, shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore said if the leak repair work went smoothly, Endeavour could be ready for a second launch attempt this Monday night, between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. But the robot arm damage is a wild card and it's not yet clear what impact, if any, the incident might have on Endeavour's eventual launch date. Another wild card is Boeing's first Delta 4 rocket, a heavy-lift unmanned booster scheduled for its maiden launch Saturday from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Forecasters are predicting bad weather Saturday and the owners of the European communications satellite being launched by the new rocket have ruled out launch attempts Sunday or Monday because of the Leonids meteor shower. If the forecast doesn't improve - and as of this writing, that appears unlikely - Boeing could elect to forego a Saturday launch attempt and instead retarget for Tuesday. But all rockets launched from Florida, manned or unmanned, rely Air Force Eastern Range tracking radar and other equipment and it typically takes a full day to reconfigure the range to support a different launch. New rockets like the Delta 4 typically get three days on the range. As of this writing, Monday is strictly a target for Endeavour; NASA has not yet formally requested a launch date from the Eastern Range. If Boeing ultimately gives up on Saturday and gets range support for Tuesday, Endeavour could be delayed to Wednesday. But at this point, the Delta 4 remains scheduled for launch this Saturday and Engineers remain hopeful Endeavour will be ready to go by Monday. Stay tuned! =================================================================== Fatigue believed to blame for oxygen leak (11/14/02) 05:30 p.m., 11/14/02, Update: Fatigue possible culprit in oxygen leak; engineers assessing other vehicles The leaking oxygen line that grounded the shuttle Endeavour last Sunday evening may have failed because of structural fatigue, engineers said today, raising the possibility of a fleet-wide issue. Technicians have been asked to examine oxygen and nitrogen lines in the shuttle Discovery overnight to determine if any obvious problems are present on that vehicle. The lines in question are metal-sheathed flex hoses used to carry oxygen and nitrogen from supplies under the payload bay into the shuttle's crew cabin. Two independent oxygen lines feed through the crew cabin's aft bulkhead and one of them was found to be leaking during Endeavour's countdown Sunday night. Launch, which had been targeted for 12:59 a.m. Monday, was called off. Engineers quickly found the leak and the suspect section of oxygen line was cut out and replaced Wednesday. An associated nitrogen line that is coupled to the same support fittings was not touched. The section of leaking oxygen line then was subjected to a detailed inspection and, contrary to expectations, no signs of inadvertent damage were found. Instead, the leading theory for want went wrong is "fatigue related failure," a NASA official said today. To find out if such fatigue is age related and thus a possible fleet-wide problem, engineers are examining similar oxygen and nitrogen lines aboard Discovery. Such flex hoses are used in several areas of the shuttle's life support and main propulsion systems. There are no indications any other shuttles have fatigue-related problems, but NASA managers want to make sure. In the meantime, engineers have removed damaged insulation from Endeavour's robot arm and are preparing to use ultrasound equipment overnight to make sure the underlying structure is sound. The arm was dinged Tuesday when an access platform needed for the oxygen line repair work inadvertently hit the crane's shoulder section during insertion into Endeavour's payload bay. NASA managers will be briefed on the arm inspections, and the latest on the oxygen line issue, at a meeting late Friday afternoon. If both issues can be resolved by then, Endeavour could, in theory, be cleared for a second launch attempt Monday night. But the maiden launch of a commercial Boeing Delta 4 rocket, currently scheduled for Saturday afternoon, likely will cause problems for NASA. The forecast Saturday calls for an 80 percent chance of bad weather. A launch is not possible Sunday or Monday because the owner of the satellite aboard the Delta 4 does not want to launch at the height of the Leonids meteor shower. Depending on the forecast, Boeing managers could opt to bypass a Saturday launch attempt and to shoot instead for launch tries Tuesday and Wednesday. Under that scenario, the earliest the shuttle could launch would be Thursday because it now takes 48 hours to reconfigure Air Force tracking systems used to support all East Coast rocket launchings. On the other hand, Boeing could take a shot at launching Saturday and, if NASA has not resolved the shuttle issues by then, try again on Tuesday anyway. All of this is pure speculation at this point. But - shuttle problems aside - it would appear Boeing is in the driver's seat when it comes to setting the near-term launch schedule. =================================================================== Shuttle, Delta 4 delayed (11/15/02) 12:30 p.m., 11/15/02, Update: Delta 4 launch delayed; no word on Discovery flex hose inspections Boeing managers have delayed the maiden flight of a new Boeing Delta 4 rocket from Saturday to at least Tuesday because of an unspecified technical problem and a dismal 90 percent "no-go" forecast. The weather outlook for next Tuesday and Wednesday is 90 percent "go," but the potential impact of the technical issue is not yet known. A Boeing spokesman said this morning he was not at liberty to discuss what the problem might involve, but the issue will be addressed, he said, at an already scheduled 3 p.m. news conference in Cocoa Beach. "The launch team is working to resolve a potential issue at this time and will determine by Monday their launch readiness for Tuesday, November 19," Boeing said in a media advisory. The decision to delay the Delta 4 could impact NASA's plans to launch the shuttle Endeavour. Engineers are still troubleshooting two issues: damage to the ship's robot arm and ongoing analysis to determine whether a leaking oxygen flex hose that grounded the ship last Sunday poses a fleet-wide concern. Engineers examined similar oxygen and nitrogen flex hoses aboard the shuttle Discovery overnight, but the results of the inspection were not immediately available. NASA managers are considering additional examinations of other hoses aboard Endeavour. Shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore plans to brief reporters on the progress of the troubleshooting at a 7:30 p.m. teleconference. An update will be posted here as soon as possible thereafter. In the meantime, NASA has not given up on Monday as a potential launch date. Assuming the agency can resolve the outstanding issues in time, Endeavour could, in theory, be ready to go by Monday. If it really does take Boeing until Monday to resolve the Delta 4 issue, NASA likely could get Monday and Tuesday as launch slots. Under that scenario, the Delta 4 launch would slip to Wednesday at the earliest. If Boeing gets the Tuesday launch slot, Endeavour would be delayed to at least Thursday because it takes 48 hours to reconfigure Air Force tracking systems used by all rockets launched from the East Coast. 02:20 p.m., 11/15/02, Update: Shuttle launch delayed to no earlier than Friday, Nov. 22 Shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore decided today to postpone launch of Endeavour on a delayed space station assembly mission until at least Friday, Nov. 22, citing an Air Force Eastern Range support scheduling conflict with Boeing's Delta 4 rocket. Endeavour was grounded last Sunday night by an oxygen leak. NASA had been hoping to make a second launch attempt this Monday night, but at least two outstanding technical issues remain unresolved and Boeing's maiden launch of the Delta 4 rocket was delayed earlier today from Saturday to Tuesday. The Air Force Eastern Range, which provides critical radar tracking systems for all rockets launched from Florida, needs 48 hours to reconfigure for a different launch vehicle. Pending resolution of an as-yet undefined technical problem, Boeing currently is shooting for a launch attempt Tuesday afternoon. The range gives each customer two launch days and so, on the assumption the Delta 4 slips to Wednesday, Endeavour is now off until at least Friday. Still TBD is the outcome of an ongoing analysis into the possibility of fleet-wide problems with shuttle oxygen and nitrogen flex hoses like the one that derailed Endeavour's initial launch try. Engineers also are continuing to assess damage to the ship's robot arm earlier this week. A protective outer blanket on the arm was ripped when an access platform needed for the oxygen line repair work hit the fragile space crane during insertion into the cargo bay. 03:00 p.m., 11/15/02, Update: Delta 4 delay due to Centaur engine issue Launch of a Boeing Delta 4 rocket was delayed from Saturday to Tuesday primarily because of unfinished work to clear the second-stage Pratt & Whitney RL-10 engine for flight after recent trouble with a turbopump in a similar engine, sources say. No one believes the engine on the second stage of the Boeing Delta 4 rocket has any problems, but engineers were having trouble completing a detailed paperwork analysis clearing the powerplant in time for a launch attempt Saturday. Given forecasters were predicting a 90 percent chance of bad weather, Boeing managers decided to give the team time off over the weekend and to start out fresh next week. For additional details, please go to Spaceflightnow.com and check out the Delta 4 status center. 10:20 p.m., 11/15/02, Update: Shuttle arm suffers small area of delamination in access platform incident Ultrasound inspections of the shuttle Endeavour's robot arm show small areas of delamination where an access platform hit the crane earlier this week during insertion into the ship's cargo bay to fix a leaking oxygen line. Shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore said tonight Endeavour's launch was delayed to no earlier than next Friday to give engineers more time to assess the severity of the arm problem and to confirm the fatigue-related crack in an oxygen line flex hose is not any sort of generic, fleet-wide problem. "We did decide to move the launch date to no earlier than the 22nd of November," he told reporters during an evening teleconference. "We continue to have two open issues and we're in different stages of converging to a solution on both issues." But Dittemore said he expects results by Monday and at that point, he should be better able to assess the odds of actually launching Endeavour next Friday. "The folks are going to work the weekend, both on the RMS (robot arm) and on the O2 system leak recovery," he said. "Monday is going to be a big day for us." NASA had hoped to launch Endeavour on a space station assembly and crew rotation flight last Monday morning. But late Sunday, as the crew was strapping in for launch, engineers decided a leak in one of two lines that feed oxygen to the ship's crew cabin was unacceptable for flight and the countdown was called off. Analysis indicated the leak was most likely in a section of tubing just below the floor of the forward end of the payload bay. A cargo access platform was inserted into the bay to give engineers a place to work. But as the platform was being maneuvered into position, one of the workers serving as a "spotter" to help guide the platform into place apparently got distracted while repositioning himself, allowing the platform to hit Endeavour's fragile 50-foot-long robot arm. "It was human error," Dittemore said. "We had spotters in place and those spotters are required to call a time out, or a halt, if we get too close to structure. This particular person got distracted at the time that it was getting close to the structure and it was a mistake." A section of protective insulation was torn and while the oxygen line repair work continued, a second troubleshooting effort was initiated to assess the damage to the robot arm. Overnight Thursday and into today, engineers gained access and cut away a 4-inch by 5-inch section of the honeycomb outer layer to permit ultrasound examinations of the arm's carbon-composite structure. "The honeycomb bumper damage is of no concern," Dittemore said tonight. "That layer is just what it means, it's a bumper layer, it provides no structural support. So cutting it out just allows us access to the inner surface. "We have completed preliminary ultrasonic testing of the area of concern and we have seen some small areas of delamination. That delamination does not mean it is unacceptable. It just means at this point we need to go in there for some further testing to see to the degree that the delamination implies some concern to us whether the structural integrity of the boom has been compromised. At this point, we do not know that. ... We do not have data that says the arm has been impacted to the point that we cannot use it or cannot fly it. Additional ultrasonic tests are planned over the weekend. At the same time, another group of engineers is looking at possible backup plans in case the arm ultimately is deemed unflyable. The worst-case scenario would require hauling Endeavour back to its hangar so another arm could be installed in place of the one currently on board. A rollback, Dittemore said, would delay launch five to six weeks and, in all likelihood, force NASA to delay launch until early January. That's because the shuttle cannot be launched to the space station between Dec. 11 and Dec. 25 due to what is known as a "beta angle cutout." The beta angle is the angle between the plane of the station's orbit and the sun and it determines the amount of electricity the lab's arrays can generate. During cutout periods, the station cannot generate enough power for joint operations with the shuttle. A six-week delay to haul Endeavour to its hangar, swap out robot arms and return the ship to the pad would put launch well into the December beta angle cutout, forcing a delay to early January. Another option, however, would be to simply remove the arm at the launch pad and fly the mission without it, using the station's Canadarm2 space crane to pull Endeavour's payload - a 45-foot-long, 14.5-ton solar array truss segment - from the orbiter's cargo bay for attachment to the station. This option, assuming it is even possible, would delay launch two to three weeks, Dittemore said. The STS-113 flight plan currently calls for the shuttle's arm to pull the P1 truss from the payload bay because one of its support struts physically blocks the station arm from directly grappling the beam. If the shuttle arm and its central support strut were simply removed, Dittemore said the station arm could pull P1 from its perch in the cargo bay. Such a decision would require additional training for Kenneth Bowersox, commander of the next full-time station crew and the prime operator of Canadarm2 during P1's installation. But Kennedy Space Center sources say it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to safely remove the robot arm at the launch pad. If that assessment is correct, NASA must either clear the arm for launch next week "as is" or stand down for the year. But the analysis continues and it's too early to say how this might play out. As for the oxygen line investigation, Dittemore said preliminary analysis shows NASA probably is not facing a fleet-wide problem that could trigger a lengthy delay. He said the line in question includes three sections: A stainless steel central tube and metal-sheathed flex hoses at each end. The leak occurred in the flex hose connecting the line to a fitting in the crew cabin's aft bulkhead. The oxygen line, and a nitrogen line that is structurally connected to it, are free to move, Dittemore said, because they are not anchored down as one might expect. As a result, the lines have experienced the vibrations of launch 18 times. The oxygen line apparently cracked due to vibration-related fatigue. Engineers do not believe any other flex hoses in the shuttle are subjected to similar launch loads. Workers already have replaced the leaking oxygen hose. Just to be on the safe side, Dittemore said, they will replace the associated nitrogen line over the weekend. They also have removed a similar hose from the shuttle Discovery and plan to remove a corresponding section from Atlantis to find out if any similar problems are present. As of this writing, no other flex hose problems have been found. "We use the flex hoses in a lot of different applications in different systems throughout the ship," Dittemore said. "However, what's different about this particular failure is as we have come to look at the configuration, it's apparent to us we have a weak configuration that actually ties two flex hoses together and doesn't mount it to hard structure. Typically, if you have a flex hose you would hard mount it to structure so it doesn't vibrate and induce motion that would result in fatigue." The lines in question aboard Endeavour are connected at both ends by flex hoses "so they are free to move in the middle between two flexible hoses holding them to structure. We tied those two lines together (when Endeavour was built), the O2 and the N2, but we never made the connection of the mounting to a hard point. If we'd mounted it to a hard point, we would have contained the motion. ... So we believe this particular configuration is probably the culprit. It does not indict all flex hoses throughout the vehicle and we have no data in our database that shows we're having problems with flex hoses in other parts of the vehicle. So we think it's configuration dependent." Engineers are working through the weekend to make absolutely sure no similar configurations are present in other parts of the shuttle. =================================================================== Robot arm repair options assessed (11/18/02) 01:30 p.m., 11/18/02, Update: Engineers assess robot arm options; countdown set to restart for possible Friday launch Engineers appear more optimistic today about the possibility of launching the shuttle Endeavour Friday on a space station assembly mission. No decisions have been made on what to do about the shuttle's damaged robot arm, but NASA plans to restart Endeavour's countdown overnight Tuesday on the assumption the arm will be cleared to fly as is. NASA managers plan a final meeting Wednesday evening to review test data and possible repair options before giving Endeavour's crew a final clear to launch. The only options currently on the table are to A) fly as is; B) repair the arm damage at the pad and C) remove the arm at the pad and fly the mission without it. The 50-foot-long Canadian-built robot arm was damaged last week when it was accidentally hit by an access platform that was being inserted into Endeavour's cargo bay to repair a leaking crew cabin oxygen line. The leaking O2 line derailed an attempt to launch Endeavour on Nov. 11. The oxygen line was quickly replaced and over the weekend, engineers replaced an associated nitrogen line just to be on the safe side. The arm damage is potentially serious because the fragile crane is needed to pull Endeavour's payload, a $390 million 14.5-ton solar array truss segment, from the cargo bay. The arm operator, shuttle commander James Wetherbee, then will hand the truss segment off to the Canadarm2 space crane for attachment to the space station. Canadarm2 cannot pull the truss from the cargo bay itself because it would run into a support cradle used by the shuttle's robot arm while trying to reach the payload's grapple fixture. The carbon-composite structure of the shuttle's robot arm suffered a small area of delamination near its shoulder joint that may have degraded its structural integrity. To find out, engineers plan to deliberately damage a spare arm segment at a plant in Canada and then to measure its ability to handle the "loads," or forces, the real arm will experience during launch, when it pulls the truss from the shuttle's cargo bay and during re-entry. Depending on the results of that work and other on-going data analysis, shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore will make a decision Wednesday evening on whether to continue Endeavour's countdown, whether to order repairs at the pad or whether to have engineers simply remove the arm and its support cradles and launch the shuttle without an arm in place. Mission planners at the Johnson Space Center in Houston are assessing potential trajectories for the station's Canadarm2 arm to pull the P1 truss from the cargo bay in the event the latter option ultimately plays out. Repair or removal of the shuttle arm would delay launch to around Dec. 4-6. The latest Endeavour can launch is around Dec. 9, the latest projected start of a so-called "beta angle cutout" when the plane of the station's orbit in relation to the sun prevents the lab's solar arrays from generating enough power for a docking mission. The beta cutout ends around Christmas day. But if Endeavour is not off the ground by the start of the cutout, the flight will be delayed to early January. =================================================================== Shuttle cleared for launch; countdown restarted (11/20/02) 09:45 a.m., 11/20/02, Update: Shuttle countdown restarted; arm analysis continues Engineers restarted the shuttle Endeavour's countdown overnight on the assumption the ship's damaged robot arm will be cleared for launch Friday night "as is." While an analysis of the arm's structural integrity continues, engineers have wrapped protective tape around an area of torn outer insulation and plan to close Endeavour's cargo bay doors later today. Endeavour's seven-man crew - commander James Wetherbee, pilot Paul Lockhart, John Herrington, Michael Lopez-Alegria and the international space station's next crew, Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit - presumably will fly to the Kennedy Space Center later today. But under NASA's post Sept. 11 security plan, the agency will not discuss crew movements or even announce when the countdown began. Likewise, Endeavour's exact launch time will not be released until 24 hours before liftoff. As of this writing, NASA will only say launch is targeted for sometime during a four-hour window that opens at 7 p.m. Friday. The forecast calls for an 80 percent chance of good weather, with more of the same on tap Saturday should launch be delayed another day. But the weather at two emergency landing sites in Spain is currently forecast "no go" and one of them must be available for Endeavour to be cleared for launch. NASA originally hoped to launch the shuttle Nov. 11, but the flight was delayed the night before by a leak in a line that feeds oxygen to the crew cabin. During work to insert a work platform into the shuttle's cargo bay to repair the leak, workers inadvertently rammed Endeavour's robot arm, tearing its outer insulation and causing a small area of carbon composite in the arm itself, near the shoulder joint, to delaminate, or separate. The oxygen leak was repaired and, to be on the safe side, an associated nitrogen line was replaced as well. An examination of other flex hoses in the fleet turned up no signs of a generic problem. This issue has not been officially "put to bed" yet, but it appears to be well on the road to resolution. The arm issue, however, has proved more troublesome. The arm is needed to pull a 14.5-ton solar array truss segment from Endeavour's cargo bay so the international space station's robot arm can attach it to the lab complex. Engineers have been carrying out tests and analysis to determine whether the damaged arm can safely handle the vibrations and forces it will experience during launch and when handling the P1 solar array truss. That analysis continues today. Shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore will chair a mission management team meeting starting at 6 p.m. this evening to review the arm analysis and to make a decision, one way or the other, on whether to press ahead for launch Friday. Only three options are under study: 1) Launch as is; 2) remove the arm at the pad and carry out the mission without it; 3) attempt to repair the damage at the pad. The latter two options would delay launch until the first week of December, probably between Dec. 4 and 6. The shuttle must be off the ground by around Dec. 9 or the flight will be delayed to early January because of solar power issues on the space station. This status report will be updated this evening, after Dittemore holds a teleconference with reporters to discuss the results of the engineering review. 08:25 p.m., 11/20/02, Update: Shuttle Endeavour cleared for Friday launch NASA managers tonight cleared the shuttle Endeavour for launch Friday evening on a delayed space station assembly mission, deciding the ship's damaged robot arm is more than strong enough to withstand the rigors of flight. With forecasters calling for good weather in Florida, launch of the 112th shuttle mission is targeted for sometime between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Friday. The exact launch time will be revealed Thursday evening. With no other technical problems at pad 39A, NASA managers are continuing to assess the weather at two emergency landing sites in Spain where an inopportune main engine failure during the climb to orbit could force the crew to make a quick return to Earth. Initial forecasts this week called for bad weather, but the outlook may have improved since then. A weather update is expected Thursday morning. The decision to press ahead with launch Friday came after a week of tests and engineering detective work to assess the integrity of Endeavour's 50-foot-long robot arm. The arm was dinged by a payload bay access platform last week during work to repair a leaking oxygen flex hose that grounded the ship Nov. 10 on the eve of its initial launch try. The arm damage consisted of torn outer insulation and a small area of delamination in the crane's carbon-composite structure near its shoulder joint. The concern was that vibrations and other "loads" during launch could induce additional separation, possibly compromising the structural integrity of the arm. Shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore told reporters this evening that testing in Canada where the arm was built showed the fragile space crane still has more than enough strength to withstand the vibration and bending loads it will experience during Endeavour's climb to space. As such, no problems are expected when commander James Wetherbee uses the arm to lift a 14.5-ton solar array truss segment from the shuttle's cargo bay. "We had a very good meeting and the bottom line is the RMS is cleared for flight, the O2 line issue has been resolved and we have no constraints to pressing on with the launch count and the planned flight on Friday," Dittemore said. A key factor in the decision was the ability of arm-builder MacDonald Dettwiler Robotics to duplicate the damage in an arm segment at the plant in Toronto. That segment was then subjected to worst-case launch loads and engineers found no additional delamination. "We had extensive analysis, a large international team effort, a large engineering community that participated and the testing that was conducted in Canada, in Toronto, was extremely successful," Dittemore said. "We were able to duplicate the damage that we had seen on the launch pad, duplicated it in the lab, tested it under flight-specific conditions - 3-sigma load conditions - and were able to prove to our satisfaction that the arm is fully functional, withstanding the worst-case loads, which are the ascent loads. And so the team, the supplier, the manufacturer and all the space shuttle team ageed the arm is safe to fly." Dittemore said engineers also put the oxygen line issue to bed after examining similar flex hoses from other shuttles. There was a bit of initial concern that the fatigue-related crack in the line that derailed Endeavour might represent a fleet-wide concern. But as it turned out, that was not the case. "We also reviewed the O2 line again," he said. "There was some open work, I had asked them to remove a couple of other lines from other vehicles just to take a look at them. All the other lines that we have removed have been inspected and have been found clean, no damage at all, and so we feel confident the hoses we have replaced on 105 (Endeavour) did the job and we're safe to fly there also. "So all in all, it has been a tremendous effort over the past week to get to this point. The teams have done a marvelous job." Endeavour's crew flew to the Kennedy Space Center today in stages. Commander James Wetherbee, speaking at the shuttle landing strip, thanked the engineering community for working around the clock to resolve the technical questions. "We appreciate that and we thank them for all the work," Wetherbee said. "They're working pretty hard all over the continent, I guess. So anyway, it's nice to be back and this time we'll try to leave going that way (he said, pointing up) instead of that way (pointing west toward Houston)." A detailed mission flight plan, based on a Friday launch, will be posted below overnight. The NASA television plan will be posted shortly after NASA announces the shuttle's exact launch time. =================================================================== Shuttle on track for launch; official launch time released (11/21/02) 09:30 a.m., 11/21/02, Update: Shuttle on track for launch With concerns about Endeavour's damaged robot arm behind them, engineers are marching smoothly through the shuttle's countdown to launch Friday on a space station assembly mission. There are no technical problems at pad 39A and forecasters are predicting an 80 percent chance of good weather in Florida. The only local concern is the possibility of high crosswinds at the shuttle's emergency runway. But it's a different story overseas. Low clouds, showers and turbulence are expected at or near Endeavour's two emergency landing sites in Spain, where commander James Wetherbee would have to attempt a return to Earth in the event of a main engine failure midway into the climb to orbit. One of the Spanish runways - either at Zaragoza or Moron - must be available for a shuttle to be cleared for flight. For Friday night, forecasters are predicting a chance of showers within 20 nautical miles of Zaragoza with low ceilings, clouds and turbulence at Moron. Even so, launch managers are optimistic about finally getting Endeavour off the ground. "The count's going real well," NASA test director Steven Altemus said in a telephone interview. "With those (robot arm and oxygen leak) issues we put behind us yesterday, we're feeling really good about our chances. I think we're on the border of what they call 'the plus side of iffy' on Zaragoza. So Zaragoza may come in for us." The trans-Atlantic landing weather in Spain is expected to be marginal to no-go throughout the weekend. Florida's weather will improve to 95 percent "go" if launch is delayed to Saturday but conditions will deteriorate somewhat as the weekend progresses, with forecasters calling for a 40 percent chance of a delay if launch slips to Sunday. 07:10 p.m., 11/21/02, Update: NASA unveils official launch window The shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to blast off on the 112th shuttle mission at 8:15:30 p.m. Friday, NASA announced this evening. The launch window actually opens at 8:10:31 p.m. and closes at 8:20:30 p.m. But NASA targets space station launches for the middle of the 10-minute launch window, at the moment Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the station's orbit. The NASA television schedule, based on the actual launch time, is posted below. A detailed flight plan will be posted below as soon as possible. =================================================================== Launch scrubbed due to bad weather in Spain (11/22/02) 09:00 a.m., 11/22/02, Update: The rain in Spain falls mainly on... the shuttle? The Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center is predicting slightly better weather in Florida this evening for the shuttle Endeavour's launch on a space station assembly mission. But the forecast for two emergency landing sites in Spain remains "no go" due to rain and low clouds. At least one of the sites, at Zaragoza or Moron, Spain, must be available for Endeavour to be cleared for launch. Here's the latest SMG forecast: Return-to-Launch-Site Forecast for KSC: Clouds...........Scattered at 2,000 feet Winds............10 knots, peaks at 18 knots Wind Direction...300 degrees Crosswind........8.5 knots Violations.......None Trans-Atlantic Landing Forecast for Zaragoza: Clouds...........Scattered at 4,000, broken at 8,000, broken at 20,000 Winds............7 knots, peaks at 14 knots Wind Direction...150 degrees Violations.......Showers within 20 nautical miles TAL Forecast for Moron: Clouds...........Broken at 2,500, overcast at 4,000 Winds............10 knots, peaks at 18 knots Wind Direction...200 degrees Violations.......Occasional overcast at 1,500 feet; showers; visibility NASA managers plan to meet at 10:30 a.m. to review Endeavour's readiness for flight and to clear engineers to begin fueling the shuttle as early as 10:50 a.m. Here is the remainder of today's countdown (in EST): TIME..........COUNT.....EVENT 10:50:31 AM...L-08:55...Fueling begins 04:25:31 PM...L-03:55...Crew walkout (approximate) 07:00:31 PM...L-01:15...T-20 and holding 07:10:31 PM...L-01:05...Resume countdown 07:21:31 PM...L-49:00...T-9 hold begins 08:06:30 PM...L-09:00...Resume countdown 08:08:00 PM...L-07:30...Orbiter access arm retraction 08:10:30 PM...L-05:00...Auxilliary power unit start 08:10:35 PM...L-04:55...Liquid oxygen drainback begins 08:11:35 PM...L-03:55...Purge sequence 4 hydraulic test 08:12:35 PM...L-02:55...Oxygen tank at flight pressure 08:12:35 PM...L-02:55...Gaseous oxygen vent arm retraction 08:12:55 PM...L-02:35...Fuel cells to internal 08:13:33 PM...L-01:57...Hydrogen tank at flight pressure 08:14:40 PM...L-00:50...Orbiter to internal power 08:14:59 PM...L-00:31...Shuttle computers control countdown 08:15:09 PM...L-00:21...Booster steering test 08:15:23 PM...L-00:07...Main engine ignition 08:15:30 PM...T+00:00...Launch 11:00 a.m., 11/22/02, Update: Fueling delayed to troubleshoot nitrogen valve at pad The start of fueling for today's launch of the shuttle Endeavour has been held up by work to troubleshoot a gaseous nitrogen valve in the ship's mobile launch platform. The valve is part of a system that purges critical areas with inert nitrogen gas as required. In the event of an on-pad engine shutdown, known as a redundant set launch sequencer abort, the nitrogen purge system could prove crucial. A team of technicians has been dispatched to the pad to fix or replace the valve as needed. Fueling must begin by 1:30 p.m. or so to permit a launching this evening. 