STS-96 MISSION ARCHIVE (COMPLETE) Updated: 06/07/99 Shuttle Discovery and the space station mission 2A.1 By William Harwood CBS News/Kennedy Space Center The following copy originally was posted on the Current Mission space page at http://www.cbs.com/network/news/space/CurrentMission.html. Comments, suggestions and corrections welcome! TABLE OF CONTENTS -Mission Preview: Shuttle Discovery set for space station supply mission (05/09/99) -Shuttle launch delay likely due to hail damage (05/12/99) -Shuttle launch may be off to May 30 or later (05/18/99) -Discovery back on track for May 27 launch (05/19/99) -Discovery returns to launch pad (05/20/99) -Discovery astronauts arrive for launch (05/23/99) -STS-96 countdown underway (05/24/99) -NASA managers considering mission extension for Discovery's crew (05/25/99) -Shuttle Discovery cleared for launch (05/25/99) -All systems 'go' for launch (05/26/99) -Shuttle Discovery rockets into orbit (05/27/99) -Discovery docks with international space station (05/28-29/99) -Jernigan, Barry stage marathon spacewalk (05/29-30/99) -Astronauts enter space station; begin logistics transfer (05/30-31/99> -Repair work completed; station in good shape (05/31-01/99) -Astronauts praise space station; describe impressions (06/01-02/99) -Astronauts wrap up station work (06/02-03/99) -Discovery undocks from space station (06/03/99) -Starshine satellite launched