12:25 p.m., 11/22/02, Update: Valve issue resolve; fueling underway A suspect gaseous nitrogen valve at launch pad 39A appears to be working normally, clearing the way for fueling of the shuttle Endeavour for liftoff this evening on a space station assembly mission. Originally targeted for 10:50 a.m., fueling began at 12:14 p.m. The delay will have no impact on the remainder of Endeavour's countdown and launch remains scheduled for 8:15:30 p.m. 04:45 p.m., 11/22/02, Update: Astronauts strap in Shuttle commander James Wetherbee and his six crewmates are now at launch pad 39A, beginning to strap in for a launch attempt at 8:15:30 p.m. this evening. The countdown continues to tick smoothly toward zero, with no technical problems of any significance and near perfect weather in Florida. The only question mark remains the weather in Spain, where Wetherbee would have to attempt an emergency landing in the event of an engine failure midway through the ascent to orbit. Two such landing sites are available, one at Moron in southern Spain and another at Zaragoza, 400 miles away to the northeast. One of them must be available for a shuttle to be cleared for launch. Moron appears solidly socked in and forecasters expect showers near Zaragoza. But there's a chance for a break in the weather at Zaragoza that would let Endeavour get off the ground. The trans-Atlantic abort option becomes available two minutes 26 seconds after launch. But for Endeavour's flight, the practical TAL window only extends to launch plus five minutes and four seconds. After that, the shuttle could make it into a lower-than-planned orbit on just two main engines. But an engine failure during that two-minute 38-second window of vulnerability would leave Endeavour without enough fuel to make it back to Florida or enough to get into orbit. In that case, Spain would be the only viable option. 08:20 p.m., 11/22/02, Update: Shuttle grounded by rain in Spain Launch of the shuttle Endeavour was called off this evening because of hard-to-predict rain showers at an emergency runway near Moron, Spain. The launch team now is recycling for another launch attempt Saturday night at 7:49:47 p.m., weather permitting. Again, the launch window will last just five minutes and again, the weather in Spain is marginal at best. "Unfortunately, we didn't get there with TAL (trans-Atlantic landing) weather tonight," launch director Michael Leinbach radioed shuttle commander James Wetherbee. "We did have a good vehicle ready for you and good local weather, but we need a TAL site in case we got into (a main engine failure) situation. So we're going to declare a scrub at this time, come back tomorrow night and try again. Hopefully, we'll have a good TAL site for you and a (good) vehicle. So I appreciate the effort tonight of your crew and our launch team, but we're just not going to make it." "OK, thanks for trying and we'll try it tomorrow. Thanks," replied Weather from Endeavour's flight deck. NASA managers plan to meet at 9:45 a.m. Saturday to assess the weather and to review Endeavour's readiness for fueling. The weather in Florida is predicted to be 95 percent "go" but if the European forecast remains bleak, mission managers could elect to delay launch again at that point to preserve launch opportunities Sunday and Monday. Endeavour's countdown proceeded without any major problems today and the weather in Florida was near perfect, with no clouds and only light winds. But a main engine failure midway during the shuttle's climb to orbit could force a crew to attempt an emergency landing at one of two runways in Spain that are staffed by NASA. One - Moron - is near the southern tip of Spain while the other - Zaragoza - is 394 miles away to the northeast. Going into the terminal count forecasters said Moron was solidly "no go" with rain, low clouds and turbulence expected while showers were forecast for Zaragoza. As launch time approached, however, the weather appeared worse at Zaragoza and flight controllers held out some hope conditions at Moron would improve enough to permit a liftoff. But about 10 minutes before Endeavour's planned launch time of 8:15:30 p.m., flight director Wayne Hale in Houston told Leinbach forecasters with the Spacecould not get comfortable with the Moron weather, saying rain showers were in the area and that some had the potential to develop lightning. A few minutes later, the launch was scrubbed. It was another frustrating disappointment for Endeavour's crew and for the outgoing crew of the international space station, which is looking for Endeavour for a ride home after more than 180 days in space. Wetherbee, pilot Paul Lockhart, John Herrington, Michael Lopez-Alegria and the international space station's next crew, Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit were grounded Nov. 10, within hours of a launch try Nov. 11 because of an oxygen line leak. =================================================================== Shuttle Endeavour rockets into orbit (10/23/02) 10:30 a.m., 11/23/02, Update: Shuttle cleared for Saturday launch try Despite a dismal forecast for two critical emergency runways in Spain, NASA managers today instructed engineers to refuel the shuttle Endeavour for another launch try this evening to begin a 12-day-late voyage to the international space station. Liftoff from pad 39A is targeted for 7:49:47 p.m., the moment Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. Forecasters are predicting near perfect weather in Florida, calling for clear skies, light winds and a 95 percent chance of acceptable conditions during Endeavour's five-minute launch window. But the forecast for Spain is little changed from last night when similar conditions forced NASA managers to delay Endeavour's launching. More of the same is on tap tonight, with low clouds and rain showers expected at the Moron Air Base in souther Spain and a chance for more showers in the vicinity of Zaragoza, 394 miles to the northeast. At least one Spanish landing site must be available for an emergency landing in the event of an engine failure midway through the climb to space. But forecasters say conditions may be slightly better tonight at Zaragoza and there is a chance Endeavour's launch window will coincide with a break in the weather in northeast Spain. Here is the latest forecast from the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center: Return-to-Launch-Site Forecast for KSC: Clouds...........4,000 scattered; slight chance of 4,000 broken Winds............3 knots, peaks at 5 knots Wind Direction...100 degrees Crosswind........3.8 knots Violations.......None Trans-Atlantic Landing Forecast for Zaragoza: Clouds...........3,000 few; 5,000 scattered; 25,000 broken Winds............7 knots, peaks at 10 knots Wind Direction...120 degrees Violations.......Chance of showers within 20 nautical miles TAL Forecast for Moron: Clouds...........2,500 broken; 5,000 broken; 10,000 overcast Winds............7 knots, peaks at 10 knots Wind Direction...180 degrees Violations.......Showers within 20 nautical miles; low ceilings Hoping for the best, the launch team at the Kennedy Space Center is pressing ahead with Endeavour's countdown. Here is the timeline for today's activity: TIME..........LAUNCH-...EVENT 10:25:00 AM...L-08:55...Fueling begins 04:00:00 PM...L-03:55...Crew Walkout 06:34:48 PM...L-01:15...T-20 and holding 06:44:48 PM...L-01:05...Resume countdown 06:55:48 PM...L-49:00...T-9 hold begins 07:40:47 AM...L-09:00...Resume countdown 07:42:17 AM...L-07:30...Orbiter access arm retraction 07:44:47 AM...L-05:00...Auxilliary power unit start 07:44:52 AM...L-04:55...Liquid oxygen drainback begins 07:45:52 AM...L-03:55...Purge sequence 4 hydraulic test 07:46:52 AM...L-02:55...Oxygen tank at flight pressure 07:46:52 AM...L-02:55...Gaseous oxygen vent arm retraction 07:47:12 AM...L-02:35...Fuel cells to internal 07:47:50 AM...L-01:57...Hydrogen tank at flight pressure 07:48:57 AM...L-00:50...Orbiter to internal power 07:49:16 AM...L-00:31...Shuttle computers control countdown 07:49:26 AM...L-00:21...Booster steering test 07:49:40 AM...L-00:07...Main engine ignition 07:49:47 AM...T+00:00...Launch An updated flight plan has been posted below, including new times for docking, undocking, deorbit and landing, along with Rev. B of the NASA television schedule. A detailed TV sked will be posted after Endeavour takes off. 11:15 a.m., 11/23/02, Update: Fueling begins; NASA mulls launch options Engineers began fueling the shuttle Endeavour at 10:45 a.m., setting the stage for another launch try tonight at 7:49:47 p.m. NASA managers, meanwhile, are mulling options for what to do if the shuttle is grounded yet again bad bad weather in Spain. Two options currently are on the table. The most favored scenario calls for standing down Sunday, topping off the shuttle's internal supplies of liquid hydrogen (used to power the ship's fuel cells) and to try again Monday and Tuesday. After that, engineers would reload fuel cell hydrogen and oxygen to permit additional launch tries beginning next Friday. The second option calls for trying again Sunday night and then standing down to reload fuel cell hydrogen and oxygen. Under that scenario, the launch team would be ready to resume launch tries starting Thanksgiving Day. Forecasters say the weather in Spain should improve as the week wears on. While the Florida weather will deteriorate somewhat Sunday, it should get better in the days following. 04:40 p.m., 11/23/02, Update: Astronauts strap in for launch The Endeavour astronauts arrived at launch pad 39A just before 4:30 p.m. today, hoping the rain in Spain will let up long enough to permit liftoff tonight on a voyage to the international spact station. With virtually perfect weather in Florida, launch of the 112th shuttle mission remains targeted for 7:49:47 p.m. The launch window will close five minutes later. But the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center in Houston predicts low clouds and rain showers in Spain that could block the use of emergency landing sites at Moron Air Base in the southern part of the country and Zaragoza 394 miles to the northeast. Forecasters are hopeful conditions at one of the sites will let up enough to permit a launch this evening, but right now it's too early to tell. 05:30 p.m., 11/23/02, Update: Astronauts on board; Zaragoza weather appears more favorable The Endeavour astronauts are now strapped in for launch. The weather at Zaragoza, Spain, appears slightly more favorable than it did earlier today, with doppler radar showing a band of showers well to the east of the trans-Atlantic emergency landing site but nothing extensive approaching from the west. As of this writing, however, it's still too early to call and it could still go either way. There are no technical problems of any significance at pad 39A and the weather in Florida appears ideal. 08:00 p.m., 11/23/02, Update: Endeavour blasts off (mission preview Space station assembly mission 11A (P1 truss) By William Harwood CBS News/Kennedy Space Center Lighting up the night sky with white-hot fire, the shuttle Endeavour finally thundered into orbit and set off after the international space station tonight, carrying a 14.5-ton solar array truss segment and a fresh three-man crew to the orbiting lab complex. Running 12 days late because of technical problems and dismal weather in Spain that scrubbed a launch try Friday, Endeavour's twin solid-fuel boosters ignited with a crackling roar at 7:49:47 p.m., the moment Earth's rotation carried launch pad 39A into the plane of the station's orbit. The 4.5-million-pound spacecraft instantly climbed away, accelerating past 100 mph in the first 10 seconds of flight and then wheeling about to line up on a trajectory up the East Coast of the United States. At the controls were commander James Wetherbee, making his sixth flight, and pilot Paul Lockhart, who flew aboard Endeavour in June and who was added to this flight Aug. 15 after the original pilot, Gus Loria, asked to be taken off the mission because of a medical issue. Joining Wetherbee and Lockhart for the 112th shuttle mission are spacewalkers Michael Lopez-Alegria, John Herrington and the space station's next crew, Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer and Mir veteran Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit. Like Lockhart, Pettit was added to the station crew at the last minute - in late July - after the prime science officer, Donald Thomas, was grounded because of what sources said was concern about high radiation exposure on his previous shuttle flights. "As a crew, you sort of build a bond and when you lose someone from the crew, it rips a little piece of you away as they leave," Bowersox said before launch. "And so for Don as a new guy, he should just be able to be thrilled by the fact that he's going to be flying. "But he has to be a little bit sad for his friend Don Thomas. And the same thing for me. I'm happy to get to fly with Don Pettit but I was really looking forward to flying with Don Thomas, too, because he's such a great guy." Endeavour put on a dramatic show as it rocketed away through a clear night sky, the 5,000-degree flame from its solid-fuel boosters visible for hundreds of miles around. Throngs of tourists and area residents turned out for the Saturday night spectacle and Endeavour did not disappoint. The boosters, their fuel spent, were jettisoned as planned two minutes after launch and six-and-a-half minutes after that, Endeavour slipped into its planned preliminary orbit, on course for a docking with the space station Monday afternoon. Reporters at the NASA press site could see the light from Endeavour's main engines for nearly seven minutes and 20 seconds with the shuttle some 600 miles away. The only problem reported during or after ascent was a stuck "ball valve" in the shuttle's right-side orbital maneuvering system, or OMS, engine. The stuck valve, if it cannot be freed, will have no immediate mission impact and officials said the engine could still be used as is for the deorbit rocket firing needed to bring Endeavour back to Earth. In the meantime, however, the crew is using the left-side engine only. Launch was in doubt earlier in the day because of rain showers and low clouds in Spain, where NASA staffs two landing sites, one at Moron Air Base in southern Spain and another 400 miles to the northeast at Zaragoza. Similar weather grounded Endeavour Friday night. One Spanish runway must be available for an emergency landing in case of an engine failure midway during the climb to orbit and as Endeavour's terminal count began today, both once again were forecast "no go." But as the shuttle's launch time approached, the weather let up a bit near Zaragoza and mission managers cleared the shuttle for takeoff. Bowersox, Budarin and Pettit will replace the station's current crew, Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson, launched to the station June 5 aboard Endeavour. Assuming an on-time landing Dec. 4, Korzun and his crewmates will have logged 182 days off the planet. Bowersox and the Expedition 6 crew plan to spend about four months in space before returning to Earth in March. "We need to rotate the crews," lead station flight director Mark Kirasich said. "Expedition 5 will have been on orbit for about (180) days and we need to get them home and get a fresh crew on board. "Secondly, this is a key mission to continue the assembly sequence. We're installing the truss, P1, on the port side of the S0 in order to be able to continue the assembly sequence in the spring and continue with the buildup, beginning first of all with P3 and P4 (segments on flight) 12A and then with the outboard truss on 12A.1, which will be later in the summer of 2003." Said Expedition 6 increment manager Melissa Gard: "This is the first time we've combined a major assembly mission with a crew rotation flight. So Expedition 6 will get an early start on their mission, not just doing their traditional and moving in activities and transfer operations, but they also serve as an integral part of the (shuttle) crew in the preparation of the EVA crew members and then supporting or actually conducting robotics operations during the three (spacewalks they) will execute." NASA originally planned to launch Endeavour in mid October, but the shuttle fleet was grounded in July because of concerns about cracks in hydrogen fuel lines leading to the orbiter's main engines. Endeavour's launch slipped from Oct. 6 to Nov. 2 and then to Nov. 11, to accommodate the delayed launch of a new Russian Soyuz lifeboat to the station. On Nov. 10, however, the shuttle was grounded again, this time by a leak in an oxygen hose leading to Endeavour's crew cabin. The leak was quickly traced to a flex hose beneath the floor of Endeavour's cargo bay near the crew cabin's aft bulkhead. To get access to the area, a large work platform had to be inserted into the cargo bay. Unfortunately, a distracted spotter looked away briefly at a critical moment and the access platform hit Endeavour's robot arm. While engineers replaced the leaking oxygen line, another team began assessing the health of the robot arm. Ultrasound inspections revealed that a small area of the arm's carbon-composite structure had delaminated, or separated. At that point, NASA planners faced three options: Launching Endeavour as is; removing the arm and flying the mission without it; repairing the arm in place at the launch pad. The latter two options would have delayed flight to the first week of December. In the end, engineers with arm-builder MacDonald Dettwiler Robotics of Toronto proved the arm could easily withstand worst-case forces, or loads it would experience at launch. Shuttle program manager Ronald Dittemore then cleared Endeavour for launch and after a delay Friday due to the rain in Space, the shuttle finally began its delayed mission. NEW STATION CREW TAKES OVER The first major objective of the flight will be accomplished within a few hours of Endeavour's docking with the international space station when the Expedition 6 crew officially replaces Expedition 5. That will occur after custom-fitted Soyuz lifeboat seat liners and pressure suits have been moved into the station and tested. The next day, the combined shuttle-station crews will begin implementing the second major objective of the mission, installation, activation and checkout of a massive $390 million truss segment known as "port 1," or P1. The international space station currently consists of four large pressurized modules - the U.S. Destiny laboratory, the multi-hatch Unity node, the NASA-financed Russian-built Zarya module and the Russian command module, Destiny. These modules form the central core of the station and they fly through space like coupled train cars, with Destiny leading the way. Attached to right, or starboard, side of the Unity node is the Quest airlock module. Another pressurized module, a Russian airlock/Soyuz docking compartment called Pirs, is attached to a downward-facing port on the Zvezda module. A fresh Soyuz lifeboat, delivered by a so-called "taxi" crew Nov. 1, is currently docked to Pirs while an unmanned Progress supply ship is docked to Zvezda's aft port. Extending straight up from Unity like the mast of a ship, is a U.S. truss segment known as Z1 that houses the station's stabilizing gyroscopes and serves as a temporary mounting point for the P6 solar array truss. At the top of the P6 truss, two huge solar array panels extend to either side like great wings. Astronauts currently are building the station's main solar array truss, a beam anchored to the top of the Destiny module that eventually will extend some 180 feet to either side. Huge solar arrays will be mounted on each end of the completed truss while ammonia lines, pumps and massive radiators mounted inboard of the arrays will dissipate the heat generated by the station's electronics. Rails running the length of the truss on its forward face will allow the station's robot arm to move to various work sites atop a mobile transporter. The rails also will allow spacewalkers to move equipment using small railcars called CETA carts. The central segment of the truss, S0, was bolted to the Destiny module in April. The first starboard-side segment, S1, was attached in October. The P1 truss segment aboard Endeavour is the first port-side section of the beam. S1 and P2 include the lab's ammonia cooling system and radiators, three folding sets of panels on each segment that will extend 75 feet toward the rear of the station when fully deployed. The P6 truss segment atop Z1 currently provides power and cooling for the station. It eventually will be moved to the port side of the main truss currently under construction. S1 and P1 are virtually identical. But installation of the new truss segment will be very different from the techniques used to install S1 in October. During that flight, the station's Canadarm2 space crane pulled S1 from the shuttle Atlantis' cargo bay and attached it straight-away to the right side of S0. Two spacewalkers then made a variety of electrical connections, attached ammonia jumpers between S0 and S1 and installed nearly three dozen "spool positioning devices," or SPDs, to prevent quick-disconnect fittings from locking together too tightly. They also installed an S-band antenna system and mounted two remotely controlled television cameras, one on the lab module and one on the end of S1. For Endeavour's mission, installation will follow a very different course, one designed to set the stage for build-out of the port-side of the truss next year. "I'd say probably 60 to 70 percent of the tasks are identical, sort of a mirror image, although we are executing a lot of them differently," said Lopez-Alegria. INSTALLING THE P1 TRUSS The day after docking, Wetherbee will use Endeavour's robot arm to carefully pull P1 from its perch in the cargo bay. He then will hand the truss off to Canadarm2, operated by Whitson and Bowersox, who then will move it into position for attachment to the left side of S0. The hand-off is required because the station arm can't reach into the cargo bay from its current position without hitting the shuttle's own robot arm support equipment. "The P1 is unberthed from the shuttle using the shuttle (robot) arm, said Kirasich. "We tilt it up to get a little bit of additional clearance from the tail and then the shuttle arm performs what we call an arc maneuver that moves the truss from inside the shuttle bay out over the port wing of the space shuttle to what we call the handoff position. "At the handoff position, the space station arm goes and grapples a second grapple fixture on the truss, we back the shuttle arm off and the shuttle arm is maneuvered to a position where it will provide camera views of the mating interface. "At that point, the station arm maneuvers the truss to the pre-install position where we do a fine alignment," Kirasich said. "And then we perform a maneuver we call 'press to readies.' We bring the truss close enough where the truss can be captured by the capture latch on the segment-to-segment attachment system." While the truss is being moved into position and attached to S0 with the capture latch and a set of four motorized bolts, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington will be preparing for the first of three spacewalks to complete the segment's installation and activation. As the motorized bolts drive home, pulling S0 and P1 together with 13,500 pounds of force, the spacewalkers will exit the Quest airlock module and get to work. Lopez-Alegria, call sign EV-1, will make the first of two sets of eight electrical connections needed to power-up the P1 truss' computers and other systems. Herrington, meanwhile, will release launch locks holding a new CETA cart in place on the truss rails, the station's second. The station's first CETA cart, carried into orbit attached to S1 last month, currently is coupled to the mobile transporter atop S0. While Herrington - EV-2 - works to release the various CETA cart launch locks, Lopez-Alegria will install six SPDs on flexible hose radiator coupler fluid lines between the truss and its folded radiator panels. The SPDs were ordered after an engineering analysis showed ammonia leakage past one of two seals in a typical quick-disconnect fitting could have the effect of pressurizing the fitting, making it difficult for future spacewalkers to release. The SPDs effectively pull each quick-disconnect apart slightly, just enough to allow any leakage to vent harmlessly into space. Thirty-three SPDs were installed during Atlantis' mission last month. During the current flight, 43 more will be installed, six on the first spacewalk, four on the second and 33 on the third. Two more will be installed on the next shuttle visit in March. After the first six are installed on the first spacewalk of Endeavour's mission, Herrington and Lopez-Alegria will remove and stow structural supports called "drag links" that helped hold P1 in the shuttle's cargo bay. They must be removed, as well as two massive keel pins, to clear the rails for eventual movement of the mobile transporter and CETA carts. Once that work is done, Lopez-Alegria will make a second set of electrical connections between S0 and P1 before working with Herrington to mount a spacesuit "helmet cam" TV antenna on the back of the Unity node. At present, video from the helmet cams of spacewalkers wearing U.S. spacesuits can only be seen inside the station when a shuttle is docked. The new WETA - wireless EVA television antenna - system will allow station crews to receive such video during spacewalks when the shuttle is not present. At the end of the spacewalk, the Canadarm2 robot arm, attached to the mobile transporter on the S0 truss, will "walk off," inchworm style, and attach itself to a grapple fixture on the hull of the laboratory module. This will clear the way for the mobile transporter to be moved out onto P1 during the third spacewalk. The day after the first spacewalk, the combined crews will focus on moving equipment and supplies from the shuttle to the station to support the Expedition 6 crew before staging a second EVA the next day. If time permits, they may also begin work to repair the carbon dioxide removal system in the Destiny module. The CDRA system has had problems in recent weeks and spare parts were launched aboard Endeavour. OUTFITTING AND ACTIVATING THE NEW TRUSS The goal of the second excursion is to install ammonia fluid-line jumpers, to remove the two keel pins used to physically secure P1 in the shuttle's cargo bay for launch, to install a second WETA antenna system on the P1 truss and to move the new CETA cart from the P1 truss to the S1 truss on the opposite side of the station. The latter promises to be particularly dramatic. Herrington, anchored to the end of the station's robot arm, will manually hold the 600-pound CETA cart while the arm, operated by Pettit and Bowersox, swings him through a sweeping 180-degree arc to the opposite side of the truss. The cart must be moved before the third spacewalk of the flight to permit the Canadarm2's mobile transporter to move from its current location at worksite 4, on the front of S0, to worksite 7 on the far end of P1, where it will be needed to complete EVA-3 activities. "One of the neat things I get to do at the end of EVA-2 - this will probably be the high point of all the EVAs for me - is to climb on board the robotic arm with Don at the controls," Herrington said. "And I'll be taking the CETA cart from the left side of station to the right side of station. "I'll lift it off, we'll back away from the truss a little bit, then Don will put the arm through a maneuver that will take me completely past the tail of the shuttle and back up around to the right side of the station where we'll move it back in slowly, with Mike guiding me, and we'll put it back onto the rails. So that's going to be a real exciting time, I'll get to see the station from a pretty neat perspective." But Pettit said the drama will be a strictly slow-motion affair. "Nothing like this happens really fast," he said. "I mean if you sat there and watched the arm move, you've got to blink a few times to see whether it's really moving. So we're not going to be trying to set any world records here. It takes about 20 minutes to do this trajectory, so there'll be plenty of time to run off to the refrigerator and grab another soft drink." The first item on the agenda for EVA-2 is to install fluid jumpers between S0 and P1 to connect ammonia coolant lines. Both spacewalkers, their feet anchored in foot restraints, will be required to complete this objective. "These are large hoses that actually connect the S0 truss to P1 truss and it'll allow us to flow ammonia, which is a cooling agent we use with the radiators," Herrington said. "That's our first task, that's probably the hardest task in that EVA." Herrington and Lopez-Alegria then will remove and stow the starboard keel pin before using the CETA cart to carry the second WETA antenna assembly to the end of P1. Lopez-Alegria will mount the assembly while Herrington releases clamps on electrical cables that will be used on an upcoming assembly flight. He also will inspect the system that will be used to clamp the next port-side truss element to P1. Both spacewalkers then will remove and stow the port keel pin before performing the CETA cart relocation maneuver to conclude the six-and-a-half-hour excursion. The next day, the shuttle astronauts will continue moving supplies and equipment to and from the shuttle while the incoming and outgoing station crews spend most of the day in handover activities to familiarize Bowersox and company with the intricacies of station operations. Then the stage will be set for the third and final spacewalk the following day, a complex set of activities needed to complete P1's installation and at the same time, test the techniques and procedures needed to move the station's robot arm back and forth along the truss for upcoming assembly missions. "What you're going to see on this EVA, while the spacewalkers are in the airlock performing their pre-breathe activities, you're going to see a ballet, or a choreographed sequence of events that will move the mobile transporter from its current location at worksite 4 (on S0), down the tracks to worksite seven (at end of P1)," Kirasich said. The next elements in the port-side truss build-up "can only be installed with the arm on the mobile transporter and the mobile transporter at worksite 7," he said. "So it's very important we can get the MT to that location." To make that happen, the robot arm was walked off the MT to the lab module, the astronauts removed the keel pins and drag links and moved CETA cart 2 from P1 to S1. Before the third spacewalk begins, the mobile transporter will be commanded to move from worksite 4 to worksite 7 on the end of P1. Once the transporter is plugged into its power-and-data socket at work site 7, Canadarm2's free end will lock onto one of the transporter's grapple fixtures. The crane then will release a fixture on the lab module to complete the "walk off" to the transporter. With the arm now ready for work in its new position, Lopez-Alegria will install two SPDs on ammonia lines at the interface between the Z1 and P6 trusses atop the Unity module. He will install two more in the "rat's nest" of coolant lines and cables between Z1 and the lab module. Finally, Lopez-Alegria will hook up two more SPDs on a heat exchanger below the outer skin of the lab's end cone. While that work is going on, Herrington will install 18 SPDs on the rotary beam valve modules on the back of P1 where quick-disconnect fittings link ammonia lines leading from the truss to the radiators. Twelve of those fittings will be attached while Herrington is on the Canadarm2. He then will get off the arm, the arm will walk back off to the lab and Herrington will install the final 6 SPDs as a "free floater." Lopez-Alegria, meanwhile, will install four SPDs on P1's ammonia pump module, reconfigure power cables, hook up the truss ammonia tank and prepare the ammonia system for filling during a flight next year. The spacewalk will end after installation of a final set of SPDs on the flexible hose rotary coupler, part of the system that enables the radiators to rotate to ensure maximum cooling. At the conclusion of the third spacewalk, P1 will be ready for attachment of the next port-side truss segment and 76 of 78 required SPDs will have been installed. The final two will be installed during the next station assembly mission in March. "STS-112, the S1 truss installation (in October), went extremely well," said station program manager Bill Gerstenmaier. "It was a very good rehearsal for the STS-113 P1 truss. When you take a look at the mission, it's going to appear to you that STS-113 P1 looks a lot like the STS-112 flight. And I would tell you that it's really not. "We're going to move a CETA cart, a crew EVA translation aid cart, from one side of the truss to the other, and that'll be a big movement. And then you'll also see the mobile transporter being moved from worksite 4, at kind of the center of the truss, out to worksite 7, which will be on the P1 truss. "So this will be the first time the mobile transporter has moved across an interface between two truss segments," he said. "The reason we're doing this on this flight is to set ourselves up for next year's activities. We need to operate off of that worksite to install some of the outboard truss elements and we want to gain some experience in using the mobile transporter, seeing how it operates, actually moving it in a time critical fashion out to this worksite. "You'll also notice when this activity occurs that we don't move the arm on top of the mobile transporter," Gerstenmaier said. "The arm will be walked off the mobile transporter to the lab. Then the mobile transporter will be moved out and then the arm will walk back onto the truss. So when you see that activity, that's dramatically different from what we did back on the last flight on the S1 install. "On the S1 install, we stayed on one worksite, we used the arm all from that worksite. On this flight, you'll see a lot of mobile transporter movement, you'll see a lot of arm activity moving to different locations. That was done really because of where we have to reach on this P1 truss and it's also driven by the fact that we want to test in advance these new capabilities we're going to use on future flights. "So just as we've been doing throughout the assembly sequence, anything we can do ahead of time to make sure it's operating, to make sure it works ... we do that," Gerstenmaier said. "So we're really getting prepared on this flight, this P1 flight, for future activities that we're going to have to do next year." Following the third spacewalk, the Endeavour astronauts and the Expedition 6 crew will enjoy a half-day off and a bit of final transfer activity before undocking the next day. With pilot Lockhart at the controls, Endeavour will pull straight away from the station to a distance of about 400 feet. From there, Lockhart will guide the shuttle through a photo-documentation loop around the outpost before leaving the area for good. Endeavour is scheduled to land Dec. 4 at the Kennedy Space Center. NEW STATION CREW LOOKS FORWARD TO LONG-DURATION VISIT For Bowersox and company, the shuttle's departure will mark the beginning of at least four months of intense activity. Unlike earlier expeditions, or increments, Bowersox and his crewmates will not entertain any visitors. The next people they will see in person will be the crew of the March shuttle mission charged with bringing up their replacements. "Right now we're scheduled for four months," Bowersox said. "On 113, we install the P1 truss. There's going to be a large amount of outfitting on the truss while the orbiter is there. Then after the orbiter leaves, we have a few more small tasks we're going to try to do with the station crew on an EVA without the orbiter there." That spacewalk, by Bowersox and Budarin, is planned for Dec. 5. It is referred to as a "stage EVA" because it will be performed by the current increment crew without a shuttle present. "We're kind of excited about this stage EVA in particular, because it serves as a stepping off point for a number of stage EVAs that will support the buildup of our truss segments over the next couple of years," Gard said. "And also because it demonstrates the ability of the station airlock not just to perform maintenance and repairs, but as a primary contributor to station operations in an assembly fashion during stage operations." All of the spacewalk tasks originally were to have been carried out by th crews of Atlantis and Endeavour. But the addition of the SPDs forced mission planners to defer a half-dozen tasks to the stage EVA. Bowersox and Budarin will remove the P1 radiator beam launch locks; move a toolbox currently mounted on Z1 to one of the CETA carts; deploy a new UHF antenna; and attach light fixtures to the CETA carts. Pettit will support the excursion by operating the Canadarm2 crane. "Of course, we have lots of science we're going to be doing over the four months," Bowersox continued. "We're going to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day and a couple of my kids' birthdays on orbit and the same thing for these guys and their families. "I think the biggest challenge is going to be adjusting to the duration. I think the technical aspects we've trained well for and I think things will go pretty much as smoothly as we saw on 112. But what's going to be new for me and for Don is just living on orbit that long, watching ourselves adapt over the months and then, of course, the uncertainty of when we might come home. "Having a ticket on an orbiter is not like having a ticket on an airliner to come home," Bowersox said. "When the orbiter's ready to launch and come get us, then we'll be ready to come home. But not knowing when that's going to happen, I think, adds extra uncertainty and could add some extra stress, making us worry a little bit more. But all in all, I think our crew has blended well and I think we're going to have a lot of fun up there and get a lot of really good work done." 10:00 p.m., 11/23/02, Update: OMS engine valve under study; no immediate mission impact During the shuttle Endeavour's climb to space this evening, the ship's two orbital maneuvering system rockets ignited as planned two minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff and fired for a minute and a half to provide an assist to the orbiter's three main engines. As mentioned earlier, when the OMS engines shut down, telemetry indicated one of two redundant ball valves used to feed propellant to the combustion chamber of the right-side engine failed to close. The other valve appeared to work normally. Because the valves are redundant, the engine can be safely operated as is. But flight controllers don't yet know if the valve in question is really stuck open or if the telemetry was the result of a faulty sensor. Until they get a better understanding of what's going on, the engine will not be used. The concern is that a second valve failure during a subsequent engine firing could prevent the powerplant from shutting down. If both valves were stuck open, the engine would continue to fire, or leak propellant, until nothing was left. The OMS engines are typically used for major maneuvers, including the rocket firing needed to drop a shuttle out of orbit for the glide back to Earth. Flight controllers say Endeavour's right-side engine almost certainly can be used for the deorbit burn and that they are simply playing it safe by not using the engine in the meantime. All of the maneuvers required to rendezvous and dock with the international space station can be carried out by Endeavour's other OMS engine or by the ship's smaller reaction control system thrusters. Likewise, in a worst-case scenario, the shuttle could deorbit with one operational OMS engine. In short, the issue has no immediate mission impact. "You're off to a great start," astronaut Duane Carey radioed the crew from Houston during a mission control shift change. "You really rocked the house with that ascent." =================================================================== Astronauts test equipment; Thomas 'hurt' by reassignment (11/24/02) 01:30 p.m., 11/24/02, Update: Astronauts gear up for docking The Endeavour astronauts are putting in a fairly routine day of work in preparation for docking with the international space station Monday. Commander James Wetherbee carried out a rendezvous rocket firing around 12:40 p.m. and plans to make another "burn" around 8:35 p.m. this evening. Astronauts John Herrington and Michael Lopez-Alegria, meanwhile, are spending the afternoon checking out the spacesuits they will use during three spacewalks Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to outfit and activate a new solar array truss segment. Wetherbee also plans to check out Endeavour's 50-foot-long robot arm, conducting a standard payload bay photo survey, and test a computerized video system designed to help arm operators precisely position large components like the P1 truss. The shuttle's docking collar will be extended around 6:25 p.m. in preparation for Monday's linkup with the space station. USA Today and The Associated Press will interview Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit starting around 7:55 p.m. The shuttle astronauts plan to go to bed at 12:20 a.m. Here is an updated timeline of today's activity as uplinked to the crew from mission control (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST.............DD...HH...MM...EVENT Flight Day 2 11/24/02 Sun 01:50 AM...00...06...00...Crew sleep begins Sun 09:30 AM...00...13...40...ISS crew wakeup Sun 09:50 AM...00...14...00...STS crew wakeup Sun 11:00 AM...00...15...10...ISS daily planning conference Sun 12:20 PM...00...16...30...Group B computer powerup Sun 12:40 PM...00...16...50...NC2 rendezvous rocket firing Sun 12:50 PM...00...17...00...Ergometer setup Sun 12:50 PM...00...17...00...Spacesuit checkout prep Sun 01:05 PM...00...17...15...Group B computer powerdown Sun 01:20 PM...00...17...30...Spacesuit checkout Sun 01:30 PM...00...17...40...Budarin exercises Sun 01:30 PM...00...17...40...Robot arm (RMS) powerup Sun 01:50 PM...00...18...00...RMS checkout Sun 02:30 PM...00...18...40...Pettit exercises Sun 02:35 PM...00...18...45...RMS payload bay survey Sun 02:40 PM...00...18...50...Spacesuit prep for transfer to station Sun 03:05 PM...00...19...15...RMS powerdown Sun 03:10 PM...00...19...20...Tool prep for transfer to station Sun 03:20 PM...00...19...30...Wetherbee exercises Sun 03:50 PM...00...20...00...Bowersox exercises Sun 04:50 PM...00...21...00...Shuttle crew meal Sun 05:50 PM...00...22...00...Centerline camera installation Sun 06:10 PM...00...22...20...Space Vision System (OSVS) powerup Sun 06:25 PM...00...22...35...Docking ring extension Sun 06:25 PM...00...22...35...OSVS video checkout Sun 06:50 PM...00...23...00...Rendezvous computer setup Sun 06:50 PM...00...23...00...Lockhart exercises Sun 06:55 PM...00...23...05...OSVS powerdown Sun 07:20 PM...00...23...30...Rendezvous tools checkout Sun 07:55 PM...01...00...05...ISS-6 MEDIA INTERVIEWS ON NASA TV Sun 08:15 PM...01...00...25...Herrington exercises Sun 08:35 PM...01...00...45...NC3 rendezvous rocket firing Sun 08:45 PM...01...00...55...Lopez-Alegria exercises Sun 10:55 PM...01...03...05...ISS daily planning conference Sun 11:25 PM...01...03...35...ISS crew sleep begins Mon 12:20 AM...01...04...30...Shuttle crerw sleep begins Mon 01:00 AM...01...05...10...Video highlights reel on NASA TV For readers interested in looking ahead, a detailed docking timeline is posted below, along with rev. C of the NASA TV schedule and a detailed mission flight plan. 10:20 p.m., 11/24/02, Update: Missing man missed Astronaut Donald Thomas, veteran of four shuttle flights and more than 43 days in space, trained for more than a year and a half to fly aboard the international space station as a member of its sixth full-time crew, the crew currently en route to the lab complex aboard the shuttle Endeavour. But on July 26 of this year, NASA announced Thomas had been replaced by backup astronaut Donald Pettit because of what a press release said was "a medical issue that affects Thomas' long-duration space flight qualification." Sources said later the reason was cumulative exposure to radiation during his four shuttle flights. In that same press release, chief astronaut Charles Precourt said "the demanding nature of long-term space flight requires a conservative approach to crew health issues, especially this early in the program." Thomas has not granted any interviews since his removal from the ISS-6 crew and NASA has not provided any additional details, citing medical privacy issues. But in an interview this evening with The Associated Press, Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox said Thomas was hurt "pretty bad" by his removal from the station crew and that it will take more time to heal the emotional wounds. "This emblem that's on our shirt was designed by Don," Bowersox said, floating on the shuttle's lower deck with Pettit and ISS-6 flight engineer Nikolai Budarin. All three wore shirts with the Expedition 6 logo on the left breast. "So he's with us every minute in spirit and we think about him a lot and we can only wish him the best. We know this has been very, very hard for him, so that's been the toughest thing for us, too. But he's a big part of this mission, everywhere we go we see reminders of him and there's no way we could not think about him." Bowersox said he was not able to chat with Thomas before Endeavour's launching Saturday, saying "it's still kind of painful and sore for Don, when he talks with us it becomes even more painful." "We're going to try to connect with him when we get on orbit or after we get home, after he's had a little bit of distance," Bowersox said. "But this is a very, very tough thing, to be so close to accomplishing a dream - going up for a long-duration flight was Don Thomas' dream - and when he wasn't able to do it, it hurt him pretty bad. "So as the distance and the time heals that wound, then I think it'll be a little bit easier for him to discuss how much fun we're having on orbit." Before launch, Bowersox said expedition crew members build a bond as training progresses and "when you lose someone from the crew, it rips a little piece of you away as they leave." Pettit, Bowersox said, should simply enjoy "the fact that he's going to be flying." "But he has to be a little bit sad for his friend Don Thomas," Bowersox said. "And the same thing for me. I'm happy to get to fly with Don Pettit but I was really looking forward to flying with Don Thomas, too, because he's such a great guy." The Expedition 6 crew plans to remain aboard the station until late March. =================================================================== Endeavour docks with space station; new crew takes over (11/25/02) 10:15 a.m., 11/25/02, Update: Shuttle crew gears up for station docking The Endeavour astronauts were awakened at 8:29 a.m. to kick off a busy day of work to rendezvous and dock with the international space station. The crew was awakened by a recording of Sting's "I Need You Like a Hole In My Head," beamed up from mission control in Houston. Endeavour's launching Saturday night was timed to set up a docking with the international space station today at 4:26 p.m. as the two spacecraft sail 250 miles above eastern Asia. Commander James Wetherbee, pilot Paul Lockhart and their crewmates will begin working from the rendezvous timeline checklist starting around 11:35 a.m. After a series of rocket firings to fine-tune the shuttle's approach, Wetherbee will begin the terminal phase of the rendezvous with Endeavour trailing the station by about 9.2 statute miles. The "TI" burn is targeted for 2:06 p.m. From there, Wetherbee and pilot Paul Lockhart will oversee a series of computer-controlled rocket firings designed to place the shuttle at a point 600 feet or so directly below the space station. At about that point, Wetherbee will take over manual control and pilot Endeavour in a slow loop up to a point 310 feet directly in front of the lab complex as both spacecraft race through space at five miles per second. Positioned directly in front of the station's long axis, Wetherbee will manually guide Endeavour in so the docking system in the shuttle's cargo bay can mate with its counterpart on a pressurized mating adapter attached to the Destiny lab module's forward hatch. After hooks and latches engage, the two spacecraft will be locked together. "I've dreamed about flying up next to a space station, and so the rendezvous portion of the mission is very exciting to us," Wetherbee said in a pre-launch NASA interview. "You can think of it as, as we do it in thirds. The first third is controlled by the ground and automatically done by burns onboard the vehicle, all computer-controlled. "The middle third is still computer-controlled, but we have onboard targeting and we start to complete the burns manually with computer steering. And then, the final third is done almost completely manually, where you're looking out the window at a camera and you have a visual of the target on the space station. "And so the way we've evolved in our space program, we fly the final portion manually, actually controlling the vehicle which weighs, of course, about 100 tons. And we have about plus or minus three inches when we finally connect, and the vehicle's about 100 feet long and it's very slow, the closing rates. "Of course you're traveling five miles a second, or 17,500 miles an hour, around the Earth," Wetherbee said. "But the relative difference is about one-tenth of a foot per second. And so it's pretty exciting for us to dock." Indeed. Here is an integrated flight-day three timeline for today's activities. It includes the crew's flight plan as uplinked early this morning from mission control as well as a detailed docking timeline (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 11/25/02 08:20 AM...01...12...30...STS crew wakeup 08:50 AM...01...13...00...ISS crew wakeup 09:20 AM...01...13...30...Herrington exercises 09:50 AM...01...14...00...Lockhart exercises 10:20 AM...01...14...30...Wetherbee exercises 10:40 AM...01...14...50...ISS daily planning conference 10:50 AM...01...15...00...Lopez-Alegria exercises 11:20 AM...01...15...30...Group B computer powerup 11:35 AM...01...15...45...Rendezvous timeline begins 11:45 AM...01...15...55...ISS: Korzun exercises 11:50 AM...01...16...00...Bowersox exercises 12:13 PM...01...16...23...Rendezvous rocket firing 12:40 PM...01...16...50...Pettit exercises 12:55 PM...01...17...05...ISS: Whitson exercises 01:35 PM...01...17...45...ISS: Treschev exercises 01:40 PM...01...17...50...Budarin exercises 02:05 PM...01...18...15...Sunrise 02:06 PM...01...18...16...TERMINAL RENDEZVOUS ROCKET FIRING 02:34 PM...01...18...44...Sunset 03:08 PM...01...19...18...Sunrise 03:20 PM...01...19...30...U.S. arrays feathered 03:23 PM...01...19...33...MC4 rendezvous burn 03:26 PM...01...19...36...Range: 1,500 feet 03:27 PM...01...19...37...ISS in docking orientation 03:31 PM...01...19...41...Range: 1,000 feet 03:32 PM...01...19...42...KU-band radar to low power; range: 800 feet 03:36 PM...01...19...46...Range: 600 feet (+r bar arrival) 03:37 PM...01...19...47...Noon 03:38 PM...01...19...48...Russian arrays feathered 03:38 PM...01...19...48...Range: 500 feet; start TORVA maneuver 03:40 PM...01...19...50...Range: 400 feet 03:48 PM...01...19...58...Range: 300 feet 03:50 PM...01...20...00...Range: 310 feet; (+v bar arrival) 03:52 PM...01...20...02...Range: 250 feet 03:56 PM...01...20...06...Range: 200 feet 03:59 PM...01...20...09...Range: 170 feet 04:01 PM...01...20...11...Range: 150 feet 04:05 PM...01...20...15...Range: 100 feet 04:06 PM...01...20...16...Sunset 04:07 PM...01...20...17...Range: 75 feet 04:12 PM...01...20...22...Range: 50 feet 04:15 PM...01...20...25...Range: 30 feet; start stationkeeping 04:19 PM...01...20...29...Russian ground station acquisition of signal 04:20 PM...01...20...30...End stationkeeping; push to dock 04:24 PM...01...20...34...Range: 10 feet 04:26 PM...01...20...36...Russian ground station loss of signal 04:26 PM...01...20...36...DOCKING 04:41 PM...01...20...51...Sunrise 04:55 PM...01...21...05...Hatch leak checks; audio config 05:20 PM...01...21...30...Group B computer powerdown 05:25 PM...01...21...35...ODS prepped for ingress 05:45 PM...01...21...55...Hatch opening 05:45 PM...01...21...55...Post-rendezvous laptop reconfig 06:15 PM...01...22...25...Welcome aboard ceremony 06:20 PM...01...22...30...Safety briefing 06:45 PM...01...22...55...Logistics transfers begin 06:45 PM...01...22...55...Spacesuit transfer reconfig 06:45 PM...01...22...55...Shuttle oxygen config 06:45 PM...01...22...55...Soyuz seat liner installation 07:30 PM...01...23...40...MISSION STATUS BRIEFING ON NASA TV 07:40 PM...01...23...50...Quest equipment lock prep 08:00 PM...02...00...10...Spacesuit to airlock 08:25 PM...02...00...35...RMS powerup 08:30 PM...02...00...40...EVA camera setup 08:45 PM...02...00...55...EVA-1: Procedures review 08:45 PM...02...00...55...SOKOL suit leak checks 08:55 PM...02...01...05...ISS: Treschev exercises 09:45 PM...02...01...55...ISS-5/ISS-6 daily planning conference 09:45 PM...02...01...55...EVA tools configured 12:20 AM...02...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins Hatch opening is targeted for around 5:45 p.m. After a brief welcome aboard ceremony, Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun will give the Endeavour astronauts a safety briefing before the two crews turn their attention to moving the new station crew's equipment from the shuttle to the station. Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit will officially replace Korzun, ISS-5 flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson as soon as the new crew's Soyuz seat liners and Sokol pressure suits are in place on the station. A new crew is not officially in residence until the equipment is on board for an emergency departure aboard the Soyuz lifeboat. While an official change-of-command ceremony will not be held until Friday, the transfer of seat liners and Sokol suits marks the point at which Bowersox and company actually replace Korzun and his crewmates aboard the outpost. 02:10 p.m., 11/25/02, Update: Terminal rendezvous sequence begins Trailing the international space station by about 9.2 miles, commander James Wetherbee fired the shuttle Endeavour's left-side orbital maneuvering system engine today at 2:06 p.m. to begin the terminal phase of the ship's rendezvous with the international space station. If all goes well, Wetherbee will manually guide Endeavour to a linkup with the lab complex at 4:36 p.m. as the two spacecraft sail 240 miles above eastern Europe. There are no technical problems of any significance and all systems are "go" for docking. 05:00 p.m., 11/25/02, Update: Endeavour docks with space station Taking his time, commander James Wetherbee deftly guided the shuttle Endeavour to a gentle docking with the international space station today as the two spacecraft sailed 245 miles above the Pacific Ocean southeast of Australia. Following a now-familiar profile, the shuttle moved in from a point directly in front of the lab complex, its tail pointed toward Earth and its open cargo bay facing the station. Moving at a relative velocity of less than a tenth of a foot per second, Endeavour's docking collar engaged its counterpart on the forward end of the U.S. Destiny laboratory module at 4:59 p.m. "Endeavour arriving," station astronaut Peggy Whitson said, following naval tradition and ringing a ship's bell mounted in the Unity module. Docking came 33 minutes later than originally planned, the result of a slow and deliberate approach by Wetherbee. But there were no problems of any significance during today's rendezvous and the linkup was virtually flawless. And in a plus for armchair astronauts, the delay moved docking from darkness to daylight and back into live coverage through a NASA communications satellite. A new camera mounted on the far end of the station's S1 solar array truss segment provided a spectacular new view of the shuttle's final approach, with Endeavour approaching from the left, the Destiny module in the center of the view and the blue-and-cloud-white limb of the Earth in the background. After hooks and latches draw the two spacecraft firmly together, and after leak checks to make sure the interface between Endeavour and the station is tight, hatches will be opened and the station's crew - Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, Sergei Treschev and science officer Whitson - will welcome the shuttle astronauts aboard. The major item on the post-docking agenda today is moving emergency equipment from the shuttle to the station that will allow the lab's next crew - Expedition 6 commander Kennedy Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit - to move in and take over command. That equipment consists primarily of Russian Sokol pressure suits and custom seatliners for the station's Soyuz TMA-1 lifeboat. Once that gear is on board - and it should be in place by late this evening - Bowersox and company will officially become the station's sixth on-board crew. From that point on, Korzun and his crewmates will be considered members of Endeavour's crew. 06:35 p.m., 11/25/02, Update: Hatches opened; shuttle crew welcomed aboard station Shuttle commander James Wetherbee opened a final hatch between Endeavour and the international space station at 6:31 p.m. Waiting on the other side with smiles, hugs and handshakes were Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, science officer Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Sergei Treschev, launched to the lab complex June 5 and looking forward to a ride home aboard Endeavour Dec. 4. "Very nice docking, beautiful!" said Korzun, floating in the pressurized mating adapter between Endeavour and the Destiny lab module. After a bit more small talk, Korzun welcomed Wetherbee and his six crewmates aboard, including the next full-time crew of the international outpost, Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer and Mir veteran Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit. Sharing the moment via live television from the station, the astronauts and cosmonauts could be seen laughing and congratulating each other as they mingled in the lab module prior to a safety briefing from Korzun. 10:15 p.m., 11/25/02, Update: New station crew takes over Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit officially replaced the international space station's fifth full-time crew tonight after installing and testing custom-fitted emergency gear. The official transition was marked at 9:28 p.m. when Bowersox told flight controllers his crew's custom seatliners were in place aboard the station's Soyuz lifeboat and that the Russian Sokol pressure suits they would use for an emergency return to Earth had been successfully tested. "And with those words, we officially welcome you and Nikolai and Donald to your brand new home," astronaut Barbara Morgan radioed from Houston. "Thanks a lot, it's great to be here," Bowersox replied. The station's outgoing crew - Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson - are now officially members of the shuttle Endeavour's crew. From this point forward, they will sleep aboard the shuttle and the Expedition 6 crew will sleep aboard the station. An official change-of-command ceremony will be staged Friday. Expedition 5 took off aboard Endeavour on June 5. Assuming an on-time landing aboard Endeavour Dec. 4, they will have logged 181 days 23 hours and 26 minutes off the planet. The official length of their tour of duty aboard the space station, which does not include time in space as part of a shuttle crew, was 171 days three hours and 33 minutes. As of late this evening, the space station has been continuously staffed for 753.5 days. =================================================================== P1 truss installed during first spacewalk (11/26/02) 10:30 a.m., 11/26/02, Update: Astronauts prepare for spacewalk, P1 installation The Endeavour astronauts and their space station counterparts are gearing up for the most critical day of the 112th shuttle mission: Installation of a new $390 million solar array truss segment, the third of 11 sections needed to complete the huge beam. Running well ahead of schedule, shuttle commander James Wetherbee, operating Endeavour's robot arm, began pulling P1 from its perch in the ship's cargo bay around 10:22 a.m. The P1 truss segment will be attached to the left, or port, side of the beam by outgoing station astronaut Peggy Whitson, operating the lab's Canadarm2 spacecrane. As the segment is being locked down with motorized bolts, astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington will exit the Quest airlock module for the first of three spacewalks to activate and outfit the new component. The six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, the 47th devoted to station assembly, is scheduled to begin around 3:25 p.m. Going into today's excursion, 34 U.S. fliers, one Canadian, one Frenchman and seven Russian cosmonauts have logged 285 hours and 25 minutes of spacewalk time building and maintaining the orbital complex. The solar array truss anchored to the top of the Destiny lab module eventually will extend some 180 feet to either side of the station's centerline. Two of the beam's 11 segments are currently in place while the third - P1 - will be installed today. Cost of the first three segments: $1.4 billion. The completed truss will feature huge solar arrays at each end while ammonia lines, pumps and massive radiators mounted inboard of the arrays will dissipate the heat generated by the station's electronics. Rails running the length of the truss on its forward face will allow the station's robot arm to move to various work sites atop a mobile transporter. The rails also will allow spacewalkers to move equipment using small railcars called CETA carts. The $600 million central segment of the truss, S0, was bolted to the Destiny module in April. The first starboard-side segment, S1, was attached in October. The P1 truss segment aboard Endeavour is the first port-side section of the beam. S1 and P2 include the lab's ammonia cooling system and radiators, three folding sets of panels on each truss segment that will extend 75 feet toward the rear of the station when fully deployed. An interim cooling system currently is in place atop the Unity module, along with a set of solar arrays that eventually will be moved to the end of the port truss. S1 and P1 are virtually identical. But installation of the new truss segment will be very different from the techniques used to install S1 in October. During that flight, the station's Canadarm2 space crane pulled S1 from the shuttle Atlantis' cargo bay and attached it straight-away to the right side of S0. Two spacewalkers then made a variety of electrical connections, attached ammonia jumpers between S0 and S1 and installed nearly three dozen "spool positioning devices," or SPDs, to prevent quick-disconnect fittings from locking together too tightly. They also installed an S-band antenna system and mounted two remotely controlled television cameras, one on the lab module and one on the end of S1. The latter provided spectacular views of Endeavour's docking Sunday. For Endeavour's mission, installation will follow a very different course, one designed to set the stage for build-out of the port-side of the truss next year. "I'd say probably 60 to 70 percent of the tasks are identical, sort of a mirror image, although we are executing a lot of them differently," said Lopez-Alegria. Here is a timeline of today's activity (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 10:50 AM...02...15...00...P1 unberthed 10:55 AM...02...15...05...RMS (shuttle robot arm) moves P1 to low hover 11:15 AM...02...15...25...RMS tilt maneuver 11:30 AM...02...15...40...RMS arc maneuver 11:45 AM...02...15...55...RMS hands P1 to SSRMS (station arm) 11:55 AM...02...16...05...Treschev exercises 12:05 PM...02...16...15...OSVS (space vision system) powerup 12:25 PM...02...16...35...RMS releases P1 12:35 PM...02...16...45...Treschev exercises 12:45 PM...02...16...55...ISS: SSRMS P1 maneuver begins 01:25 PM...02...17...35...EVA-1: Spacesuit purge 01:25 PM...02...17...35...ISS: SSRMS moves P1 to ready-to-latch position 01:40 PM...02...17...50...EVA-1: Oxygen pre-breathe 01:50 PM...02...18...00...ISS: 1st stage P1 capture 02:05 PM...02...18...15...ISS: 2nd stage P1 capture 02:20 PM...02...18...30...ISS: SSAS normal mate (motorized bolts) 02:35 PM...02...18...45...OSVS powerdown 02:40 PM...02...18...50...EVA-1: Airlock depressurization 03:25 PM...02...19...35...Korzun exercises 03:25 PM...02...19...35...EVA-1: Airlock egress; spacewalk begins 03:25 PM...02...19...35...ISS: SSRMS ungrapples P1 03:30 PM...02...19...40...EVA-1: Sortie setup 03:40 PM...02...19...50...SSRMS maneuver 04:10 PM...02...20...20...ISS: SSRMS to PDGF (power and data grapple fixture) 04:15 PM...02...20...25...EVA-1: EV1 does P1/S0 nadir tray hookups 04:15 PM...02...20...25...EVA-1: EV2 releases CETA launch locks 04:25 PM...02...20...35...ISS crew meal 04:35 PM...02...20...45...Wetherbee exercises 04:55 PM...02...21...05...EVA-1: EV1 does FHRC SPDS 05:55 PM...02...22...05...EVA-1: EV1 does stinger SPDS 06:25 PM...02...22...35...EVA-1: EV1/EV2 start drag links 06:55 PM...02...23...05...Treschev exercises 07:05 PM...02...23...15...Pettit exercises 07:05 PM...02...23...15...Bowersox exercises 07:05 PM...02...23...15...EVA-1: EV1 does P1/S0 zenith tray hookups 07:05 PM...02...23...15...EVA-1: EV2 releases CETA launch locks 07:40 PM...02...23...50...EVA-1: EV1/EV2 WETA antenna installation 07:40 PM...02...23...50...RMS powerdown 08:05 PM...03...00...15...ISS: PDGF3/MBS maneuver 08:05 PM...03...00...15...Whitson exercises 08:15 PM...03...00...25...Korzun exercises 09:15 PM...03...01...25...EVA-1: Sortie cleanup 09:30 PM...03...01...40...EVA-1: Airlock ingress 09:50 PM...03...02...00...EVA-1: Airlock repress (spacewalk ends) 10:05 PM...03...02...15...ISS daily planning conference 12:20 AM...03...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins After pulling P1 from the shuttle's cargo bay, Wetherbee will hand it off to Whitson, operating the station's Canadarm2 crane, who then will move it into position for attachment to the left side of S0. The hand-off is required because the station arm can't reach into the cargo bay from its current position without hitting one of the shuttle arm's supports. "The P1 is unberthed from the shuttle using the shuttle (robot) arm, said station flight director Mark Kirasich. "We tilt it up to get a little bit of additional clearance from the tail and then the shuttle arm performs what we call an arc maneuver that moves the truss from inside the shuttle bay out over the port wing of the space shuttle to what we call the handoff position. "At the handoff position, the space station arm goes and grapples a second grapple fixture on the truss, we back the shuttle arm off and the shuttle arm is maneuvered to a position where it will provide camera views of the mating interface. "At that point, the station arm maneuvers the truss to the pre-install position where we do a fine alignment," Kirasich said. "And then we perform a maneuver we call 'press to readies.' We bring the truss close enough where the truss can be captured by the capture latch on the segment-to-segment attachment system." While the truss is being moved into position and attached to S0 with the capture latch and a set of four motorized bolts, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington will be working through their pre-spacewalk routine, breathing pure oxygen to purge nitrogen from their bloodstreams. As the motorized bolts drive home, pulling S0 and P1 together with 13,500 pounds of force, the spacewalkers will exit the Quest airlock module and get to work. Lopez-Alegria, call sign EV-1, will make the first of two sets of eight electrical connections needed to power-up the P1 truss' computers and other systems. Herrington, meanwhile, will release launch locks holding a new CETA cart in place on the truss rails, the station's second. The station's first CETA cart, carried into orbit attached to S1 last month, currently is coupled to the mobile transporter atop S0. While Herrington - EV-2 - works to release the various CETA cart launch locks, Lopez-Alegria will install six SPDs on flexible hose radiator coupler fluid lines between the truss and its folded radiator panels. The SPDs were ordered after an engineering analysis showed ammonia leakage past one of two seals in a typical quick-disconnect fitting could have the effect of pressurizing the fitting, making it difficult for future spacewalkers to release. The SPDs effectively pull each quick-disconnect apart slightly, just enough to allow any leakage to vent harmlessly into space. Thirty-three SPDs were installed during Atlantis' mission last month. During the current flight, 43 more will be installed, six on the first spacewalk, four on the second and 33 on the third. Two more will be installed on the next shuttle visit in March. After the first six are installed on the first spacewalk of Endeavour's mission, Herrington and Lopez-Alegria will remove and stow structural supports called "drag links" that helped hold P1 in the shuttle's cargo bay. They must be removed, as well as two massive keel pins, to clear the rails for eventual movement of the mobile transporter and CETA carts. Once that work is done, Lopez-Alegria will make a second set of electrical connections between S0 and P1 before working with Herrington to mount a spacesuit "helmet cam" TV antenna on the back of the Unity node. At present, video from the helmet cams of spacewalkers wearing U.S. spacesuits can only be seen inside the station when a shuttle is docked. The new WETA - wireless EVA television antenna - system will allow station crews to receive such video during spacewalks when the shuttle is not present. At the end of the spacewalk, the Canadarm2 robot arm, attached to the mobile transporter on the S0 truss, will "walk off," inchworm style, and attach itself to a grapple fixture on the hull of the laboratory module. This will clear the way for the mobile transporter to be moved out onto P1 during the third spacewalk. 01:55 p.m., 11/26/02, Update: P1 truss attached to space station The new $390 million P1 solar array truss segment, a 45-foot-long, 14.5-ton beam packed with computers, a complex ammonia cooling system and other equipment, has been successfully attached to the international space station. Like a massive baton in some cosmic relay, the beam was pulled from Endeavour's cargo bay by the shuttle's robot arm and then handed off to the station's Canadarm2 space crane for installation on the lab complex. Astronaut Peggy Whitson, operating Canadarm2 from inside the Destiny laboratory module, moved P1 into position near the port end of the station's growing solar array truss so a mechanical claw could pull it into place. Four motorized bolts will complete the job, firmly locking the two components together. The addition of P1 boosts the station's total mass to nearly 200 tons. With the P1 installation on track, astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington are floating inside the Quest airlock module, preparing to begin the first of three spacewalks to outfit and activate the new truss. The spacewalk originally was scheduled to begin around 3:25 p.m., but the astronauts are running a half-hour or so ahead of schedule. 02:50 p.m., 11/26/02, Update: Spacewalk begins Floating in the Quest airlock module, astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington switched their spacesuits to internal battery power at 2:49 p.m. to officially begin a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The astronauts will leave the airlock momentarily to begin work to outfit and activate a new solar array truss segment on the international space station. See the 10:30 a.m. update on the Current Mission page for an detailed overview of today's activity. 09:40 p.m., 11/26/02, Update: Spacewalk ends with all objectives met Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington began repressurizing the Quest airlock module at 9:35 p.m., officially ending a six-hour 46-minute spacewalk, the first of three to outfit and activate the new P1 solar array truss. This was the 47th spacewalk devoted to assembly and maintenance of the international space station, the 16th this year and the 22nd staged from one of the station's two airlocks. As of today, 35 NASA astronauts, one Canadian, one Frenchman and seven Russian cosmonauts have logged 292 hours and 11 minutes of space station assembly time since construction began in 1998. Herrington and Lopez-Alegria plan to stage two more spacewalks Thursday and Saturday to complete the outfitting of the P1 truss. 10:55 p.m., 11/26/02, Update: At NASA, 53 seconds is no time at all Today's spacewalk by astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington was a complete success, NASA managers said tonight, and the new P1 solar array truss is operating flawlessly after being wired into the space station's electrical system. "Things went very, very well," said flight director Robert Castle. "We activated P1, all those systems came up, everything came up beautifully, all the hardware is working, there are no anomalies to talk about. "With the activation of the P1 truss, we now have completed what I think of as the central part of the (station's main solar array) truss. We now have the entire cooling system, all the radiators, all the cooling lines are all there, the ammonia is there. The air conditioning system, if you will, is now fully constructed and is ready to be turned on (next year)." Today's spacewalk began at 2:49 p.m. and ended at 9:35 p.m. for a duration of six hours and 45 minutes. Some readers might think that adds up to six hours and 46 minutes, but they would be wrong. The actual duration of the excursion was six hours, 45 minutes and 53 seconds but NASA's EVA office rounds down because of occasional lags in telemetry indicating when airlock repressurization - which marks the end of a spacewalk - actually began. So at NASA, it would seem, 53 seconds is no time at all. "The reason why we started rounding down the times is our EVA clock technical stops when we start repress," said lead spacewalk officer Dana Weigel. "And it's difficult to tell exactly when the crew starts repressing the airlock. The data on the ground doesn't always respond right away. So what we do is, we watch the data and as soon as we think it starts to change and it's indeed the repress, we stop our clock. And often times, that's 30 seconds or so off. So we tend to round down." Asked why NASA didn't simply change the official ending time to 9:34 p.m. so the hours and minutes would at least add up, Castle said that was a question best left to the agency's public affairs office. Go figure. =================================================================== Crew moves equipment to station; handover activities (11/27/02) Shuttle commander James Wetherbee celebrated his 50th birthday in orbit today, serenaded by the Beatles' tune "Birthday" beamed up from mission control. "We just wanted to wish you a happy birthday," astronaut Joan Higginbotham radioed from Houston. "I think the song says it all. But from your (flight control team), we want to wish you a happy birthday. What a way to spend your birthday!" "Well, I came all this way specifically to hide from it all," replied Wetherbee, making his sixth space voyage. "Thank you very much for the mention of that. I was trying to get away from any kind of parties that (my wife) Robin may have decided to throw me on my half century. But I agree, I couldn't think of a better place to spend it." "You don't look (a) day above 29," Higginbotham joked. "You know, the way I deal with this is about six months ago, I started telling everyone I was 50," Wetherbee said. "So now it's no big deal." "I guess if I start now," Higginbotham replied, "25 years won't be a bit deal for me, either." The shuttle-station astronauts are working inside the lab complex today, transferring equipment and supplies from Endeavour to the space station. The outgoing crew of the space station - Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, Sergei Treschev and Peggy Whitson - plans to spend several hours today giving the new Expedition 6 crew a detailed briefing on the lab's operation and idiosyncracies. Korzun and his crewmates were launched to the outpost June 5. When they return to Earth aboard Endeavour Dec. 4, they will have logged 182 days in space. Expedition 6 commander Kennedy Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit plan to remain aboard the station until late March. There is little else to report this morning. There are no technical problems of any significance with the shuttle or the space station and the timeline for today's activities is little changed from the pre-launch flight plan. But here's the latest version as uplinked from mission control earlier today (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT Flight Day 5 11/27/02 12:20 AM...03...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins 08:20 AM...03...12...30...STS crew wakeup 08:50 AM...03...13...00...ISS-5/ISS-6 crew wakeup 10:50 AM...03...15...00...ISS daily planning conference 11:05 AM...03...15...15...ISS-5/ISS-6 handover activity 11:20 AM...03...15...30...Logistics transfers resume 11:25 AM...03...15...35...Herrington exercises 12:00 PM...03...16...10...Reboost maneuver No. 1 12:20 PM...03...16...30...Lockhart exercises 01:05 PM...03...17...15...Quest equipment lock prep 01:05 PM...03...17...15...Treschev exercises 01:40 PM...03...17...50...ISS: Budarin exercises 01:50 PM...03...18...00...EVA-2: Tools configured 01:50 PM...03...18...00...Wetherbee exercises 02:40 PM...03...18...50...Whitson exercises 02:40 PM...03...18...50...ISS: Pettit exercise 03:30 PM...03...19...40...STS PAO event 03:40 PM...03...19...50...ISS: Bowersox exercises 04:20 PM...03...20...30...STS crew meal 04:40 PM...03...20...50...ISS crew meal 05:20 PM...03...21...30...Logistics transfers resume 05:20 PM...03...21...30...EVA camera setup 05:40 PM...03...21...50...ISS-5/ISS-6 handover activities resume 06:35 PM...03...22...45...Lopez-Alegria exercises 06:45 PM...03...22...55...Korzun exercises 07:45 PM...03...23...55...ISS: Bowersox exercises 07:45 PM...03...23...55...Whitson exercises 08:20 PM...04...00...30...EVA-2: Procedures review 08:35 PM...04...00...45...Treschev exercises 10:05 PM...04...02...15...ISS daily planning conference 12:20 AM...03...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins At 3:30 p.m., Wetherbee, pilot Paul Lockhart, Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, considered the first native American to fly in space, will participate in round-robin interviews with KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, the Chickasaw Times and the Cedena Ser Radio Network. Herrington and Lopez-Alegria completed the first of three planned spacewalks Tuesday evening. "I'm incredibly proud and honored to have the opportunity to serve my country in this capacity as an astronaut," Herrington said before launch in a NASA interview. "So that's, hands down, just a fabulous thing. If my heritage as a Chickasaw Indian and the fact of what I do here will help motivate somebody who might not otherwise think they could achieve their dreams, that's a good thing. It's an honor, really, to be in that position. But I love what I do, and it's fun and if people attach to that, that's great." =================================================================== Thanksgiving Day spacewalk accomplishes all objectives (11/28/02) 08:50 a.m., 11/28/02, Update: Thanksgiving Day spacewalk on tap The Endeavour astronauts were awakened for a Thanksgiving Day spacewalk at 8:15 a.m. by a recording of the opening theme from the movie "Trading Places" that was beamed up at the request of spacewalker Michael Lopez-Alegria's family." "Sounding good, Joanie!" Lopez-Alegria radioed astronaut Joan Higginbotham in mission control. "You're looking good, LA," she replied. "Thanks, that's very inspirational. We're pumped up, ready to go, I could just see my suits being arranged and you guys making fresh-squeezed orange juice for us down there. We're looking forward to a great day. We all miss our families and we're sorry you all are having to work on Thanksgiving, but it's all for a good cause. Thank you very much." "You're quite welcome and we're happy to be here to support you," Higginbotham said. "And we're also looking forward to an awesome EVA today." While Americans enjoy traditional turkey dinners and college football, the Endeavour astronauts will be gearing up for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk by Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington to continue the outfitting and activation of the P1 solar array truss that was attached to the international space station Tuesday. If all goes well, the spacewalkers will float out of the Quest airlock module around 2:20 p.m. The goal of this second excursion is to install ammonia fluid-line jumpers, to remove the two keel pins used to physically secure P1 in the shuttle's cargo bay for launch, to install a second wireless astronaut "helmet cam" antenna system on the P1 truss and to move a new CETA rail cart from the P1 truss to the S1 truss on the opposite side of the station. The latter promises to be particularly dramatic. Herrington, anchored to the end of the station's robot arm, will manually hold the 600-pound CETA cart while the arm, operated by space station science officer Donald Pettit and commander Kenneth Bowersox, swings him through a sweeping 180-degree arc to the opposite side of the truss. The cart must be moved before the third spacewalk of the flight to permit the Canadarm2's mobile transporter to move from its current location at worksite 4, on the front of the central S0 truss, to worksite 7 on the far end of P1, where it will be needed to complete EVA-3 activities. "One of the neat things I get to do at the end of EVA-2 - this will probably be the high point of all the EVAs for me - is to climb on board the robotic arm with Don at the controls," Herrington said. "And I'll be taking the CETA cart from the left side of station to the right side of station. "I'll lift it off, we'll back away from the truss a little bit, then Don will put the arm through a maneuver that will take me completely past the tail of the shuttle and back up around to the right side of the station where we'll move it back in slowly, with Mike guiding me, and we'll put it back onto the rails. So that's going to be a real exciting time, I'll get to see the station from a pretty neat perspective." But Pettit said the drama will be a strictly slow-motion affair. "Nothing like this happens really fast," he said. "I mean if you sat there and watched the arm move, you've got to blink a few times to see whether it's really moving. So we're not going to be trying to set any world records here. It takes about 20 minutes to do this trajectory, so there'll be plenty of time to run off to the refrigerator and grab another soft drink." The first item on the agenda for EVA-2 is to install fluid jumpers between S0 and P1 to connect ammonia coolant lines. Both spacewalkers, their feet anchored in foot restraints, will be required to complete this objective. "These are large hoses that actually connect the S0 truss to P1 truss and it'll allow us to flow ammonia, which is a cooling agent we use with the radiators," Herrington said. "That's our first task, that's probably the hardest task in that EVA." Herrington and Lopez-Alegria then will remove and stow the starboard keel pin before using the CETA cart to carry the second wireless EVA television antenna, or WETA, assembly to the end of P1. Lopez-Alegria will mount the assembly while Herrington releases clamps on electrical cables that will be used on an upcoming assembly flight. He also will inspect the system that will be used to clamp the next port-side truss element to P1. Both spacewalkers then will remove and stow the port keel pin before performing the CETA cart relocation maneuver to conclude the six-and-a-half-hour excursion. Here is an updated timeline of today's activity as uplinked to the crew from mission control (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 11/28/02 - Flight Day 6 12:20 AM...04...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins 08:20 AM...04...12...30...STS crew wakeup 08:50 AM...04...13...00...ISS-5/ISS-6 crew wakeup 09:35 AM...04...13...45...EVA-2: Prep with STS oxygen 09:35 AM...04...13...45...ISS: Pettit EVA prep on-the-job training 10:50 AM...04...15...00...ISS daily planning conference 11:35 AM...04...15...45...Wetherbee exercises 12:20 PM...04...16...30...Whitson exercises 12:20 PM...04...16...30...ISS: Bowersox exercises 12:25 PM...04...16...35...Quest repress to 14.7 psi 12:25 PM...04...16...35...EVA-2: Spacesuit purge 01:20 PM...04...17...30...ISS: Pettit exercises 01:40 PM...04...17...50...EVA-2: Airlock depressurization 02:20 PM...04...18...30...EVA-2: Airlock egress 02:30 PM...04...18...40...EVA-2: Sortie setup 02:50 PM...04...19...00...ISS: Budarin exercises 03:10 PM...04...19...20...ISS: Handover 03:20 PM...04...19...30...EVA-2: EV1/EV2 P1/S0 fluid jumpers 03:50 PM...04...20...00...ISS-5/ISS-6 crew meal 04:50 PM...04...21...00...EVA-2: EV1/EV2 starboard keel pin removal 05:25 PM...04...21...35...EVA-2: WETA P1 06:00 PM...04...22...10...ISS: Budarin exercises 06:20 PM...04...22...30...EVA-2: EV1/EV2 Port keel pin removal 06:35 PM...04...22...45...Treschev exercises 06:50 PM...04...23...00...EVA-2: EV1/EV2 CETA relocation 07:00 PM...04...23...10...ISS: Transfers 07:30 PM...04...23...40...Korzun exercises 08:05 PM...05...00...15...EVA-2: Sortie cleanup 08:35 PM...05...00...45...EVA-2: Airlock ingress 08:50 PM...05...01...00...EVA-2: Airlock repressurization; EVA ends 10:05 PM...05...02...15...ISS daily planning conference 12:20 AM...05...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins A mission status briefing to discuss the results of the spacewalk is planned for 9:30 p.m. Revision F of the NASA television schedule is posted below. 12:20 p.m., 11/28/02, Update: Spacewalkers ahead of schedule; may begin up to an hour early Spacewalkers Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington are running ahead of schedule in their preparations for today's spacewalk. Originally scheduled to begin around 2:20 p.m., the EVA could begin up to an hour early. 01:40 p.m., 11/28/02, Update: Spacewalk begins Floating in the Quest airlock module, astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington switched their suits to internal battery power at 01:36 p.m. to officially begin the second of three spacewalks to outfit and activate the international space station's new P1 truss. The Thanksgiving Day EVA is scheduled to last six-and-a-half hours. To mark the U.S. holiday, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston briefly replaced the space station symbol on their mission control tracking map with the image of a turkey, the traditional main course of a Thanksgiving Day meal. This is the 48th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and the 17th of 2002. Going into today's excursion, 35 NASA astronauts, seven Russian cosmonauts, one Canadian and one Frenchman had logged 292 hours and 10 minutes building and maintaining the international space station. Of the 48 spacewalks to date, 25 were staged from visiting shuttles while the rest have been conducted from the station. It will take Lopez-Alegria and Herrington a half-hour or more to set up their tools, tethers and work platforms before getting down to business. The goals of today's spacewalk are to connect ammonia coolant line jumpers between truss segments, remove the two massive keel pins that held the P1 truss in the shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay, to mount a spacewalk "helmet cam" antenna system on P1 and to move an astronaut rail car from one side of the station's growing solar array truss to the other. See the 8:50 a.m. status report below for a detailed timeline and a more complete discussion of the goals of this EVA. 02:45 p.m., 11/28/02, Update: Shuttle commander sends down Thanksgiving Day message Shuttle commander James Wetherbee, overseeing a spacewalk by two of his crewmates, took a moment to send down a Thanksgiving Day message today as Endeavour and the space station sailed 245 miles above the southern Pacific Ocean. "From the crews of Endeavour and Alpha, we wish everyone below a happy Thanksgiving," Wetherbee called. "From our vantage point high above the Earth, we can see we are very fortunate to be living at a time when society has advanced their technology further in one generation than in all of human history. "We developed powered flight one century ago. For me, it began when I participated, merely by sitting alone and listening to the greatest flight of all, Apollo 8, where for the first time in human history, three men got up one morning... and left. I was captivated, listening to my little nine-volt transitor radio as they passed around the back side of the moon, totally cut off from the other five billion of us on the planet. "Now as we float here, looking at what is being built, we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to be part of this generation that is expanding technology," Wetherbee said. "And lastly, we are grateful for our family and friends for without them, this technology would be meaningless. From the crews of Endeavour and Alpha, we wish all of you closer to the center of our home planet a happy Thanksgiving." Spacewalkers Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, meanwhile, are working through the first task of their EVA timeline, installation of ammonia jumpers between the new P1 truss segment and the S0 segment it was attached to Tuesday. The jumpers will allow ammonia coolant to flow from S0 to huge radiators on P1 when the station's main thermal control system is activated next year. Through the first hour and 10 minutes of today's spacewalk, the astronauts were right on their timeline, encountering no problems of any significance. "That sun is bright!" one of the spacewalkers radioed at one point. "It's been that way for several billion years," replied Wetherbee. "I guess you become sage when you're 50 years old," the astronaut replied. 07:10 p.m., 11/28/02, Update: CETA cart successfully repositioned Astronaut John Herrington, holding a 600-pound space station rail car while anchored to the end of the international space station's robot arm, enjoyed the ride of his life today 245 miles above the Indian Ocean. "Gorgeous sights out here!" Herrington radioed as the arm carried him through a sweeping, slow-motion 180-degree arc, from one side of the space station's solar array truss to the other. "It's gorgeous, just gorgeous. I'd love to take a picture, but..." "Your hands are full, right?" said arm operator Peggy Whitson. "My hands are full," Herrington laughed. A new astronaut rail car, known as a CETA cart, was launched attached to the new P1 solar array truss that was installed Tuesday. To clear the tracks on the truss so the Canadarm2 crane's mobile base can be relocated as needed for the crew's third spacewalk Saturday, Herrington and spacewalker Michael Lopez-Alegria had to move the cart from P1 to an identical truss on the opposite side of the station. Herrington clearly enjoyed the slow-motion ride as Whitson swung him back above the tail of the shuttle and around to the right-side of the space station. "What do I look like, LA?" Herrington asked Lopez-Alegria. "You look like a guy holding a 4-by-8 piece of plywood with a bunch of stuff strapped to it." "All I can see is CETA-2," Herrington said as he floated in orbital darkness. "I can see everything left and right, though. ... What are we flying over, Paco?" "Saudi Arabia," pilot Paul "Paco" Lockhart replied from Endeavour's flight deck. "No kidding? Cool. Those must be oil fires down there then." A few moments later, as Whitson pulled Herrington away from the P1 truss, Lopez-Alegria radioed "OK, John, you're on your own." "I'm not going anywhere," Herrington said. "I sure hope you're getting pictures of this." "That's affirm, we are," Lockhart said as Lopez-Alegria began moving hand-over-hand from P1 to S1 to await Herrington's arrival. "I should tell the flight surgeon to give me a print out of my heart rate," Herrington said laughing. "I ought to frame that!" Passing above the shuttle, Herrington reported he could see the computer screens flickering on Endeavour's flight deck through the ship's front windows. "I can see the CRT through the commander's window," he said. "The motion of the arm, it feels like it wants to roll the CETA cart around. So I have to put forward pressure with with my left hand and pull back with my right. Anything faster than that and it would be hard to control the cart, I think." The move was uneventful and the cart was successfully mounted on the S1 rails, clearing the way for the Canadarm2 mobile base system to move onto the P1 truss for the third spacewalk Saturday. All of the major objectives of today's spacewalk were successfully accomplished and the astronauts are cleaning up in preparation for returning to the space station's Quest airlock module. 07:50 p.m., 11/28/02, Update: Spacewalk ends; all objectives met Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington began repressurizing the Quest airlock module at 7:46 p.m., officially ending a six-hour 10-minute spacewalk, the second of three to outfit and activate a new solar array truss on the international space station. Over two spacewalks, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington have now logged 12 hours and 55 minutes of spacewalk time, pushing the overall station total to 298 hours and 20 minutes over 48 EVAs. There were no problems of any significance and all of the crew's objectives were accomplished. 10:30 p.m., 11/28/02, Update: Smooth flight makes mission extension unlikely With smooth progress through two spacewalks to install the P1 solar array truss segment, NASA managers say there are no plans to extend the shuttle Endeavour's mission beyond the currently planned Dec. 4 landing date. "We have completed EVA-2," flight director Robert Castle Thursday evening. "The EVA went very, very well. We picked up everything we planned to do, as well as a couple of get-aheads. "As far as other things going on, the (supply and equipment) transfers are continuing, we think we're on track with all of that. Crew handover, of course, we're continuing to do crew handover briefings to bring the new (space station) crew up to speed on things going on and how things really work. "All that's gone very well," Castle concluded. "EVA-3 is still on schedule for Saturday and then the plan would be to continue to undock on Monday and to land on Wednesday. So at this time, there's no move to extend the mission any. We're still looking at a nominal-length mission." Lead spacewalk officer Dana Weigel said spacewalkers Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington accomplished all of their Thanksgiving Day objectives, and then some. Two fluid jumpers were installed on ammonia lines between the central S0 truss and the new P1 extension that will permit ammonia coolant to flow with the thermal control system is activated next year. Four spool positioning devices, or SPDs, were installed on ammonia quick-disconnect fittings to prevent potential problems with internal leakage and over pressurization. Both of the massive keel pins that helped hold P1 in the shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay were stowed and a second wireless TV antenna was installed to provide spacewalk "helmet cam" views when the shuttle isn't there. A new CETA astronaut cart was moved from P1 to the far side of the solar array truss to clear the way for upcoming movements of a transporter used to anchor the station's Canadarm2 crane to various work sites on the truss. And finally, seven of 18 launch locks holding P1's ammonia radiators in place were released as a get-ahead task. Either end of the station's robot arm can plug into power-and-data grapple fixtures at various points on the station's exterior. The free end of the arm can then be used to move astronauts or equipment from point to point. As Herrington and Lopez-Alegria are gearing up for Saturday's third and final spacewalk, the robot arm will start out mounted on the U.S. Destiny lab module. Flight controllers then will command the mobile transporter to move along tracks on the forward face of the truss, from work site 4 to work site 7 at the far end of P1. The free end of the robot arm then will be commanded to latch onto the MT and to release the grapple fixture on the lab. The arm must be at work site 7 to complete the objectives of the spacewalk. When the EVA is over, the arm will move back to the lab and the MT will be commanded to move back to work site 4. "The sequence for that day is the crew starts getting into the suits, the MT moves out to the end of the P1 truss," Weigel said. "Then the SSRMS will do a walkoff onto the MT, and by the time we get out the door, it's in position for our first task." "The entire (MT) procedure is bookkept for an hour and a half. Part of that is the unlatching of the mobile transporter, unplugging it from its electrical source and the drive time. It moves at about 1.2 inches per second." Total distance travelled will be about 55 feet. A detailed EVA-3 preview will be posted Saturday morning. =================================================================== Change-of-command ceremony; crew news conference (11/29/02) 09:00 a.m., 11/29/02, Update: Astronauts focus on experiment transfers, handover activity The Endeavour astronauts are working through a lighter schedule today, transferring experiment hardware to and from the space station while the outgoing station fliers brief their replacements on the intricacies of daily life aboard the outpost. Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox and his two crewmates, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit, officially replaced the Expedition 5 crew shortly after Endeavour docked with the station Monday. But the two crews will hold a formal change-of-command ceremony this afternoon. The ceremony, carried live on NASA television, is targeted for around 3:20 p.m., but it could move up a bit depending on how the day's work progresses. There are no technical problems of any significance and the station's U.S. carbon dioxide removal system is back up and running normally after repair work earlier this week. Shuttle commander James Wetherbee and pilot Paul Lockhart will oversee a second reboost maneuver later this morning, firing the shuttle's thrusters to increase the station's altitude by a bit less than one mile. The astronauts also will check out the tools needed for a third and final spacewalk Saturday and hold a traditional in-flight news conference at 4:40 p.m. Here is an updated timeline of today's activity as uplinked to the crew earlier today from mission control (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT Flight Day 7 11/29/02 12:20 AM...05...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins 08:20 AM...05...12...30...STS crew wakeup 08:50 AM...05...13...00...ISS-5/ISS-6 crew wakeup 10:50 AM...05...15...00...ISS daily planning conference 11:20 AM...05...15...30...PCG STES 7 experiment transfer 11:20 AM...05...15...30...ISS: PCG STES 10 experiment transfer 11:40 AM...05...15...50...Treschev exercises 11:40 AM...05...15...50...Reboost maneuver No. 2 12:20 PM...05...16...30...ISS-5/ISS-6 handover activity 12:25 PM...05...16...35...EVA-3: Tools configured 12:30 PM...05...16...40...Lockhart exercises 12:40 PM...05...16...50...Korzun exercises 12:40 PM...05...16...50...ISS: Budarin exercises 01:35 PM...05...17...45...Wetherbee exercises 01:40 PM...05...17...50...Quest equipment lock prep 01:50 PM...05...18...00...Logistics transfers resume 02:10 PM...05...18...20...Whitson exercises 02:10 PM...05...18...20...ISS: Bowersox exercises 02:50 PM...05...19...00...EVA camera setup 03:20 PM...05...19...30...Change-of-command ceremony 03:40 PM...05...19...50...STS/ISS joint meal 04:40 PM...05...20...50...STS/ISS joint crew news conference 05:10 PM...05...21...20...Joint crew photo 05:30 PM...05...21...40...Audio troubleshooting 05:55 PM...05...22...05...Logistics transfers resume 05:55 PM...05...22...05...Lopez-Alegria exercises 06:20 PM...05...22...30...ISS: Pettit exercises 06:50 PM...05...23...00...Herrington exercises 06:50 PM...05...23...00...Whitson exercises 07:20 PM...05...23...30...PGBA bioprocessor experiment transfer 08:20 PM...06...00...30...EVA-3: Procedures review 08:50 PM...06...01...00...Korzun exercises 09:30 PM...06...01...40...Treschev exercises 10:05 PM...06...02...15...ISS daily planning conference An updated status report will be posted after today's news conference or as conditions warrant. 03:45 p.m., 11/29/02, Update: Change-of-command ceremony During a brief change-of-command ceremony today, outgoing Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun formally turned over the international space station to Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, a veteran space shuttle commander with four previous flights to his credit. "I'm ready to be relieved," Korzun said, floating in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module with his two crewmates, the Expedition 6 crew and the shuttle Endeavour's four astronauts. "Valery, i relieve you of commnand," Bowersox said. "I stand relieved," Korzun concluded. Crewmate Peggy Whitson, the Expedition 5 science officer, then rang the ship's bell in accordance with naval tradition. Korzun, Whitson and flight engineer Sergei Treschev were launched to the station June 5. They were officially replaced as the lab's on-board residents within a few hours of Endeavour's docking Monday by Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit. Korzun and his two crewmates will return to Earth next Wednesday aboard Endeavour, closing out a 182-day voyage. Bowersox and the Expedition 6 crew plan to remain aboard the space station at least four months and, given the uncertainties of the shuttle launch schedule, possibly longer. "This is not really a funny time for us because we will miss Alpha, our space house," Korzun said in halting English. "We were so happy to live here, to work here." Today's ceremony was simply a formality, but as Bowersox said after relieving Korzun, "ceremonies are important in life because they cause us to pause from our hectic routines to try and remember and make important events in our lives." "This is a very important day in the life of station and in the lives of all the crew members here," he said. "Because we not only change command of the station, but we're changing the crews that live aboard. The Expedition 5 crew has done tremendous work. "They've set a standard that's going to be difficult for any crew in the future to equal. They've shown people around the world that international crews can accomplish complex objectives and do so while working with a smile. I only hope my crew will be able to work as well over the next four, or how ever many months we end up living on station. Hopefully, more than four!" Shuttle skipper James Wetherbee, who has a penchant for occasionally waxing philosophical, told the combined station crews "we were honored to serve with you." "Together, we have continued construction of this ship on the high seas, we've helped Expedition 5 end and Expedition 6 begin," Wetherbee said. "We stand in awe of this great ship, built by workers on the Earth who dared to dream and by explorers in space who sail to the edge. "Someday soon, after we've pushed farther into the unknown, this will be a safe haven in a cold and dangerous place. Until then, this is the edge of the universe for us, the limits of our reach. It's an unforgiving place but it has answers to questions if we're bold enough to search. It has solutions to problems if we're strong enough to survive. "Expedition 6, it is your duty to sail on and disappear over the horizon, but return after discovering new lands and make the world a better place." 06:40 p.m., 11/29/02, Update: Departing station crew looks forward to home Space station science officer Peggy Whitson, 177 days off the planet with just five to go before coming home, says she's looking forward to "a nice steak with a caesar salad with tons of garlic in it." Flight engineer Sergei Treschev wants "a big hot dog." And Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun says he wants to "eat and drink, maybe, for a couple of days. And then diet." "I'm really looking forward to getting some food that's not in a bag!" Whitson told reporters today. "There's an everyday routine that goes on here and some of that is not as much fun as the rest of it. But I really did have a good time and I can very easily say, without lying in the slightest, that it really was a blast being here and I am ready to come back." Korzun, Whitson and Treschev are winding up a marathon six-month stay aboard the international space station, briefing their replacements on the intricacies of its operation and packing their bags for home. Even though she misses her husband and her garden, Whitson said leaving her space home will be a bittersweet experience. "I do think I'm ready to go, but it's been kind of a gradual process," she said today during a news conference. "A month ago, if you'd asked me when I started packing for the (trip home), I was definitely not ready to go. "I think it's been a gradual process of accepting that I should go," she said. "My husband reminded me that's it's much better to leave while you still want to stay than the other way around. So I think that's good advice and I'm happy to go while I wouldn't mind staying at all." Whitson and her crewmates have exercised twice daily throughout their stay in zero gravity, following a program to combat the long-term effects of weightlessness. Whitson said she preferred resistive exercises while Korzun and Treschev favored the station's treadmill. Whitson said today she and her crewmates are "in as good a shape as you can be when you're ion a zero G environment" and that she hopes to walk off the shuttle under her own power after landing next Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center. "I do hope to walk off the shuttle, I've been working out very hard up here, very diligently, and I do hope to be able to," she said. "I know it's going to be a big adjustment getting back, everyone says it is even after a short duration flight. So I'm hoping I've trained up enough that I'll be able to recover relatively quickly." As for her post-landing exercise regimen, Whitson joked "my husband says part of my rehab program is going to be getting back in my garden and get it trimmed up and weeded. So I think I'm going to have a lot to do in my yard, which is great for me because I love doing that. And it'll be a nice change from what I've been doing up here!" Korzun, Whitson and Treschev have been replaced by Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit, an energetic researcher who had extra coffee shipped up aboard Endeavour because there is "nothing like having a bag of coffee in the morning." The Expedition 6 crew plans to remain aboard the station until at least March. Based on first impressions, it won't be a hardship posting. "The thing that has struck me so far is how big this station is," Bowersox said. "It's amazing that we've put this thing together. I get tired translating (moving) all the way from one end to the other. I've been sleeping in the (Russian) service module but working a lot in the lab (at the other end of the station) and sometimes I'll forget something and have to go back to the service module to get it and I go 'oh no, I have to go all that way again.' I've been told I'll get faster! "I think it's really a tremendous achievement what our international team has accomplished here, to put this huge piece of hardware in orbit," Bowersox said. "And I don't think I'm going to feel cooped up at all, I've got lots of space to roam around, lots of things to look at and plenty of things to keep me busy. Right now, I think it's going to be lots of fun to be here for four months." For the past few days, the outgoing Expedition 5 crew has been briefing their Expedition 6 colleagues on where critical items are stored and providing hands-on insights into the lab's operation. Bowersox said Whitson has been "spending a lot of time showing us where things are." "There is stuff everywhere on the station and we have a pretty good computer system that keeps track of it, but it's quicker if you just know where some of the common items are," he said. "And she's been steadily showing us little nooks and crannies where everything's located and I think that's what we're going to appreciate when they're all gone." But first, the combined shuttle station crew must carry out a third and final spacewalk Saturday to complete the outfitting and activation of a new $390 million solar array truss segment that was attached to the station Tuesday. At a change-of-shift status briefing today, shuttle flight director Paul Dye said the crew is ahead of schedule meeting the objectives of the 112th shuttle flight and that barring any unexpected problems, NASA's mission management team today ruled out extending the flight. Kim Ulrich, the STS-113 launch package manager, said the crew was more than 75 percent complete with work to move equipment and supplies from the shuttle to the station and vice versa. As of today, some 1,705 pounds of gear has been moved from Endeavour to the station and another 756 pounds of equipment has been moved from the station to the shuttle for return to Earth. =================================================================== Third EVA successful despite lack of station arm (11/30/02) 08:45 a.m., 11/30/02, Update: Astronauts set for third and final spacewalk Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington are gearing up for their third and final spacewalk today, a planned six-and-a-half-hour excursion to complete the outfitting and activation of a new $390 million solar array truss segment. The spacewalk, the 49th devoted to space station assembly and maintenance, is scheduled to begin around 2:20 p.m. The shuttle astronauts were awakened shortly after 8:30 a.m. by a recording of "Walking on Sunshine" beamed up from mission control, a request from the family of Endeavour pilot Paul Lockhart. "Good morning to everyone down there in mission control. It's great to hear your voice this morning," Lockhart called. "Walking on sunshine? I think that's what John and Mike are going to be doing for several hours today." The goal of the spacewalk is twofold: To install 33 spool positioning devices, or SPDs, on various coolant line quick-disconnect fittings to prevent ammonia leakage; and to test the techniques and procedures needed to move the station's robot arm back and forth along the truss for upcoming assembly missions. The 11-segment solar array truss eventually will stretch some 365 feet, carrying the huge solar arrays that will provide the bulk of the space station's power and the ammonia cooling system and radiators needed to dissipate the heat generated by the station's electronics. The truss currently consists of three segments: The $600 million central S0 truss mounted atop the U.S. Destiny lab module; the $390 million S1 truss, attached to S0's right, or starboard, side; and the $390 million P1, carried up by Endeavour and attached to the left, or port, side of S0. A fourth truss element, a $600 million solar array segment known as P6, is mounted atop the Unity module. It provides interim power and cooling and will be moved to the port side of the main truss next year. Rails run along the forward face of the main truss, allowing a $190 million mobile transporter to move back and forth along the beam. The mobile transporter, in turn, was designed to serve as a mobile platform for the station's $600 million Canadarm2 spacecrane. To complete the truss, the robot arm must be able to move to various work sites along the beam. But first, engineers want to make sure the mobile transporter can move along the rails on its own before sending the robot arm down the line. "What you're going to see on this EVA, while the spacewalkers are in the airlock performing their pre-breathe activities, you're going to see a ballet, or a choreographed sequence of events that will move the mobile transporter from its current location at worksite 4 (on S0), down the tracks to worksite seven (at end of P1)," said space station flight director Mark Kirasich. The next elements in the port-side truss build-up "can only be installed with the arm on the mobile transporter and the mobile transporter at worksite 7," he said. "So it's very important we can get the MT to that location." To make that happen, the robot arm was walked off the MT to the lab module earlier in the mission, the astronauts removed the keel pins and drag links that held P1 in the shuttle's cargo bay - and blocked the rails - and moved a new CETA rail car from P1 to S1. Before the third spacewalk begins today, the mobile transporter will be commanded to move about 55 feet, from worksite 4 to worksite 7 near the end of P1. "The sequence for that day is the crew starts getting into the suits, the MT moves out to the end of the P1 truss," said lead EVA officer Dana Weigel. "Then the SSRMS will do a walkoff onto the MT, and by the time we get out the door, it's in position for our first task." "The entire (MT) procedure is bookkept for an hour and a half. Part of that is the unlatching of the mobile transporter, unplugging it from its electrical source and the drive time. It moves at about 1.2 inches per second." Once the transporter is plugged into its power-and-data socket at work site 7, Canadarm2's free end will lock onto one of the transporter's grapple fixtures. The crane then will release a fixture on the lab module to complete the inchworm-like "walk off" to the transporter. With the arm now ready for work in its new position, Lopez-Alegria will install two SPDs on ammonia lines at the interface between the Z1 and P6 trusses atop the Unity module. He will install two more in the "rat's nest" of coolant lines and cables between Z1 and the lab module. Finally, Lopez-Alegria will hook up two more SPDs on a heat exchanger below the outer skin of the lab's end cone. The SPDs were designed after engineers discovered internal leakage in the quick-disconnect fittings could have the result of pressurizing the internal cavity and preventing astronauts from disconnecting them as required during the assembly sequence. The SPDs effectively pull the QDs apart slightly, just enough to open one of two internal seals. That, in turn, allows any ammonia leakage to vent harmlessly into space. While Lopez-Alegria works at the Z1-P6 interface, Herrington will install 18 SPDs on the rotary beam valve modules on the back of P1 where quick-disconnect fittings link ammonia lines leading from the truss to the radiators. Twelve of those fittings will be attached while Herrington is on the Canadarm2. He then will get off the arm, the arm will walk back off to the lab and Herrington will install the final 6 SPDs as a "free floater." Lopez-Alegria, meanwhile, will install four SPDs on P1's ammonia pump module, reconfigure power cables, hook up the truss ammonia tank and prepare the ammonia system for filling during a flight next year. The spacewalk will end after installation of a final set of SPDs on the flexible hose rotary coupler, part of the system that enables the radiators to rotate to ensure maximum cooling. At the conclusion of today's spacewalk, the MT will be moved back to work site 4 on the S0 truss. At that point, P1 will be ready for attachment of the next port-side truss segment and 76 of 78 required SPDs will have been installed. The final two will be installed during the next station assembly mission in March. "This will be the first time the mobile transporter has moved across an interface between two truss segments," said station program manager Bill Gerstenmaier. "The reason we're doing this on this flight is to set ourselves up for next year's activities. We need to operate off of that worksite to install some of the outboard truss elements and we want to gain some experience in using the mobile transporter, seeing how it operates, actually moving it in a time critical fashion out to this worksite. "You'll also notice when this activity occurs that we don't move the arm on top of the mobile transporter. The arm will be walked off the mobile transporter to the lab. Then the mobile transporter will be moved out and then the arm will walk back onto the truss. So when you see that activity, that's dramatically different from what we did back on the last flight on the S1 install. "On the S1 install, we stayed on one worksite, we used the arm all from that worksite. On this flight, you'll see a lot of mobile transporter movement, you'll see a lot of arm activity moving to different locations. That was done really because of where we have to reach on this P1 truss and it's also driven by the fact that we want to test in advance these new capabilities we're going to use on future flights. "So just as we've been doing throughout the assembly sequence, anything we can do ahead of time to make sure it's operating, to make sure it works ... we do that," Gerstenmaier said. "So we're really getting prepared on this flight, this P1 flight, for future activities that we're going to have to do next year." Here is an updated timeline of today's activity as uplinked to the crew from mission control (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT Flight Day 8 11/30/02 12:20 AM...06...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins 08:20 AM...06...12...30...STS crew wakeup 08:50 AM...06...13...00...ISS-5/ISS-6 crew wakeup 09:35 AM...06...13...45...EVA-3: Prep with STS oxygen 10:35 AM...06...14...45...ISS daily planning conference 11:05 AM...06...15...15...MT relocate 4 to 7 12:05 PM...06...16...15...Korzun, Treschev lower body negative pressure 12:15 PM...06...16...25...SSRMS PDGF 2 grapple 12:25 PM...06...16...35...EVA-3: Spacesuit purge 12:25 PM...06...16...35...Quest repress to 14.7 psi 12:40 PM...06...16...50...EVA-3: Oxygen pre-breathe 01:05 PM...06...17...15...SSRMS lab ungrapple 01:40 PM...06...17...50...EVA-3: Airlock depressurization 01:55 PM...06...18...05...ISS: Bowersox exercises 02:00 PM...06...18...10...Wetherbee exercises 02:25 PM...06...18...35...ISS: Budarin exercises 02:25 PM...06...18...35...EVA-3: Airlock egress (EVA starts) 02:30 PM...06...18...40...EVA-3: Sortie setup 02:40 PM...06...18...50...SSRMS RBVM support 03:00 PM...06...19...10...EVA-3: EV1 does Z1/P6 QD SPDs 03:00 PM...06...19...10...EVA-3: EV2 does RBVM SPDs (12) 03:20 PM...06...19...30...EVA-3: EV1 does Z1/lab quick-disconnects 04:00 PM...06...20...10...EVA-3: EV1 does lab heat exchanger 04:30 PM...06...20...40...ISS-5/ISS-6 crew meal 05:10 PM...06...21...20...EVA-3: EV1 does P1 pump module 05:30 PM...06...21...40...EVA-3: EV2 does RBVM SPDs (6) 05:30 PM...06...21...40...SSRMS grapples lab module 06:10 PM...06...22...20...EVA-3: EV1 does CID 7/8 reconfig 06:20 PM...06...22...30...EVA-3: EV2 does DDCU thermal cover 06:45 PM...06...22...55...SSRMS ungrapples PDGF 2 06:50 PM...06...23...00...EVA-3: EV1 does S1 flexible hose rotary coupler 06:50 PM...06...23...00...EVA-3: EV2 does ATA umbilical mate 07:00 PM...06...23...10...MT relocate 7 to 4 07:05 PM...06...23...15...Treschev exercises 07:20 PM...06...23...30...ISS: Budarin exercises 07:45 PM...06...23...55...ISS: Pettit exercises 08:05 PM...07...00...15...EVA-3: Sortie cleanup 08:05 PM...07...00...15...Korzun exercises 08:20 PM...07...00...30...Whitson exercises 08:40 PM...07...00...50...EVA-3: Airlock ingress 08:50 PM...07...01...00...EVA-3: Airlock repressurization (EVA ends) 09:20 PM...07...01...30...Whitson exercises 09:35 PM...07...01...45...ISS daily planning conference 11:35 a.m., 11/30/02, Update: Mobile transporter stalls during trek to work site 7 The international space station's $190 million mobile transporter, a motorized flat car designed to carry the lab's robot arm to various work sites on the station's huge solar array truss, began inching its way to a work site on the far end of the new P1 truss in prapration for today's spacewalk. But after crossing over onto P1, the transporter unexpectedly stopped about 10 feet short of its destination. Engineers on the ground are evaluating the situation. The mobile transporter's 1.2-inch-per-second creep began around 10:21 a.m. Playing it safe, the mobile transporter, or MT, is not carrying the arm for this first move from work site 4 on the central S0 truss to work site 7 on the far end of the P1 truss some 55 feet away. The robot arm currently is locked onto a grapple fixture atop the U.S. Destiny lab module. Once the MT reaches work site 7, the arm's free end will latch onto a power-and-data-grapple fixture atop the MT. The other end of the arm then will release the grapple fixture on the Destiny module to complete an inchworm-like "walkoff" to the MT. Today's spacewalk by John Herrington and Michael Lopez-Alegria is scheduled to begin after the arm is plugged into its power-and-data socket atop the MT. The MT/robot arm relocation procedure was expected to take about two hours to complete. But that could change depending on what sort of troubleshooting is required to get the MT moving again. 12:25 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: Mobile transporter remains stalled; troubleshooting continues The space station's $190 million robot arm transporter remains stalled on the tracks of the station's new P1 solar array truss. The motorized platform began a 55-foot move from work site 4 on the central S0 truss segment to work site 7 on P1 at 10:21 a.m. The move is required to support a spacewalk later this afternoon. Shortly after crossing over to P1, however, the transporter stopped moving. It remains stalled 10 feet short of its destination. Engineers believe a momentary data dropout in the system that monitors how firmly the transporter's drive wheels are pressing against the rails running the length of the truss triggered protective software that stopped the transporter in its tracks. Once the MT's computer logic is reset by a power cycle, engineers believe, the problem should clear up and the transporter, pulling two astronaut work carts, will be able to continue its journey to work site 7. 12:30 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: Transporter may be snagged on obstruction Flight controllers say the space station's robot arm transporter, pulling two astronaut work carts behind it like a train, may have hit some sort of obstruction during a move from one work site to another on the station's solar array truss. The $190 million transporter currently is stalled about 10 feet short of work site 7 on the new P1 truss segment. The transporter must reach work site 7 so the station's robot arm can latch on as required to support today's spacewalk. The astronauts have been asked to inspect the transporter, CETA carts and rails with various television cameras to see if any sort of obstruction can be spotted. Depending on what went wrong and what might be required to get the MT moving again, today's spacewalk could be delayed or altered. Spacewalkers Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, meanwhile, are suited up in the station's Quest airlock module, continuing their preparations to begin the third and final planned spacewalk of Endeavour's mission. The start of the spacewalk obviously will depend on the resolution of the transporter problem. 01:25 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: Flight controllers will try to activate backup motor system on MT Flight controllers are now working through a procedure to switch over to a backup, or redundant, drive unit on the stalled mobile transporter in a bid to get the robot arm rail car to its final destination on the new P1 solar array truss. The mobile transporter currently is stalled 10 feet short of work site 7, which it must reach before today's spacewalk can begin. Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, meanwhile, are floating in the space station's Quest airlock module awaiting clearance to proceed. But depressurization of the airlock may be held up pending resolution of the mobile transporter problem. 01:45 p.m., 10/30/02, Update: Spacewalkers depress airlock; timeline changed to accommodate stalled robot arm transporter Astronauts John Herrington and Michael Lopez-Alegria have been cleared to depressurize the space station's Quest airlock in preparation for spacewalk to complete the outfitting of the new P1 solar array truss. The mobile transporter, needed to anchor the station's robot arm near the end of P1 to assist with today's activity, remains stalled 10 feet short of work site 7. Flight controllers are working through a troubleshooting procedure to re-activate the transporter using a backup drive system. In the meantime, Herrington and Lopez-Alegria have been asked to press on with their spacewalk and to change the order of their work plan to accommodate the possible absence of the station arm. The primary goal of today's excursion is to attach 33 spool positioning devices, or SPDs, on coolant line quick-disconnect fittings to prevent possible leak-related problems. Many of those SPDs were to be attached by Herrington while anchored to the end of the station's robot arm. But the arm cannot be used unless it is mounted atop the mobile transporter and that can't happen until the transporter is firmly attached to work site 7. At present, the arm remains attached to the station's Destiny laboratory module. "As far as the big picture goes, we would like you guys to do the SPDs that you were going to do free float first," mission control radioed the astronauts around 1:40 p.m. "So we'll do the ones that were planned to be done free float, we'll start out with those. Then by that time, we're hoping we'll have the (station arm) ready to go for those other SPDs. We just don't know yet. If it's there, we'll use it if not, we'll have to do those SPDs free float." Herrington also will visually inspect the transporter to see if anything is obstructing its path. 02:05 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: Backup drive system fails to move transporter The backup drive unit in the space station's $190 million robot arm transporter failed to budge the stalled the motorized platform, leading flight controllers to believe the mobile transporter is, in fact, hung up on an obstruction of some sort. "The IMCA (integrated motor control assembly) for the second driver timed out on torque, so we believe the MT is hung up on something," astronaut Barbara Morgan radioed from mission control. "We copy," replied robot arm operator Peggy Whitson aboard the space station. Engineers now are debating whether to command the transporter to reverse direction and to attempt to move back along its rails to possibly pull free of whatever is holding it up. But no such decisions have yet been made. "Flight controllers are now huddling to determine their next course of action," said NASA commentator Rob Navias from mission control. Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington remain inside the station's Quest airlock module, now depressurized to 5 psi, on track to begin today's spacewalk within the hour. 02:30 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: Spacewalk begins Floating in the Quest airlock module, astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington switched their spacesuits to internal battery power at 2:25 p.m. to officially begin the third and, presumably, final spacewalk of the shuttle Endeavour's mission. Flight controllers, meanwhile, are continuing to troubleshoot a problem with the station's $190 million robot arm transporter that has left it stalled 10 feet short of its intended work site. It now appears unlikely the transporter can be moved to work site 7 in time to support today's spacewalk. If that turns out to be the case, the spacewalkers will have to complete their work without the use of the station's robot arm. There is nothing wrong with the arm, but it remains mounted on the Destiny lab module and is unable to reach the required work area. Flight controllers hope to command the transporter to reverse direction and to move back toward work site 4 on the S0 truss segment after Herrington inspects the motorized platform for any obvious signs of an obstruction. The transporter must move back at least four feet to give Herrington access to areas on the P1 truss where he needs to work today. This is the 49th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance and the 17th so far this year. Going into today's excursion, 35 NASA astronauts, seven Russian cosmonauts, one Frenchman and one Canadian had logged 298 hours and 20 minutes building and maintaining the international space station. 02:45 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: Engineers identify four possible candidates for transporter stall Flight controllers have decided against any immediate attempts to back up the stalled mobile transporter on the station's P1 solar array truss. The transporter presumably is hung up on an obstruction of some sort. Before any more attempts to move the transporter are made, flight controllers want spacewalker John Herrington to carry out a detailed visual inspection of the area. To do so, he plans to uncouple two astronaut rail cars, known as CETA carts, that are attached to the transporter. Engineers have identified at least four candidates for what might be holding up the transporter: One of two keel pins that held the P1 truss in the shuttle cargo bay for launch. The keel pins were removed and stowed inside the truss during a spacewalk Thanksgiving Day but it's possible one is sticking up just far enough to interfere with the transporter's motion; Interference with a thermal shroud around an ammonia flex hose coupler; Interference with a thermal blanket protecting an ammonia pump module; A problem with a specific system in the transporter itself. 03:15 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: Transporter hung up on stowed UHF antenna Spacewalker John Herrington, making a close-up visual inspection of a stalled robot arm transporter on the space station's new P1 truss, has found what appears to be the culprit: Interference between the transporter and part of a still-stowed UHF antenna on the beam. "And Houston, I've found the problem," Herrington radioed. "On the MT, it looks like the IUA (interface umbilical assembly) is bumping into the UHF antenna. I can deploy the UHF antenna and you'll have free clearance." "John, we copy. Give us a few minutes to think about it," called astronaut Barbara Morgan in mission control. A few minutes later, she radioed: "John, excellent inspection. We are ready to have him deploy the UHF antenna. You do have a go for the UHF connector mate." Deploying the antenna was to have been accomplished during a spacewalk next month by station commander Kenneth Bowersox and Nikolai Budarin. It was considered a "get-ahead" task for today's spacewalk. While Herrington worked to deploy the antenna, fellow spacewalker Michael Lopez-Alegria pressed ahead with work to install devices needed to keep ammonia coolant quick-disconnect fittings from leaking. That work is going smoothly. 05:00 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: UHF antenna deployed; stalled transporter resumes motion After a bit of a struggle, astronaut John Herrington successfully deployed a UHF antenna on the new P1 solar array truss, eliminating an interference problem that stopped the station's $290 million robot arm transporter in its tracks earlier today. Flight controllers then sent commands to restart the transporter, which promptly began inching a final 10 feet down its tracks toward work site 7 on the outboard side of the P1 truss. "The MT is in motion," Barbara Morgan radioed at 4:58 p.m., some four-and-a-half hours after it originally stalled. But because of the time lost troubleshooting the transporter hang up, flight controllers no longer plan to mount the station's Canadarm2 space crane on the platform as originally planned. Herrington's primary job during today's spacewalk is to install some 18 spool positioning devices, or SPDs, on coolant line quick-disconnect fittings to prevent problems associated with ammonia leakage. Herrington originally planned to install most of them while anchored to the end of the robot arm. For that to happen, the arm must be must be moved, inchworm fashion, from its current mounting point on the Destiny lab module to the mobile transporter at work site 7. Flight controllers, however, believe Herrington can install most, if not all, of the SPDs without using the crane. And so, because of time constraints, the arm is being left where it is on the Destiny module for today's spacewalk. While Herrington worked to deploy the UHF antenna, spacewalker Michael Lopez-Alegria methodically worked through his original task list installing a half-dozen spool positioning devices on his own set of quick-disconnect fittings. Lead EVA officer Dana Weigel has re-prioritized the remaining tasks for today's spacewalk to accommodate the time lost troubleshooting the transporter issue. Herrington and Lopez-Alegria 06:50 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: Astronauts in home stretch of improvised spacewalk Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington are moving into the home stretch of their third and final spacewalk, following a hastily modifed timeline after what turned out to be a minor-but-time-consuming problem with the station's robot arm transporter. The astronauts have plowed through their list of major objectives without the use of the Canadarm2 space crane, which flight controllers originally planned to move from the station's lab module to the mobile transporter. Because of time lost deploying a UHF antenna that initially blocked the movement of the transporter, mission managers decided to leave the arm where it was on the Destiny lab module. That left it too far away to help the astronauts. The mobile transporter, meanwhile, successfully reached work site 7 on the new P1 solar array truss segment, which was its initial goal. Controllers had problems getting it firmly latched into place, but by 6:50 p.m. it was locked down on its rails as required. The transporter likely will be left at work site 7 overnight and moved back to work site 4 on the central S0 truss at a later time. Spacewalk timeliners originally planned for Herrington to install 18 of 33 spool positioning devices to prevent problems with ammonia quick-disconnect fittings while anchored to the end of the station's robot arm. But after the problems with the mobile transporter, the astronauts had no problem installing the spool positioning devices as "free floaters." The spacewalkers also reconfigured the truss' electrical power system and re-wired pyrotechnic squibs that will be used after the shuttle departs to deploy one of the ammonia radiator wings on the P1 truss. 09:30 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: Spacewalk ends Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington began repressurizing the space station's Quest airlock module at 8:25 p.m., officially ending a grueling seven-hour zero-minutes spacewalk. Problems moving the station's robot arm transporter prevented the spacewalkers from using the Canadarm2 space crane as originally planned, but they still managed to complete all of their major objectives following a hastily revised timeline. This was the 49th spacewalk devoted to space station assembly and maintenance and the 17th so far this year. Over three spacewalks Tuesday, Thursday and today, Herrington and Lopez-Alegria logged 19 hours and 55 minutes of EVA time. The station total through the 49 spacewalks to date is 305 hours and 20 minutes. The mobile transporter remains anchored to a work site on the outboard side of the newly installed P1 solar array truss. The original flight plan called for moving the transporter back to a work site on the central S0 truss segment at the conclusion of today's spacewalk. But flight controllers decided to leave it where it is after software-related problems securing it to its rails. In the meantime, the transporter has power and is in a safe configuration. If all goes well, it will be moved back to its original work site Sunday. Additional details will be posted here following a news briefing later this evening. 10:50 p.m., 11/30/02, Update: NASA says all EVA objectives accomplished; no problems with arm transporter In one of the rockier space station assembly spacewalks to date, two astronauts managed to accomplish all of their primary objectives today even though problems moving the station's $290 million robot arm transporter prevented them from using the Canadarm2 space crane as originally planned. "Things have gone very well today," said flight director Robert Castle. "We started off with a problem but basically, today has gone quite well, we accomplished all of our objectives. We are still on track for a hopefully quiet day tomorrow, an undocking on Monday and a landing on Wednesday. All of that remains on track." After three spacewalks, the newly installed P1 solar array truss segment is now fully outfitted and operational, its ammonia cooling system ready for use as required starting next year. Likewise, the robot arm transporter is healthy and fully operational even though engineers were unable to immediately move it back to its starting point at the conclusion of today's seven-hour spacewalk. But that was simply because an automatic software sequence was interrupted when the arm ran into a stowed UHF antenna before the spacewalk began. Once spacewalker John Herrington deployed the antenna, freeing the transporter to continue moving, flight controllers had to manually input commands and the process took longer than expected. As standing policy, mission managers don't want to move the robot arm's transporter unless spacewalkers are available for troubleshooting if necessary. By the time the problems with the MT were resolved today, there was not enough time left to make the move under the supervision of Herrington and Michael Lopez-Alegria. The next station spacewalk is planned for early December and the transporter may be left where it is on the outboard side of the P1 truss before it is moved back to its normal stowage position on the central S0 truss. "We got all of our mission objectives accomplished and more," said Kim Ulrich, launch package manager for mission STS-113. "We're very pleased with how this mission has gone. We've left the space station in a good posture for the next upcoming flight (in March)." The original plan for today's spacewalk was to move the mobile transporter from work site 4 on the central S0 truss to work site 7 on P1. The Canadarm2 space crane then was to be walked off the Destiny lab module and onto the transporter to support today's spacewalk. Herrington planned to anchor himself on the arm to install 18 spool positioning devices on ammonia line quick-disconnect fittings to prevent problems related to internal leakage. Because many of the SPDs had to be mounted in hard-to-reach areas, Herrington planned to use the arm to put him into the proper positions. Following the spacewalk, the arm was to walk off the transporter and back to a grapple fixture on the lab module before the MT itself was ordered to return to work site 4. The move back to work site 4 was planned so that the MT's long power cable, which unreels as the cart moves along the truss, would be rolled back up and thus less exposed to possible damage from space debris impacts. But those plans went up in smoke shortly after the MT moved from S0 to P1 and unexpectedly stopped. After debating the issue, flight controllers attempted to restart the cart using a backup drive system, but it refused to budge. In the meantime, Herrington and Michael Lopez-Alegria had been cleared to press ahead with their spacewalk to install a total of 33 SPDs and to complete the P1's outfitting. Herrington promptly discovered the problem: The MT had run into a stowed UHF antenna that was to be deployed during the December spacewalk by station commander Kenneth Bowersox and Nikolai Budarin. After a bit of a struggle, Herrington successfully erected the antenna, freeing the MT to resume its trek to work site 7. But because the transporter's automatic control sequence had been interrupted, flight controllers had to manually enter all of the data and commands needed to get the MT back in action. All of that took longer than expected, but eventually the transporter was firmly locked down at work site 7, safely plugged into its power and data sockets. By that point, however, there was not enough time left to make it worthwhile to move the robot arm onto the transporter. So it simply remained in place on the Destiny module while the spacewalkers worked without it. In the end, it made no difference. Herrington and Lopez-Alegria were able to install all 33 SPDs, including the 18 needed for the hard-to-reach quick-disconnect fittings. They also reconfigured the truss' power supply, provided heater power to components on P1's radiator system and accomplished a handful of other tasks. "It was another great EVA," said lead spacewalk officer Dana Weigel. "Although we ended up having to rearrange some of the tasks to accommodate the UHF antenna deploy, we did end up completing all of the nominal tasks, including two get-ahead tasks. "The nominal tasks that we had planned that we did today was the installation of 33 spool positioning devices, that's a total of 43 for (Endeavour's mission). We also mated up ammonia tank lines to the truss, we mated up the nitrogen tank to the ammonia tank so the system's configured to be filled with ammonia on (an upcoming flight). We checked out the S1 and P1 DDCUs (DC-to-DC converter units) during the EVA and those both checked out nominally. "We installed a DDCU thermal cover and we re-wired some harnesses to provide power to P3 when it arrives (next year). The two get-ahead tasks were deploying the UHF antenna and we re-wired the squib power unit to get redundant heater power to some components on the radiator beam." =================================================================== Astronauts enjoy time off; final station transfers (12/01/02) 10:00 a.m., 12/01/02, Update: Crew enjoys time off; prepares for undocking With a third and final spacewalk behind them, the shuttle-space station astronauts are working through a light day in orbit today, readying Endeavour for undocking Monday before enjoying time off this afternoon. Commander James Weatherbee plans to fire Endeavour's maneuvering jets later this morning to boost the space station's altitude by about 2.8 miles. Adding in two earlier reboost sessions, Endeavour's crew was able to increase the station's altitude by a total of about six-and-a-half miles. Spacewalkers Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington will clean and stow their suits today while the departing Expedition 5 station crew and their replacements, Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit, continue handover discussions. Most of the astronauts will participate in round-robin media interviews starting at 3 p.m. The combined station-shuttle crews will enjoy a meal together at 3:50 p.m. before taking the rest of the day off. The only other activities on tap today are exercise sessions. Here is an updated timeline of today's activity as uplinked to the astronauts from mission control (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT Flight Day 9 - 12/01/02 10:20 AM...07...14...30...ISS daily planning conference 11:10 AM...07...15...20...Korzun and Treschev: Lower Body Negative Pressure conditioning 11:30 AM...07...15...40...Reboost maneuver No. 3 12:00 PM...07...16...10...ISS-5/ISS-6 handover activity 01:20 PM...07...17...30...Whitson exercises 01:20 PM...07...17...30...ISS: Bowersox/Budarin/Pettit exercise 01:25 PM...07...17...35...Rendezvous computer setup 01:35 PM...07...17...45...Reconfigure shuttle EVA oxygen lines 01:35 PM...07...17...45...ISS-6 spacesuit resizing 01:55 PM...07...18...05...Rendezvous tools checkout 02:20 PM...07...18...30...Took prep for transfer 02:35 PM...07...18...45...ISS: Budarin exercises 03:00 PM...07...19...10...Media interviews on NASA TV 03:50 PM...07...20...00...Joint crew meal 04:50 PM...07...21...00...Crew off-duty time begins 06:10 PM...07...22...20...Whitson exercises 06:10 PM...07...22...20...ISS: Bowersox, Pettit exercise 06:30 PM...07...22...40...Mission status briefing on NASA TV 07:05 PM...07...23...15...Treschev exercises 07:05 PM...07...23...15...ISS: Budarin exercises 07:10 PM...07...23...20...ISS: Pettit exercises 08:00 PM...08...00...10...Korzun exercises 09:00 PM...08...01...10...ISS daily planning conference 11:20 PM...08...03...30...ISS-5/ISS-6 crew sleep begins 11:50 PM...08...04...00...STS crew sleep begins If all goes well, Endeavour will undock from the space station at 3:05 p.m. Monday and land back at the Kennedy Space Center around 3:49 p.m. Wednesday. The flight plan below has been updated through landing. Revision H of the NASA TV sked is also posted below, along with an updated undocking timeline. =================================================================== Endeavour undocks from space station; MBS plans (12/02/02) 09:30 a.m., 12/02/02, Update: Shuttle crew readies Endeavour for undocking The Endeavour astronauts are preparing to undock from the international space station this afternoon, leaving a fresh three-man crew behind and bringing the lab's fifth full-time crew home after six months in space. All 10 astronauts and cosmonauts plan to meet in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module around 12:15 p.m. for a final round of hugs and hangshakes. Twenty minutes later, Endeavour's crew, which now includes Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson, will float out of the station and into the shuttle, leaving Expedition 6 commander Kennedy Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit behind for a four-month tour of duty. With pilot Paul Lockhart at the controls, Endeavour is scheduled to undock from a port on the forward end of the Destiny module at 3:05 p.m. After pulling away to a point about 400 feet directly in front of the station, Lockhart will guide Endeavour through a quarter loop to a point directly above the outpost before firing the ship's maneuvering jets to leave the area for good. "We'll back off to the 400-foot range and then initiate a fly around," said flight director Paul Dye. "It's a great chance for us to get some video and some still pictures of the station in its new configuration and that helps us on the ground when we're working problems in the future." Lockhart originally hoped to fly Endeavour through a full loop around the station. But after three reboost sessions to increase the station's altitude by nearly 6.5 miles, Endeavour only has enough discretionary fuel left for a quarter of a loop. Two-and-a-half hours after undocking, Lockhart will oversee deployment of two small Air Force "picosats" designed to test technology intended for future spacecraft that could be used to remotely inspect other satellites. If all goes well, Endeavour will glide to a touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:48 p.m. Wednesday. For readers who bother to pay attention to long-range Florida forecasts, the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center is predicting a chance of showers and thundershowers near the spaceport Wednesday and Thursday with improving conditions Friday. Astronaut Joan Higginbotham told shuttle commander James Wetherbee early today that Endeavour has enough on-board supplies for four additional days in space beyond Wednesday if the weather causes any delays. Even so, she advised the shuttle crew "not to share the food too much with your ISS crew members before you close the hatch." "Good call," Wetherbee replied. Here is an integrated timeline for today's activity as uplinked to the crew from mission control (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 12/02/02 09:20 AM...08...13...30...ISS daily planning conference 10:05 AM...08...14...15...ISS-5/ISS-6 handover activity 10:50 AM...08...15...00...Wetherbee exercises 10:50 AM...08...15...00...Final transfers 11:15 AM...08...15...25...Lockhart exercises 12:15 PM...08...16...25...Farewell ceremony 12:35 PM...08...16...45...Shuttle crew leaves station 01:05 PM...08...17...15...Hatch leak checks 01:20 PM...08...17...30...ISS-5 meal 01:45 PM...08...17...55...Group B computer powerup 02:00 PM...08...18...10...STS/ISS audio backout 02:20 PM...08...18...30...Undocking timeline begins 02:35 PM...08...18...45...ISS: PMA-2 configured for undocking 02:35 PM...08...18...45...STS/ISS maneuver to undocking attitude 02:50 PM...08...19...00...ISS-6 meal 02:53 PM...08...19...03...TDRS-West acquisition of signal 03:04 PM...08...19...14...Sunrise 03:05 PM...08...19...15...UNDOCKING 03:05 PM...08...19...15...Initial orbiter separation (+10 seconds) 03:07 PM...08...19...17...ISS holds current attitude 03:09 PM...08...19...19...Range: 50 feet; reselect -X jets 03:10 PM...08...19...20...Range: 75 feet; low-Z jets 03:16 PM...08...19...26...Range: 150 feet 03:23 PM...08...19...33...TDRS-West loss of signal 03:24 PM...08...19...34...TDRS-South acquisition of signal 03:32 PM...08...19...42...Noon 03:49 PM...08...19...59...Range: 450 feet; begin flyaround 03:50 PM...08...20...00...ISS: PMA-2 depressurization 04:00 PM...08...20...10...Sunset 04:01 PM...08...20...11...Negative Rbar crossing; separation burn 04:20 PM...08...20...30...Herrington exercises 04:25 PM...08...20...35...Post-undocking computer reconfig 04:35 PM...08...20...45...Group B computer powerdown 04:50 PM...08...21...00...Korzun exercises 05:20 PM...08...21...30...Whitson exercises 05:25 PM...08...21...35...Begin cabin stowage 05:50 PM...08...22...00...Treschev exercises 06:00 PM...08...22...10...ISS: Bowersox/Budarin/Pettit exercise 06:20 PM...08...22...30...Lopez-Alegria exercises 06:35 PM...08...22...45...MEPSI microsat deploy 08:05 PM...09...00...15...ISS daily planning conference 10:20 PM...09...02...30...ISS crew sleep begins 11:20 PM...09...03...30...STS crew sleep begins Here is a bit of NASA background on the MEPSI picosats that will be launched later today: The MEMS-based PICOSAT Inspector (MEPSI) experiment series will conduct its third space test mission as two miniature satellites are released on orbit from NASAŐs STS-113 shuttle mission. The tethered satellite pair, each measuring 4" x 4" x 5", will be released from a specialized spring-loaded launcher assembly mounted on the sidewall of the space shuttle Endeavour en-route from the International Space Station (ISS). Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), this "PICOSAT" mission represents a significant step forward in the development of an on-board autonomous inspection capability being directed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate located in Rome, N.Y. Researchers at the Information Directorate envision MEPSI enhancing satellite command and control operations by providing active on-board imaging capability to assess spacecraft damage, monitor launch and deployment sequences, and augment servicing operations. This will provide the foundation for a rapid feedback capability for spacecraft operators to detect and respond to anomalies while maintaining continual service to their users, and enable ultimate spacecraft longevity. "The two PICOSATs, built by The Aerospace Corporation and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), are adjoined by a 50-foot non-conducting tether to facilitate detection by Earth-based radar and keep them in radio range of each other. The objectives of the minimum three-day mission include: 1. Demonstration of a "new" 4-inch form factor launcher assembly approved for use in the shuttle cargo bay; 2. Establish communications and data exchange between the two PICOSATs and the ground station; 3. Exercise on-board Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial measurement system; 4. Implementation of MEMS RF switches in transmit/receive operation along the communications critical path 5. Improved RF transmit power. In addition to the primary mission of realizing the MEPSI concept, the PICOSATs serve as a low-cost test bed for progressive development and insertion of micro- and nanotechnologies into radically different space systems. The PICOSAT platform serves as an ideal means for proving revolutionary technologies and concepts without breaking the bank. "For us, we're going to actually show that this little system of two pico satellites, or micro satellites, can be deployed properly and that they will function together as one," Lockhart said in a NASA interview. "They're tied together with a cord and so they're interested in the capabilities of the thing being deployed properly, that the physics of it being in orbit doesn't cause the two micro-satellites to behave improperly and then just to show in a gradual increase of capability that these little micro-satellites can be functioning properly. "So on our flight, I basically get to deploy one of these and then we're just going to film them as they move on up and then they're going to be transmitting the data back down to the ground." 12:45 p.m., 12/02/02, Update: Expedition 5 crew bids farewell to station The new crew of the international space station, flanking the hatch leading to the shuttle Endeavour, bid the departing Expedition 5 crew farewell today, promising to "take good care" of the station. Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit embraced the shuttle's four astronauts and the three departing Expedition 5 crew members, one at a time, as they left the station around 12:15 p.m. "Try to keep your sense of humor," shuttle skipper James Wetherbee told Pettit. "Oh, I will," Pettit said. A few moments later, the rookie science officer told Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun: "Thanks for the good handover. We promise to take good care of the space station. A few moments later, the two crews began closing the final hatch between the shuttle and the lab complex. Bowersox told ground controllers "this is a big moment for us, getting ready to send these folks off." "It's been so much fun serving with them the last few days, we've been working like one big gigantic crew and I couldn't have anticipated how smooth and how well we've been able to work together," he said. "And we're going to miss them while they're gone." Undocking remains on track for 3:05 p.m. 03:10 p.m., 12/02/02, Update: Endeavour undocks from international space station With pilot Paul Lockhart at the controls, the shuttle Endeavour undocked from the international space station today, leaving a fresh three-man crew behind and ending seven days of work to install and activate a new solar array truss segment. Powerful springs gently pushed Endeavour away from the station's docking collar at 3:05 p.m. as the two spacecraft sailed into sunlight 248 miles above western Australia. "Houston, physical separation," an astronaut radioed as the shuttle pulled away at a relative velocity of a tenth of a foot per second. Lockhart plans to guide the shuttle to a distance of 400 feet or so directly in front of the station before looping up to a point directly above the lab complex around 4:01 p.m. At that point, the pilot will fire the shuttle's maneuvering jets to leave the area for good. Total duration of joint operations with the space station, from the point hatches were opened last Monday until the last hatch was closed today, was six days 18 hours and 26 minutes. 05:05 p.m., 12/02/02, Update: Tiny 'picosats' launched from Endeavour The Endeavour astronauts launched a pair of tiny Air Force "picosats" today, the latest test of technology that one day may be used in small satellites built to monitor or inspect other spacecraft. The box-shaped MEPSI satellites, connected by a 50-foot tether, were launched from a canister in the forward part of the shuttle's cargo bay at 5:01 p.m. Television from the shuttle showed the devices, propelled by a spring mechanism, shooting out of their canister at a relatively high rate of speed, quickly disappearing from view. See the 9:30 a.m. status report for additional details. 10:30 p.m., 12/02/02, Update: Station arm transporter to be moved just before Dec. 12 spacewalk NASA flight controllers now plan to move the space station's $190 million robot arm transporter back to its central work site on the lab's solar array truss just before a spacewalk Dec. 12 by Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox and flight engineer Nikolai Budarin. The mobile transporter, or MT, was left at work site 7 on the end of the newly installed P1 truss segment Saturday evening during a spacewalk by Endeavour astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington. The plan that day was to move the MT from work site 4 on the central S0 truss to work site 7 and then to move the station's robot arm from the Destiny lab module to the transporter to support spacewalk activities. But the transporter stalled when it ran into a stowed UHF antenna shortly after moving onto P1. Herrington later deployed the antenna, freeing the transporter to continue toward work site 7. But because the MT's automatic control sequence was interrupted when it ran into the UHF antenna, flight controllers had to manually enter a long series commands to resume its motion. By the time the transporter finally locked itself down at work site 7, plugging into power and data sockets, it was too late to either attach the arm as originally planned or to move the transporter back to work site 4 at the end of the spacewalk. Fortunately for NASA, Herrington and Lopez-Alegria were able to complete all of their tasks without using the arm. Engineers prefer to store the transporter at work site 4 between uses because a long umbilical cable that plays out behind it as it creeps along the truss was not designed to stand up to possible impacts from space debris. That's not a problem when the transporter is back at work site 4 because the trailing umbilical system, or TUS, cable is rolled up on its spool. But out at work site 7, it is stretched out and exposed to the space environment. As a result, it faces a slightly higher risk of getting damaged. But station flight director Mark Kirasich said today is "not a big deal" to leave the MT at work site 7 until Dec. 12. Flight controllers hope to have it back at work site 4 by the time Bowersox and Budarin leave the station's Quest airlock module. The move is being timed to coincide with the spacewalk in case any additional problems develop. Engineers are still looking into how mission planners missed the UHF antenna interference issue in the first place. A preliminary review indicates computer models of the truss showed the interference existed before Endeavour took off. But for some reason, the issue never came to light. In retrospect, Kirasich said, the transporter problem was a blessing in disguise. "An objective in and of itself was to roll the MT down the track and make sure that we could move the MT, that we could get it to its destination work site, that we could plug it in and to learn from that experience," he said. "From that perspective, what actually happened, there's a bit of good luck in it. On this particular flight, the impact was almost zero. ... But it was a very valuable lesson learned because now these will be things we'll take into consideration on future flights ... to make sure there is no interference. "And that in and of itself probably paid for the task because there are flights in the future where we are moving elements of the space station on the MT and if you run into this sort of a problem, it can really, really cause complications," Kirasich said. "So it was a very good lesson learned." The spacewalk by Bowersox and Budarin will begin around 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 12. Bowersox's call sign will be EV-1 while Budarin's will be EV-2. The goals of the excursion are to: 1. Reroute an electrical cable to enable flight controllers to deploy a folded set of radiator panels on P1. The truss segment features three sets of folded ammonia radiator panels, each one of which will stretch 75 feet when fully deployed. 2. Release 10 remaining launch locks holding the radiator panels in place. Flight controllers then will send commands to unfold the central array. 3. Reconfigure the electrical cable to route power back to a set of backup heaters. 4. Install a lighting fixture. In the meantime, Bowersox, Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit face a relatively light schedule as they get used to living and working in space. "We're going to give them a couple of light duty days and they'll get to recoup and set up shop the way they want to run it. But it isn't too long, about 11 days from today, things are going to get busy for them again." As for Endeavour's mission, Kirasich said "the past seven docked days just went really, really well." "We went into the flight with a list of 30 or so objectives and we were able to click off every single one," he said. "In addition to our primary mission objectives of rotating the Expedition 5 and Expedition 6 crews, we successfully installed and activated the port 1 truss segment and we transferred just over 2,000 pounds of supplies and new gear from the shuttle to the space station in order to keep the Expedition 6 crew safe, happy and busy for the next couple of months." Endeavour is scheduled to land Wednesday afternoon at the Kennedy Space Center. But forecasters are predicting a chance of showers and thunderstorms Wednesday and Thursday that could cause problems. Conditions are expected to improve by Friday. "We have enough (electrical power), food, everything we need to go four extension days beyond the nominal end of mission," said shuttle flight director Paul Dye. "Hopefully, we won't have to go that long." But "the objective of the program is to get the orbiter back into KSC," he added. "We will probably try for KSC only for a couple of days because we really would like to get it there and save the time that it takes if we land at Edwards getting it back." =================================================================== Astronauts pack for landing; CBS News interview (12/03/02) 08:30 a.m., 12/03/02, Update: Astronauts pack up for landing; test re-entry systems The Endeavour astronauts are readying the shuttle for landing Wednesday, weather permitting, packing up loose gear and testing the ship's re-entry control systems. The astronauts also will set up the recumbent seats the returning Expedition 5 crew will use to ease the unfamiliar stress of Earth's gravity after six months in weightlessness. The day's work begins at 9:50 a.m. when commander James Wetherbee, pilot Paul Lockhart and flight engineer John Herrington carry out a series of tests to make sure Endeavour's flight control system is working properly, followed by a test-firing of the ship's small reaction control thrusters. Cabin stowage begins around 11:20 a.m. followed by exercise sessions for Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson. After reviewing re-entry procedures, all seven shuttle fliers will participate in round-robin interviews with CBS News "Up To The Minute" and other media clients starting at 3 p.m. NASA plans two news conferences today. The first, previewing Wednesday's launch of an Atlas rocket carrying a new NASA communications satellite, is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. A mission status briefing with entry flight director Wayne Hale is on tap at 6:30 p.m. Here is the flight plan for today as uplinked to the crew from mission control (in EST and mission elapsed time): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT Flight Day 11 12/03/02 06:50 AM...09...11...00...STS crew wakeup 09:50 AM...09...14...00...Flight control system checkout 09:50 AM...09...14...00...Launch and entry suit checkout 11:00 AM...09...15...10...Reaction control system hot fire 11:20 AM...09...15...30...Cabin stow begins 11:20 AM...09...15...30...Treschev exercises 11:50 AM...09...16...00...Whitson exercises 12:20 PM...09...16...30...Korzun exercises 01:10 PM...09...17...20...RMS powerdown 02:30 PM...09...18...40...Crew deorbit review 03:00 PM...09...19...10...Media interviews on NASA TV 03:20 PM...09...19...30...Crew meal 04:20 PM...09...20...30...Recumbent seat setup 04:20 PM...09...20...30...Crew off-duty time begins 05:15 PM...09...21...25...Wetherbee exercises 05:50 PM...09...22...00...Lockhart exercises 06:20 PM...09...22...30...Lopez-Alegria exercises 06:30 PM...09...22...40...Pre-entry news conference on NASA TV 06:50 PM...09...23...00...Herrington exercises 07:50 PM...10...00...00...KU-band antenna stow 07:50 PM...10...00...00...Ergometer stow 10:50 PM...10...03...00...Crew sleep begins Endeavour is scheduled to land back at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:48 p.m. Wednesday. But forecasters are continuing to predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms with more of the same on tap Thursday. The forecast improves Friday. The shuttle has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit four days beyond the planned landing date and NASA will use those days, if necessary, to avoid diverting the crew to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. A Mojave Desert landing would add a week or more to the ship's turnaround time for its next mission. As such, NASA is not staffing Edwards Air Force Base Wednesday. Endeavour's crew will have two opportunities to land in Florida Wednesday on successive orbits. Here is the latest forecast from the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center: Landing Site............Kennedy Space Center First Opportunity.......Orbit 169 Deorbit rocket firing...02:42:14 p.m. Change in velocity......233 mph Burn duration...........03 minutes 00 seconds Landing.................03:48:13 p.m. Clouds..................3,000 scattered, 25,000 broken Rain....................Chance of showers/thundershowers within 30 Wind direction..........150 degrees Wind speed..............8 knots with peaks at 15 knots Crosswind component.....<1 knot Violations..............Rain Second Opportunity......Orbit 170 Deorbit rocket firing...04:20:20 p.m. Change in velocity......233 mph Burn duration...........03 minutes 01 seconds Landing.................05:25:45 p.m. Clouds..................3,000, 10,000 scattered, 25,000 broken Rain....................Chance of showers/thundershowers within 30 Wind direction..........170 degrees Wind speed..............7 knots with peaks at 14 knots Crosswind component.....5 knots Violations..............Rain An updated forecast and additional entry data will be posted after Hale's briefing later this evening. 04:00 p.m., 12/03/02, Update: Astronauts look forward to landing Shuttle commander James Wetherbee says his crew has more than enough food, fuel and other supplies to remain in orbit a few extra days if the weather doesn't permit an on-time landing Wednesday. But just in case, the shuttle skipper said the crew is foregoing second helpings. "We've sort of been doing that all along," he told CBS News. "The weather is something that we can't control, of course. On the other hand, we never worry about it, but we do want to conserve power and food and water and we think we're in pretty good shape to stay up as long as we need." Forecasters are predicting a chance of rain and thundershowers near the Kennedy Space Center for both of Endeavour's two landing opportunities Wednesday. The crew's best shot appears to be the first opportunity, with a touchdown at 3:48 p.m. If Endeavour can't get back to Florida Wednesday - and if the forecast doesn't change - flight director Wayne Hale likely will forego a landing attempt Thursday, when the forecast is even worse, and shoot instead for a landing Friday. Conditions are expected to improve dramatically late in the week after an approaching front moves through the area. For astronaut Peggy Whitson, Sergei Treschev and Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, landing will mark the end of a six-month space odyssey that began with launch to the international space on June 5. Asked if the prospect of an additional few days in orbit was frustrating in any way, Whitson said "it's not really a big deal." "But the shuttle is quite a bit smaller than the station, we're pretty cozy here!" she joked. On the other hand, she said, the view is out of this world. "The station is an incredibly beautiful structure that we've got up here and I was just in awe," she said of her impressions after Endeavour's undocking Monday. "Inside, we sometimes forget how beautiful it is from the outside. And so it was a very impressive sight for me." Asked what advice she had for the station's new crew - Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit - Whitson said "I just tried to advise them that being flexible is really important in terms of getting along with the ground and the folks they're working with (in orbit) and I said just to enjoy themselves." "I really had a very good time and I wanted them to as well," Whitson said. "So just relax and have fun! And I don't think they're going to have any problem with that!" Whitson and her Expedition 5 crewmates, like all returning station crews, will make the trip back to Earth resting on their backs in recumbent seats bolted to the floor of the shuttle's lower deck. Korzun is a veteran of an earlier long-duration flight aboard the Russian Mir space station and he said today the onset of gravity after six months in space is a difficult experience. "You know, how did I feel when I was born? But I've heard people say it looks like this," he said, laughing. "After a long-duration flight, of course, I will feel gravity first of all, the body will be so heavy and my coordination will not be good. I will ... feel Earth after landing." Whitson said she plans to walk off the shuttle if she's physically able. "Why not? If I can, I want to walk off. Our station crew members have been coming back in better shape than the folks who came back from Mir and I think a lot of it has to do with the exercise training program that we're working on now, using resistive exercises in addition to the treadmill and ergometer." In a news conference Friday, Whitson said she was looking forward to a steak dinner with a Caesar salad and "tons of garlic." Today, she added one more item to her dream meal: "Drinking a soft drink, something carbonated. We don't have any carbonated drinks up here so I'm looking forward to that. And anything with ice in it would be very nice as well!" =================================================================== Cloudy weather blocks shuttle landing (12/04/02) 01:00 a.m., 12/04/02, Update: Weather 70 percent 'go' for Wednesday landing While there's a chance of rain and even thundershowers near the Kennedy Space Center this afternoon, NASA's Spaceflight Meteorology Group is predicting a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather for the shuttle Endeavour's planned landing. Touchdown on runway 15 is targeted for 3:48 p.m. "We have two opportunities to land at the Kennedy Space Center," said lead flight director Wayne Hale. "The first opportunity may have slightly better weather than the second opportunity, is what our weatherman tells us." "He's given us about a 70 percent chance of getting acceptable weather at the Cape. The major concerns we'll have are clouds and rain showers in the area." Flying upside down and backward over the Indian Ocean, commander James Wetherbee plans to fire Endeavour's twin braking rockets for three minutes starting at 2:42 p.m., slowing the shuttle by 233 mph and dropping the far side of its orbit deep into Earth's atmosphere. A half-hour later, Endeavour will slam into the discernible atmosphere 400,000 feet - 76 miles - above the southern Pacific Ocean. From there, the shuttle's flight computers will guide the spaceplane to a point about 50,000 feet above the Kennedy Space Center. A few moments later, Wetherbee will take over manual control and guide the shuttle to touchdown. Resting on their backs in recumbent seats bolted to the floor of the shuttle's lower deck will be outgoing space station commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson. The Expedition 5 crew was launched to the space station June 5 and with a landing Wednesday, they will have logged 182 days off the planet. Whitson said she plans to walk off the shuttle if she's physically able. "Why not? If I can, I want to walk off," she told CBS News Tuesday. "Our station crew members have been coming back in better shape than the folks who came back from Mir and I think a lot of it has to do with the exercise training program that we're working on now, using resistive exercises in addition to the treadmill and ergometer." In a news conference Friday, Whitson said she was looking forward to a steak dinner with a Caesar salad and "tons of garlic." Tuesday, she added one more item to her dream meal: "Drinking a soft drink, something carbonated. We don't have any carbonated drinks up here so I'm looking forward to that. And anything with ice in it would be very nice as well!" Weather permitting, of course. A front moving toward Florida is expected to rule out any landing attempts Thursday and stormy weather in front of the system may cause problems Wednesday. Conditions are expected to improve Friday, after the front moves through. Unlike forecasters at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Spaceflight Meteorology Group in Houston does not normally issue launch or landing forecast percentages and it's not clear what prompted the 70 percent "go" forecast Wednesday. "This is not a great scientific thing to give you a percentage on the weather," Hale said. "This is kind of a gut check, an approximate feel. But we feel pretty good we will have a chance at it (today). We're not coming in expecting that we're doing just a drill and we won't have any opportunity to land. We're feeling pretty good that it may really come into good enough standing that we can get on the ground." Endeavour has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday in a worst-case scenario. Given the improving forecast for Friday, NASA has no plans to activate its alternate landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., before then. NASA wants to get Endeavour back on the ground in Florida if at all possible to avoid a processing delays readying the ship for its next flight. If stormy weather prevents a Florida landing Wednesday, NASA managers could elect to bypass Thursday and to try again Friday, assuming the current forecast holds up. But Hale said he would not rule out a Thursday landing attempt before flight controllers had a chance to judge the actual weather conditions. "Everybody thinks there's a great secret to making the deorbit decision with regard to the weather," Hale said. "There is no real secret here. The plan is you get ready, you get prepared and when the clock ticks down to the time of the opportunity, you look at the conditions and either they are good enough to land or they're not. "We would not, as a matter of course, decide not to attempt Thursday on Wednesday," Hale said. "We would wait until Thursday morning and come in and look what the weather has shaped up. ... So you wait until its time to start the deorbit preparations and you take your very best look at what the weather is and the forecast for the landing time and you either start in deorbit prep or you don't." Weather is an issue for two reasons. The shuttle cannot fly through rain because high-velocity impacts with rain drops would erode its protective heat-shield tiles. At best, major repairs would be required. At worse, the shuttle's aerodynamic stability could be threatened. Lightning is another matter altogether. "We're very concerned about lightning striking the orbiter," Hale said. "It's a digital fly-by-wire airplane, if the computers don't work you don't fly. So we try to avoid any chance of having lightning strike the orbiter during landing. "If we get unlucky, we will not try to go to California or New Mexico (Wednesday). We will instead stay on orbit and try to continue to deorbit to the Kennedy Space Center. But Thursday "is not very good. A major front will be coming through the central Florida area and it looks like that might be a poor day to consider landing at the Kennedy Space Center. But we have enough consumables on board - rocket propellant for attitude control, lithium hydroxide to scrub the carbon dioxide out of the air, certainly all the cryogenics we need to make electrical power and water for the crew - to continue on until Sunday afternoon if need be. "So we will continue to try for the Kennedy Space Center. The forecast for plus two days, which would be Friday, is excellent at the Kennedy Space Center. Here is a detailed timeline of entry events for Wednesday's two landing opportunities: EST..........EVENT First Opportunity: Rev. 170 Deorbit to KSC 10:42 AM.....Begin deorbit timeline 10:57 AM.....Radiator stow 11:07 AM.....Mission specialists seat installation 11:13 AM.....Computers set for deorbit prep 11:17 AM.....Hydraulic system configuration 11:42 AM.....Flash evaporator cooling system checkout 11:48 AM.....Final payload deactivation 12:02 PM.....Payload bay doors closed 12:12 PM.....Mission control 'go' for transition to OPS-3 entry software 12:22 PM.....OPS-3 entry software loaded 12:47 PM.....Entry switchlist verification 12:57 PM.....Deorbit maneuver update 01:02 PM.....Crew entry review 01:17 PM.....Commander, pilot, don entry suits 01:34 PM.....Inertial measurement unit alignment 01:42 PM.....Commander, pilot strap in; others don suits 01:59 PM.....Shuttle steering check 02:02 PM.....Hydraulic system prestart 02:09 PM.....Toilet deactivation 02:17 PM.....Payload bay vent doors closed for entry 02:22 PM.....Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 02:28 PM.....Remaining crew members strap in 02:37 PM.....Single hydraulic power unit start 2:40:50 PM...TDRS-West acquisition of signal 2:42:14 PM...Deorbit ignition 2:45:14 PM...Deorbit burn complete 3:16:41 PM...The shuttle hits the discernible atmosphere 400,000 feet up 3:21:24 PM...4-degree right roll command 3:28:11 PM...63-degree roll reversal 3:41:39 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 3:43:51 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 3:44:42 PM...Shuttle banks to line up on runway 3:48:13 PM...Landing on runway 15 Second Opportunity: Rev. 170 Deorbit to KSC 04:00 PM.....Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 04:06 PM.....Remaining crew members strap in 04:15 PM.....Single hydraulic power unit start 4:20:20 PM...Deorbit ignition 4:21:48 PM...AOS TDRS-West 4:23:21 PM...Deorbit ignition complete 4:54:05 PM...Shuttle hits discernible atmosphere 4:58:45 PM...14-degree right roll command 5:15:12 PM...45-degree roll reversal 5:19:12 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 5:21:24 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 5:21:37 PM...Shuttle banks to line up on runway 5:25:45 PM...Landing on runway 15 10:40 a.m., 12/04/02, Update: Forecasters optimistic about landing weather Forecasters are increasingly optimistic the weather will cooperate for the shuttle Endeavour's planned landing today at 3;48 p.m. The Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center in Houston is predicting light crosswinds, just a chance of showers within 30 nautical miles of the runway and a slight chance of a broken deck of clouds at 6,000 feet. "We're real optimistic and we think we're going to bring you guys home on the first try today," astronaut Duane Carey radioed from Houston. "Sounds good. And I guess we won't get the crosswind DTO (test) today, either," Wetherbee replied. "Not so far." "The crew asked me to quit complaining," Wetherbee joked a moment later. "We'll be ready." The forecast deteriorates slightly as the day wears on, with an increasing chance of low-level cloud cover. The forecast for Thursday is solidly "no go," with broken decks at 3,000 feet and 25,000 feet and showers and thundershowers within 30 nautical miles. The outlook for Friday, however, is good, with just scattered clouds at 3,000 feet. Endeavour has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday in a worst-case scenario. 02:20 p.m., 12/04/02, Update: Re-entry delayed one orbit The sudden build up of low clouds south of the Kennedy Space Center forced entry flight director Wayne Hale to wave off the shuttle Endeavour's first landing attempt today and to instead shoot for a backup opportunity at 5:26 p.m. Weather permitting. "Unfortunately, due to weather beginning to deteriorate at the Cape, we'd like to wave you off this attempt," astronaut Duane Carey radioed the astronauts from mission control at 2:20 p.m. Forecasters are continuing to evaluate the weather for a landing opportunity one orbit later, but earlier today, NASA's Spaceflight Meteorology Group predicted conditions would continue to deteriorate as the afternoon wears on. The forecast for Thursday is solidly "no-go" as a frontal system moves through, with low decks of broken clouds, rain and thundershowers expected within 30 nautical miles of the shuttle's runway. Hale said Tuesday he would not automatically rule out a Thursday landing attempt, but if that forecast holds up the crew likely would be asked to remain in orbit until Friday. The forecast for Friday is dramatically better, with just scattered clouds and light winds expected. 04:00 p.m., 12/04/02, Update: Landing delayed at least 24 hours Entry flight director Wayne Hale, faced with deteriorating weather at the Kennedy Space Center, called off a second attempt to land the shuttle Endeavour today at the Kennedy Space Center and delayed re-entry at least 24 hours. NASA's Spaceflight Meteorology Group is predicting solidly "no-go" conditions Thursday, raising the prospect of a delay to at least Friday and possibly longer. "Yeah, unfortunately we weren't able to get the weather we needed," astronaut Duane Carey radioed from mission control. "The latest forecast came in with 6,000-foot ceilings, which is not going to help us." Commander James Wetherbee and his six crewmates then began backing out of their deorbit checklist and rigging the shuttle for at least one more day in space. For returning space station astronauts Valery Korzun, Sergei Treschev and Peggy Whitson, the decision means a 183rd day in orbit and a frustrating delay for long-awaited reunions with families and friends. While forecasters predicted the possibility of low clouds and showers earlier today, they appeared optimistic the weather would cooperate as the morning wore on and the expected clouds and rain failed to materialize. But less than 45 minutes before Wetherbee and pilot Paul Lockhart planned to fire the shuttle's twin braking rockets to drop out of orbit, a deck of low, broken cloud cover began developing southwest of the Kennedy Space Center. At 2:20 p.m., Hale reluctantly waved off the shuttle's first landing opportunity. At 2:41 p.m., when the braking rockets had been scheduled to fire, the shuttle runway was observed "no go" and forecast to be unacceptable an hour later, when Endeavour would have been making its final approach for a landing at 3:48 p.m. A second deorbit opportunity was available one orbit later, at 4:19 p.m., but the clouds remained broken, obscuring visibility to the runway and violating NASA's conservative flight safety rules. At 3:55 p.m., Hale told Wetherbee to stand down. Interestingly, plans to launch an unmanned Atlas 2 rocket this evening at 9:42 p.m. from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station remain on track, with forecasters predicting an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather. The goal of the flight, which is not subject to the same flight rules as a space shuttle, is to put a new NASA communications satellite in orbit. NASA television coverage begins at 8 p.m. If the weather permits a Thursday landing for Endeavour's crew - and no one is optimistic at this point - the astronauts would have two opportunities on successive orbits: EVENT......................EST Deorbit rocket firing......01:45 p.m. Landing....................02:52 p.m. Deorbit rocket firing......03:22 p.m. Landing....................04:29 p.m. Endeavour has enough on-board supplies of fuel, water, air, food and electrical power to remain in orbut until Sunday afternoon in a worst-case scenario. But going into today, the shuttle only had enough propellant to make six deorbit attempts. Two of them were used up today, leaving enough fuel for just four more attempts over the next four days. The forecast for Friday had been favorable, but the approach of the frontal system expected to sweep through central Florida on Thursday has slowed and rainy weather associated with the front may still be lingering in the area at landing time Friday. NASA did not activate the shuttle's backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for today's landing attempt and the Mojave Desert weather is predicted to be "no go" on Friday. If the weather on both coasts actually plays out that way, Endeavour's crew could be in orbit until this weekend. So why not activate Edwards for a possible Thursday landing attempt? NASA program managers, sources say, are "hard over" to get Endeavour back to the Kennedy Space Center to avoid the ground processing delays - and the $1 million price tag - associated with landings in California. 05:45 p.m., 12/04/02, Update: Astronauts briefed on landing plan NASA's mission management team met late today to assess the weather and various options for bringing Endeavour back to Earth. As expected, the forecast for Thursday remains bleak, but NASA will not rule out a possible landing until a meeting early Thursday morning to check the latest weather forecast. As of this evening, the forecast calls for broken decks of clouds at 3,000, 6,000 and 25,000 feet, winds out of the west-southwest at 13 knots with peaks to 20 and showers and thundershowers in the vicinity. "Obviously not looking real good," astronaut Duane Carey radioed from mission control. "However, we will give it an attempt, we're going to have weather briefings and give it the whole nine yards and look at it real good tomorrow before we give up. But quite realistically, we think tomorrow might be a real light day for you guys. ... We're looking at the weather to get considerably better by Friday." "OK, Houston," commander James Wetherbee replied from Endeavour. "So understand we will possibly get a weather briefing in the morning before we do anything?" "That's correct. We'd like to give you guys a realistic idea of what our chances are before we start marching down any paths tomorrow. But we're certainly not going to give up on tomorrow at this point." "OK, thank you very much," Wetherbee said. "The Cape weather folks and Houston weather folks are about the best in the world, so they are generally pretty accurate." "Yeah, Endeavour, and if it'll make you feel any better it turns out their calls today were spot on. The flight director here just wanted me to remind you it is looking fairly pessimistic for tomorrow." =================================================================== More bad weather triggers second entry delay (12/05/02) 09:20 a.m., 12/05/02, Update: Weather call not yet clear cut Living up to its reputation, Florida's mercurial weather has once again put flight director Wayne Hale between a rock and hard place. While forecasters Wednesday predicted solidly "no go" weather for a day-late Thursday landing by the shuttle Endeavour's crew, the outlook has improved slightly and a decision on whether to make another landing attempt today or to wave off and try again Friday is not yet clear cut. Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., is not staffed today and Florida is the only option should the crew get clearance to proceed. Here are today's landing opportunities: EVENT...................EST Deorbit rocket firing...01:45 p.m. Landing.................02:52 p.m. Deorbit rocket firing...03:22 p.m. Landing.................04:29 p.m. And here's the latest forecast from the Spaceflight Meteorology Group in Houston: Landing Site............Kennedy Space Center Clouds..................3,000 scattered, 7,000, 25,000 broken Rain....................Chance of showers within 30 miles Wind direction..........220 degrees Wind speed..............11 knots with peaks at 18 knots Crosswind component.....16 knots Violations..............Rain, low ceiling, crosswinds While that is a "no-go" forecast, it's not quite as no-go as it was Wednesday and Hale may elect to wait a few hours this morning before making a decision on how to proceed. Endeavour's crew has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday in a worst-case scenario. But there's only enough fuel on board for four, possibly five, actual deorbit attempts between now and then. To make a landing today, Endeavour's crew would have to close the ship's cargo bay doors shortly after 11 a.m. At that point, the shuttle would have to be reoriented and that would require the use of some of the ship's rocket fuel. Hale can hold off making a decision until then with no impact and that appears to be the most likely scenario at this point. The crew, meanwhile, was awakened early today by a recording of "Hotel California" beamed up from mission control. "We're happy to stay in this beautiful hotel for a few more days if we need to," astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria called. "Roger that," said astronaut Joan Higginbotham from mission control. "And hopefully, we'll be checking into the Hotel Florida," quipped commander James Wetherbee. "We'll see if we can get some reservations for you." If the Hotel Florida is not available today, the astronauts will have two Florida landing opportunities Friday, the first around 1:59 p.m. and the second around 3:35 p.m. Two opportunities also are available at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., should NASA decide to activate the Mojave Desert landing site. The forecast for Edwards is not good, however, and conditions in Florida will be challenging once again. Here are all the landing times for Friday (times approximate): ORBIT...EVENT......................EST...........SITE 199.....Deorbit rocket firing......12:54 p.m. 200.....Landing....................01:59 p.m.....KSC 200.....Deorbit rocket firing......02:31 p.m. 201.....Landing....................03:35 p.m.....KSC 201.....Deorbit rocket firing......04:02 p.m. 202.....Landing....................05:06 p.m.....Edwards AFB 202.....Deorbit rocket firing......05:39 p.m. 203.....Landing....................06:43 p.m.....Edwards AFB 09:40 a.m., 12/05/02, Update: Flight director briefs crew on landing options Flight director Wayne Hale took a moment this morning to personally brief the shuttle Endeavour's crew on today's weather and the prospects for making a day-late Florida landing. The bottom line: Not likely, but not yet ruled out. "The weather is pretty bad in Florida right now, we've got winds already out of limits at the SLF (shuttle landing facility), crosswinds," Hale radioed from mission control. "The forecast is for that to continue to be out of limits. The cold front that we've been watching the last couple of days has slowed down a little bit and it is likely that we will have showers and possibly even thunderstorms in the vicinity of the SLF at landing time, in addition to the winds, and there will be several low cloud decks to talk about as we get closer. "But the weatherman has told us there is a possibility (the front) could slow down, that conditions could improve, a slim possibility. So we're going to watch it for another hour or two. What I'd like you guys to do is to continue to prepare. I would not fluid load, I would not do anything that you couldn't back out of fairly easily because I think the probability is fairly low. But we want to keep the option open in case things break our way." "Thanks for the update, we really appreciate it," commander James Wetherbee replied. "Your job is the toughest one, I think, but I've always trusted you and you know best. So we'll execute. Thanks a lot." "Thanks, Jim, we'll do what we can to get you down today, but only if it's safe to do so." 11:00 a.m., 12/05/02, Update: Endeavour landing off to Friday Slim hopes dashed, NASA managers this morning ordered the shuttle Endeavour's crew to forego any landing attempts today and to remain in orbit until at least Friday because of low clouds, high winds and rain this afternoon at the Kennedy Space Center. The decision was radioed up to the crew at 10:55 a.m. "We are going to call off any deorbit attempts for today," said astronaut Duane Carey in mission control. Commander James Wetherbee and his crewmates then began backing out of their deorbit preparations and rigging the shuttle for yet another day in space. Already running a day late because of low clouds that blocked two landing attempts Wednesday, Endeavour's crew has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday in a worst-case scenario. But there's only enough fuel on board for four, possibly five, actual deorbit attempts between now and then. Rather than waste propellant today, when forecasters say the crew has little realistic chance of getting down, flight director Wayne Hale told the astronauts to enjoy a free day in orbit before trying again Friday. Two Florida landing opportunities will be available, the first at 1:57 p.m. Two opportunities also are available at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., although NASA does not currently plan to staff the Mojave Desert landing site until at least Saturday. The landing times for Friday have been updated slightly. The latest numbers are: ORBIT...EVENT......................EST...........SITE 199.....Deorbit rocket firing......12:51 p.m. 200.....Landing....................01:57 p.m.....KSC 200.....Deorbit rocket firing......02:27 p.m. 201.....Landing....................03:33 p.m.....KSC The forecast for Friday at the Kennedy Space Center calls for improved weather, but Hale likely will face another tough decision with showers possible, along with a possible deck of low clouds that could obscure Wetherbee's view of the runway on final approach. The forecast for Saturday, at both Kennedy and Edwards Air Force Base, calls for acceptable conditions. 02:00 p.m., 12/05/02, Update: Weather update; detailed landing strategy; updated timeline Despite a marginal forecast, entry flight director Wayne Hale says Endeavour's frustrated crew will be asked to make two full-up landing attempts Friday, if necessary. If the weather causes yet another 24-hour delay, Hale said he plans to bring the astronauts down one way or the other, in Florida or California, on Saturday. Endeavour has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday in a worst-case scenario. But there's only enough propellant to support five actual deorbit attempts between now and then. Hale said that means two possible landing attempts Friday, two more Saturday and then an emergency reserve for Sunday if all else fails. "The standard rule that we have in this business is that we will try until we only have one more day to land in Florida," he said. "When we only have one more day's worth of consumables, then what we'll do is call up Edwards and on that day, if you can't get into Florida, we would go ahead and proceed to California. The day that we would do that would be Saturday. We have no reason to quit early, there's no real pressing need to land Friday, so we would try Kennedy only for tomorrow. "Right now, the propulsion system officer tells us ... we're still looking at the possibility of two attempts tomorrow, two attempts Saturday and then one emergency reserve Sunday morning," he said. "That's kind of our strategy." Here is the latest forecast for Friday. The chance of a broken deck of clouds developing at 3,000 feet will diminish as the day wears on, making the crew's second landing opportunity a bit more favorable than the first. Landing Site............Kennedy Space Center Clouds..................3,000 scattered, 8,000, 25,000 broken Rain....................Chance of showers within 30 miles Wind direction..........340 degrees Wind speed..............10 knots with peaks at 15 knots Crosswind component.....3 knots Violations..............Rain, possible broken deck at 3,000 feet "We're going to try to get to Florida tomorrow. The weather forecast is not too bad," Hale said. "It's not perfect, we're still going to be looking at clouds and showers. But if it turns out to be good enough, we'll land tomorrow in Florida." Endeavour is bringing the international space station's fifth full-time crew home after six months in orbit. Assuming a landing Friday, Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson will have spent 184 days off the planet. The delay getting home is no doubt frustrating, but Hale said the astronauts remain in good spirits. "I've had several crew members tell me it's a little like going to a ball game," he said. "Having an extra inning or two is great fun, having more than an extra inning or two gets to be a little tiring. These guys worked really hard when they were docked at the international space station, they were glad to have a little bit of time off, I'm sure they enjoyed their first day off." Even with the additional delay, "their spirits are excellent, they're troupers and they're going to hang in there whatever we decide to do," Hale said. "They understand we're doing it to give them the best possible conditions for a safe landing." =================================================================== Shuttle delayed a third time by weather (12/06/02) 09:00 a.m., 12/06/02, Update: Forecasters pessimistic about shuttle landing today Already running two days late, the Endeavour astronauts face the prospect of yet another day in orbit if cloudy weather associated with a slow-moving cold front doesn't improve by this afternoon. NASA's Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center is predicting broken cloud decks at 3,000, 10,000 and 25,000 feet, possible overcast and showers within 30 nautical miles of the shuttle's runway. The 3,000-foot ceiling, which would obscure commander James Wetherbee's view of the runway until moments before touchdown, is a violation of NASA's conservative flight rules, as are rain showers. NASA did not call up Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., as a backup landing site and Endeavour's crew only has two opportunities to make it back to Earth today, at 1:57 p.m. and one orbit later at 3:33 p.m. Forecasters say the outlook is solidly "no go" for the first opportunity with only a "glimmer of hope" the low ceilings will lift in time for the second. Endeavour has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday in a worst-case scenario. But there's only enough rocket fuel to support five actual deorbit attempts. To conserve fuel, the astronauts are rigging the shuttle for entry on the first landing opportunity, if possible, but they plan to stop short of closing the shuttle's cargo bay doors - which requires rocket firings to change the shuttle's orientation - pending another weather assessment. Depending on the results, the crew may be told to forego the first opportunity and to shoot instead for the second in hopes conditions will improve. "Quite frankly, it looks fairly grim for your first attempt with a slight chance of some luck and good weather on the second attempt," astronaut Duane Carey radioed around 8:35 a.m. Here are the numbers for both of today's deorbit opportunities: ORBIT 199 DESCENT TO KSC Deorbit velocity change..,.229 mph Deorbit burn duration......2:57 Range to touchdown.........4,944 statute miles from atmospheric entry Crossrange.................743 statute miles left of ground track Turn angle.................321 degrees Runway.....................33 08:51 AM......Begin deorbit timeline 09:06 AM......Radiator stow 09:16 AM......Mission specialists seat installation 09:22 AM......Computers set for deorbit prep 09:26 AM......Hydraulic system configuration 09:51 AM......Flash evaporator checkout 09:57 AM......Final payload deactivation 10:11 AM......Payload bay doors closed 10:21 AM......Mission control 'go' for OPS-3 entry software load 10:31 AM......OPS-3 transition 10:56 AM......Entry switch list verification 11:06 AM......Deorbit maneuver update 11:11 AM......Crew entry review 11:26 AM......Commander, pilot don entry suits 11:43 AM......IMU navigation system alignment 11:51 AM......Commander, pilot strap in; others don suits 12:08 PM......Shuttle steering check 12:11 PM......Hydraulic power system prestart 12:18 PM......Toilet deactivation 12:26 PM......Vent doors closed for entry 12:31 PM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 12:37 PM......Other astronauts strap in 12:46 PM......Single hydraulic power system start 12:45:22 PM...TDRS-West acquisition of signal 12:51:17 PM...Deorbit ignition 12:54:14 PM...Deorbit burn complete 01:25:37 PM...Shuttle enters discernible atmosphere (76 miles altitude) 01:30:22 PM...7-degree right roll command 01:44:34 PM...55-degree roll reversal 01:50:39 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 01:52:52 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 01:53:04 PM...Shuttle banks to line up on runway 01:57:13 PM...Landing ORBIT 200 DESCENT TO KSC Deorbit velocity change....229 mph Deorbit burn duration......2:58 Range to touchdown.........4,976 statute miles from atmospheric entry Crossrange.................338 statute miles right of ground track Turn angle.................280 degrees Runway.....................33 02:07 PM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 02:13 PM......Other astronauts strap in 02:22 PM......Single APU start 02:27:17 PM...Deorbit ignition 02:27:20 PM...AOS TDRS-West 02:30:15 PM...Deorbit ignition complete 03:01:19 PM...Shuttle enters discernible atmosphere (76 miles altitude) 03:06:04 PM...21-degree right roll command 03:16:10 PM...65-degree roll reversal 03:26:17 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 03:28:30 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 03:29:02 PM...Shuttle banks to line up on runway 03:32:48 PM...Landing Endeavour originally was scheduled to land Wednesday to close out a successful space station assembly mission and to bring the station's fifth full-time crew back to Earth after six months in space. But low clouds blocked two landing attempts Wednesday and more of the same prevented the crew from making any attempts at all Thursday. Eight flights in the history of the shuttle program have been extended three days by bad weather, science extensions and other factors. If Endeavour is delayed to Saturday, the astronauts would set a new shuttle record and extend the Expedition 5 crew's time in space to 185 days. Here are the landing opportunities for Saturday (times approximate; EST used throughout): ORBIT....SITE............DEORBIT BURN.....LANDING 215......KSC.............01:33 p.m........02:37 p.m. 216......KSC.............03:10 p.m........04:14 p.m. 217......EDW.............04:41 p.m........05:45 p.m. 218......EDW.............06:18 p.m........07:22 p.m. 09:50 a.m., 12/06/02, Update: Shuttle crew waves off first landing opportunity Low clouds and drizzle over the Kennedy Space Center have prompted entry flight director Wayne Hale to wave off the shuttle Endeavour's first landing opportunity today and to shoot instead for a second and final opportunity at 3:33 p.m. "The latest observation from the Cape is 900 overcast with drizzle in the area and it doesn't look good for the first rev," astronaut Duane Carey radioed the crew from mission control "We're hoping for some breaks in the clouds for the second rev. So let's just go around again and we'll have an update for you after the next (weather) brief." To make the second and final landing opportunity of the day, Endeavour's payload bay doors need to be closed around 11:15 a.m. Forecasters are not particularly optimistic about the second opportunity, but Hale plans to continue assessing the weather as long as possible before making a decision on how to proceed. 11:30 a.m., 12/06/02, Update: Astronauts told to press on with entry preps Despite dismal weather in Florida, flight director Wayne Hale ordered the shuttle Endeavour's tired crew to close the orbiter's payload bay doors and to press ahead with preparations for a possible landing today at the Kennedy Space Center. While no one is optimistic the weather will actually improve enough to permit a touchdown at 3:33 p.m., Hale decided it was worth the effort on the off chance they catch a lucky break. A final decision on whether to proceed with a deorbit rocket firing is expected shortly after 2 p.m. "What we'd like to do is have you pickup in the deorbit prep checklist wherever you left off and we're going to march down toward TIG (deorbit ignition)," radioed astronaut Duane Carey radioed from Houston. "Now the problem is, the weather is not clearing out at the Cape. The forecast is for 1,500 (feet) overcast by landing time. Howver, we're holding out some faint hope the weather will improve and just in case it does, we don't want to be unprepared. So we're going to march down through the checklist." "Copy that," replied shuttle skipper James Wetherbee. "We're happy to march through and again, we think Wayne is the best, so we're happy to do what he wants." Here's are timeline highlights for today's second and final landing opportunity: ORBIT 200 DESCENT TO KSC Deorbit velocity change....229 mph Deorbit burn duration......2:58 Range to touchdown.........4,976 statute miles from atmospheric entry Crossrange.................338 statute miles right of ground track Turn angle.................280 degrees Runway.....................33 02:07 PM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 02:13 PM......Astronauts strap in 02:22 PM......Single hydraulic power unit start 02:27:17 PM...Deorbit ignition 02:27:20 PM...AOS TDRS-West 02:30:15 PM...Deorbit ignition complete 03:01:19 PM...Shuttle enters discernible atmosphere (76 miles altitude) 03:06:04 PM...21-degree right roll command 03:16:10 PM...65-degree roll reversal 03:26:17 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 03:28:30 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 03:29:02 PM...Shuttle banks to line up on runway 03:32:48 PM...Landing If landing ultimately is delayed a record fourth day to Saturday, the forecast improves dramatically on both coasts and Edwards Air Force Base would be activated as a backup landing site. The forecast for the Kennedy Space Center Saturday calls for scattered clouds at 4,000 and 25,000 feet with a slight chance the scattered deck at 4,000 feet could go broken, which is a flight rule violate. Winds will be out of 30 degrees at 10 knots with peaks to 15 knots. The outlook for Edwards calls for scattered clouds at 6,000 and 25,000 feet and winds from 20 degrees peaking at a light 8 knots. Both landing sites are expected to be "go" for use Sunday if needed. 01:20 p.m., 12/06/02, Update: Shuttle landing delayed to Saturday The shuttle Endeavour's hard-luck crew was forced to pass up two more Florida landing opportunities today because of dismal weather at the Kennedy Space Center. The astronauts now are setting their sights on a landing Saturday, in Florida or California, to finally bring their marathon mission to a close after a record fourth extension day. With the top of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building obscured by low clouds from a slow-moving cold front, entry flight director Wayne Hale waved off the crew's first landing opportunity shortly before 10 a.m, ruling out a landing at 1:57 p.m. While the forecast for the second opportunity at 3:33 p.m. remained bleak, Hale decided to have the crew work through the deorbit prep timeline just in case the weather miraculously improved. But that hope was slim to begin with and at 1:17 p.m., an hour and 10 minutes before commander James Wetherbee had hoped to fire Endeavour's braking rockets to begin the descent to Earth, astronaut Duane Carey in mission control called up the bad news. "We're sorry to tell you we're going to wave off for the day," he radioed from Houston. "We're going to back out of the procedures." "OK, from Endeavour, Wayne, thanks for trying today," Wetherbee replied. "Of course you know best and we appreciate all the effort." NASA did not staff the backup shuttle landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for a landing attempt today. Edwards will, however, be staffed Saturday and NASA plans to bring the shuttle down, one way or the other, at Kennedy or Edwards. Wetherbee and his crewmates will have two landing opportunities at each site Saturday. The latest times are (in EST): ORBIT....SITE.....DEORBIT BURN.....LANDING 215......KSC......01:32 p.m........02:37 p.m. 216......KSC......03:09 p.m........04:15 p.m. 217......EDW......04:40 p.m........05:45 p.m. 218......EDW......06:17 p.m........07:22 p.m. The forecast for the Kennedy Space Center Saturday calls for scattered clouds at 3,000 and 25,000 feet with a slight chance the scattered deck at 3,000 feet could go broken, which is a flight rule violate. Winds will be at 10 knots with peaks to 17 knots. The outlook for Edwards calls for scattered clouds at 6,000 and 25,000 feet and winds from 20 degrees peaking at a light 8 knots. Endeavour has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday in a worst case scenario and both landing sites are expected to be "go" Sunday if it comes to that. But given the current forecast, Hale is confident about getting Endeavour down Saturday on one coast or the other. =================================================================== Endeavour finally returns to Earth (12/07/02) 08:00 a.m., 12/07/02, Update: Determined astronauts: 'I'll Be Home for Christmas' The weather-delayed Endeavour astronauts, hoping their wakeup music - "I'll Be Home For Christmas" - is a harbinger of things to come, are rigging the shuttle for re-entry this afternoon, determined to finally close out a marathon mission on their record fourth landing day. With much better weather in Florida and presumably acceptable conditions expected at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the astronauts plan to make two attempts to land at the Kennedy Space Center today and, if not successful, to head instead for a late afternoon touchdown in the Mojave Desert, weather permitting. If all goes well, commander James Wetherbee, making his sixth flight and his fifth as commander, will become the first man in program history to guide a shuttle to touchdown five times. Returning space station science officer Peggy Whitson will finally get the steak dinner she's been dreaming about for weeks. And the crew will set an unenviable record, becoming the first shuttle fliers in the 112 flights to date to come home on their fourth landing day because of bad weather. As of 8 a.m., NASA's Spaceflight Meteorology Group had not yet posted an updated forecast for either landing site. The National Weather Service, however, predicts partly cloudy skies and light winds near Edwards and partly sunny skies at Kennedy, with winds gusting to 15 knots. An updated SMG forecast will be posted here shortly. NASA can't control the weather, of course, and as entry flight director Wayne Hale said of Endeavour's three previous landing delays, "that's the breaks." "We are not at the level of a commercial airliner, where we can fly with much reduced ceilings and in rain," he said. "Perhaps someday we'll have a spacecraft that can do those kinds of things. "But the fact of the matter is, the shuttle is an unpowered glider and we get one shot at landing. It is rather more difficult to land than most other aircraft and so we want to make sure we give the commander, who's coming back from two weeks in weightlessness and all that that entails, the very best shot at making a safe landing." Wetherbee and pilot Paul Lockahart plan to fire Endeavour's twin orbital maneuvering system braking rockets at 1:32 p.m. to set up a landing at 2:37 p.m. on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center. Another Florida landing opportunity is available one orbit later, at 4:15 p.m., and the first of two California opportunities opens up at 5:45 p.m. For Whitson and her two Expedition 5 crewmates - commander Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev - landing will mark the end of a 185-day space odyssey that began with launch to the space station June 5. All three plan to make the return to Earth's gravity resting on their backs in recumbent seats on the shuttle's lower deck. Flight surgeons are standing by on both coasts to provide medical exams and to assist them in their initial re-adaptation to gravity. But Whitson said Tuesday all three were in excellent physical condition and that she planned to walk off the shuttle under her own power if possible. "Why not? If I can, I want to walk off," she said. "Our station crew members have been coming back in better shape than the folks who came back from Mir and I think a lot of it has to do with the exercise training program that we're working on now, using resistive exercises in addition to the treadmill and ergometer (exercise bike)." During a news conference last week, Whitson said she was looking forward to a steak dinner with a Caesar salad and "tons of garlic." Tuesday, she added one more item to her dream meal: "Drinking a soft drink, something carbonated. We don't have any carbonated drinks up here so I'm looking forward to that. And anything with ice in it would be very nice as well!" Endeavour has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday. But Hale said Friday he has no plans to let it come to that. "The real hard stop in all of this is the lithium hydroxide canisters that remove the carbon dioxide from the air the shuttle crew breathes," he said. "Late Sunday night, we would be out of lithium hydroxide canisters. "That being said, we implement our standard plan. The day before we run out of the wherewithal to stay on orbit, we would land, preferably in Florida but at the other site (if necessary), which ever one is the best. So in that regard, we have called up Edwards Air Force Base, they know that we are still going to try to plan to land at the Kennedy Space Center but if we don't get enough good weather to land in Florida, we'll land in California. "We feel very confident we can try for three (landing attempts) in a row, which would allow us to do the first two Kennedy opportunities, followed by the first California opportunity and still have an emergency reserve that if something should go wrong would allow us to land Sunday. So we'll try three opportunities and if we had some strange circumstances, we might even try four." Here is an updated timeline of all four of today's landing opportunities (in EST throughout): 1ST KSC OPPORTUNITY Orbit......................215 Deorbit velocity change....229 mph Deorbit burn duration......2:58 Time to atmospheric entry..35:47 Range to touchdown.........5,004 statute miles at atmospheric entry Crossrange.................1.15 statute miles right of ground track Runway line-up turn........288 degrees Runway.....................33 09:31 AM......Begin deorbit timeline 09:46 AM......Radiator stow 09:56 AM......Mission specialists' seat installation 10:02 AM......Computers set for deorbit prep 10:06 AM......Hydraulic system configuration 10:31 AM......Flash evaporator checkout 10:37 AM......Final payload deactivation 10:51 AM......Payload bay doors closed 11:01 AM......Mission control 'go' for OPS-3 entry software load 11:11 AM......OPS-3 software loaded 11:36 AM......Entry switchlist verification 11:46 AM......Deorbit maneuver update 11:51 AM......Crew entry review 12:06 PM......Commander, pilot don entry suits 12:23 PM......IMU navigation system alignment 12:31 PM......Commander, pilot strap in; others don suits 12:48 PM......Shuttle steering check 12:51 PM......Hydraulic power system prestart 12:58 PM......Toilet deactivation 01:06 PM......Vent doors closed for entry 01:11 PM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 01:17 PM......Other astronauts strap in 01:26 PM......Single hydraulic power unit start 01:29:54 PM...TDRS-West acquisition of signal 01:31:32 PM...Deorbit ignition 01:34:30 PM...Deorbit burn complete 02:05:41 PM...Shuttle hits the discernible atmosphere 76 miles up 02:10:28 PM...22-degree right roll command 02:17:19 PM...65-degree roll reversal 02:30:42 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 02:32:55 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 02:33:27 PM...Shuttle on banks to line up on runway 33 02:37:18 PM...Landing 2ND KSC OPPORTUNITY Orbit......................216 Deorbit velocity change....232 mph Deorbit burn duration......3:00 Time to atmospheric entry..32:07 Range to touchdown.........4,880 statute miles at atmospheric entry Crossrange.................929 statute miles right of ground track Runway line-up turn........220 degrees Runway.....................33 02:49 PM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 02:55 PM......Astronauts strap in 03:04 PM......Single hydraulic power unit start 03:09:13 PM...Deorbit ignition 03:10:46 PM...AOS TDRS-West 03:12:13 PM...Deorbit ignition complete 03:42:53 PM...huttle hits the discernible atmosphere 76 miles up 03:47:37 PM...6-degree right roll command 04:04:19 PM...45-degree roll reversal 04:08:17 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 04:10:30 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 04:11:33 PM...Shuttle banks to line up on runway 33 04:14:48 PM...Landing 1ST EDWARDS AFB OPPORTUNITY Orbit......................217 Deorbit velocity change....230 mph Deorbit burn duration......2:59 Time to atmospheric entry..23:51 Range to touchdown.........4,987 statute miles at atmospheric entry Crossrange.................96 statute miles right of ground track Runway line-up turn........190 degrees Runway.....................22 04:19 PM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 04:25 PM......Astronauts strap in 04:34 PM......Single hydraulic power unit start 04:39:23 PM...Deorbit ignition 04:42:22 PM...Deorbit ignition complete 04:49:26 PM...AOS TDRS-West 05:13:17 PM...huttle hits the discernible atmosphere 76 miles up 05:18:03 PM...13-degree left roll command 05:25:47 PM...65-degree roll reversal 05:38:12 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 05:40:29 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 05:41:39 PM...Shuttle on the HAC 05:44:39 PM...Landing 2ND EDWARDS AFB OPPORTUNITY Orbit......................218 Deorbit velocity change....233 mph Deorbit burn duration......3:01 Time to atmospheric entry..24:00 Range to touchdown.........4,892 statute miles at atmospheric entry Crossrange.................826 statute miles right of ground track Runway line-up turn........220 degrees Runway.....................33 05:57 PM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 06:03 PM......Astronauts strap in 06:12 PM......Single hydraulic power unit start 06:17:14 PM...Deorbit ignition 06:20:15 PM...Deorbit ignition complete 06:26:25 PM...AOS TDRS-West 06:50:25 PM...huttle hits the discernible atmosphere 76 miles up 06:55:12 PM...17-degree left roll command 07:09:51 PM...45-degree roll reversal 07:15:30 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 07:17:47 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 07:18:39 PM...Shuttle on the HAC 07:21:54 PM...Landing Friday afternoon, the new crew of the international space station, carried into orbit aboard Endeavour, marveled at the problems the shuttle crew was having getting home. "The shuttle has waved off landing for today," astronaut Stan Love radioed after Endeavour was thwarted a third day in a row by bad weather. "The forecast for (Saturday) is good in Florida.... now, we've heard that before! If it stays bad there, the weather in California is good and they'll be landing (Saturday) in one sunny state or the other." "Wow. That's amazing," said new space station commander Kenneth Bowersox. "Well, I'm sure the STS-113 orbiter crew is happy to get a couple of extra days to relax in orbit. And I know Expedition 5 must have enjoyed it, too." "We're sure they're having a good time." 09:15 a.m., 12/07/02, Update: Forecast favorable for Florida; solidly 'go' at Edwards NASA's Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center is predicting generally favorable conditions at the Kennedy Space Center today, with only a slight concern about a possible deck of broken clouds at 3,000 feet and crosswinds close to NASA's 15-knot safety limit. Conditions at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., however, are expected to be ideal, with scattered clouds and light winds. Entry flight director Wayne Hale plans to bring Endeavour down today, on one coast or the other. The Florida forecast calls for the winds to decrease as the afternoon wears on, giving the Endeavour astronauts a slightly better chance of getting home on the second of their two Florida landing opportunities. Based on the optimistic forecast, the astronauts are gearing up for two back-to-back attempts to land in Florida, at either 2:37 p.m. or 4:15 p.m. If the weather prevents a landing at the Kennedy Space Center, commander James Wetherbee and his crewmates will head instead to Edwards for a touchdown at 5:45 p.m. EST. The weather at Edwards is forecast "solidly go" all day. 01:05 p.m., 12/07/02, Update: Shuttle cleared for landing Entry flight director Wayne Hale has cleared shuttle commander James Wetherbee to fire Endeavour's twin orbital maneuvering system braking rockets at 1:31:33 p.m. to begin an hourlong descent to Earth. Touchdown is targeted for 2:37 p.m. 01:35 p.m., 12/07/02, Update: Braking rockets fired Flying upside down and backward over the Indian Ocean, commander James Wetherbee fired the shuttle Endeavour's twin orbital maneuvering system braking rockets for two minutes and 56 seconds today starting at 1:31:33 p.m., slowing the ship by 229 mph to begin the hourlong glide to Earth. Touchdown on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center remains targeted for 2:37 p.m. It's a breezy day at the Florida spaceport and the winds have been dancing around NASA's 15-knot crosswind limit for much of the morning. But forecasters say the winds are trending in the right direction and overall conditions were considered good enough for entry flight director Wayne Hale to clear Wetherbee and his six crewmates for landing, a record four days behind schedule. This status report will be updated after Endeavour lands or as conditions warrant. 02:40 p.m., 12/07/02, Update: Shuttle Endeavour returns to Earth Running three days late, the shuttle Endeavour finally glided back to Earth today - just one day before the astronauts would have run out of clean air - leaving a fresh crew behind on the international space station and bringing their three predecessors home after a marathon six-month stay in orbit. After a computer-controlled plunge to a point about 50,000 feet above the Kennedy Space Center, commander James Wetherbee, making a record fifth descent as a shuttle skipper, took over manual control and guided the spaceplane to a picture-perfect landing on runway 33 at 2:37:12 p.m. Landing came a record three days later than planned after low clouds and rain blocked multiple re-entry attempts Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The crew had enough supplies to stay in orbit until Sunday, when they would have run out of lithium hydroxide to scrub carbon dioxide from their air supply. As it was, the astronauts set a record by using four days of landing opportunities to get home. And when all was said and done, it was a smooth sailing for Wetherbee and his crewmates. Predicted high crosswinds did not materialize and Wetherbee had no problems closing out a mission spanning 5.7 million miles and 215 complete orbits since blastoff Nov. 23 from nearby pad 39A. Unofficial mission duration was 13 days 18 hours 47 minutes and 25 seconds. "Houston, Endeavour, wheels stopped," Wetherbee said in a traditional call to Houston as the shuttle coasted to a halt on the 3-mile-long runway. "Welcome home after a great flight to close out a banner year for the world's manned space programs," replied astronaut Duane Carey from mission control. "And welcome home to Valery, Peggy and Sergei after your half year off the planet. Great job." The returning space station crew - Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson - made the trip back to Earth resting on their backs in recumbent seats to ease their return to the effects of gravity. Flight surgeons were standing bay to assist and to provide quick medical exams before reunions with family members and friends. Korzun, Treschev and Whitson logged 185 days in space as the space station's fifth full-time residents. Whitson said earlier in the week that all three station fliers were in excellent physical condition and that she planned to walk off the shuttle under her own power if possible. "Why not? If I can, I want to walk off," she said. "Our station crew members have been coming back in better shape than the folks who came back from Mir and I think a lot of it has to do with the exercise training program that we're working on now, using resistive exercises in addition to the treadmill and ergometer." During an orbital news conference before departing the space station, Whitson said she was looking forward to a steak dinner with a Caesar salad and "tons of garlic" along with "something carbonated. We don't have any carbonated drinks up here so I'm looking forward to that. And anything with ice in it would be very nice as well!" Treschev said he was looking forward to a "big hot dog, maybe" and Korzun said he simply wanted to eat and drink normal food for a few days "and then diet." No word yet on how Whitson wants her steak cooked. All three plan to spend the weekend at the Kennedy Space Center and fly back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston Monday for a welcome home ceremony. Endeavour's four crew members - Wetherbee, Lockhart, John Herrington and MIchael Lopez-Alegria - plan to fly back Sunday. Korzun, Treschev and Whitson were replaced aboard the station by Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit, who plan to remain aloft through at least March. Swapping out the Expedition 5 and 6 crew was one of two major objectives for the 112th shuttle mission. The other was installation of a $390 million solar array truss extension, the fourth of 11 segments that ultimately will make up a beam stretching some 365 feet. The new P1, or port 1, truss segment was installed on the left side of the growing solar array truss during three spacewalks by Herrington and Lopez-Alegria. P1 and a virtually identical segment, installed on the right side of the truss in October, provide the ammonia cooling equipment and radiators needed to dissipate the heat generated by the lab's electronics. Getting off to a fast start, Bowersox and Budarin plan to stage a spacewalk from the station's Quest airlock module Thursday to complete the outfitting of the P1 truss delivered by Endeavour. NASA managers were elated with the success of Endeavour's mission. "This flight was outstanding, we completed three spacewalks, which included all of the planned tasks for this mission and in addition, we were able to get some get-ahead tasks that will help with future missions," said Linda Ham, director of shuttle integration. "We installed the port-1 truss on the S-zero truss up on the space station, that was the major objective. "We transferred more than two tons of logistics from the shuttle to the station and took back over two tons of logistics from the station to the shuttle. We transferred water, we also swapped out the crew. The existing crew that was up there was up there over 180 days so I think it was time for them to come down. "We did reboost the station up about six nautical miles to a higher orbit," Ham said. "It was an excellent mission." The station's main solar arrays will be attached to each end of the main truss later in the assembly sequence. That work starts next year. But first, NASA plans to launch the shuttle Columbia around Jan. 16 on a microgravity research mission featuring the first Israeli astronaut. Columbia's flight is one of the only remaining non-station related missions on the shuttle manifest. Security is expected to be tight. "Everything is on track for the January launch date," Ham said. "Both the payloads and the customers are eager to launch this flight." =================================================================== Shuttle crew says ISS-5 astronauts in good shape (12/08/02) 03:00 p.m., 12/08/02, Update: Space station crew in 'good shape' after landing The returning crew of the international space station - Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson - appears to be in good shape following their return to Earth Saturday after six months in weightlessness. "I understand they're ambulatory, walking around and hopefully feeling very content after a long and successful expedition," James Wetherbee, commander of the shuttle Endeavour, said during a news conference today. Korzun and company declined to address reporters and the public via videotaped NASA interviews after landing Saturday and their shuttle crewmates decided not to make any post-landing comments, either. But Michael Lopez-Alegria, who was seated on Endeavour's lower deck with the Expedition 5 crew during re-entry and landing Saturday, said all three walked off the shuttle under their own power. "It's a little bit hard to tell because they're recumbent, they're lying down and so they sort of look like they're just lying there, which is what they're doing," Lopez-Alegria said. "But there was chit chat going on, we have our visors up during the landing, so we were talking to each other. "Once we got on the ground and wheels stopped, it was almost business as usual, we started taking off our gloves and our helmets, waiting for the closeout crew to come on board and get us. "It's sort of a strange turn of the tables," he said. "When we get up there, they're the experts, they've been up there for five-and-a-half months and we're sort of the neophytes on orbit and we're a little bit clumsy and they're super graceful. "And you think, well, when we come back, it's going to be the opposite because we'll be better adapted to being on Earth having only been gone for two weeks whereas they've been up there for six months by that point. But the first few minutes, it didn't seem any different, it was less dramatic than I expected. "Everybody's in very good spirits. I think they all probably felt mixed emotions about it. It's a great experience that they lived and to see it in the rear view mirror's probably a little bit tough. But they were in good shape all the way down." ===================================================================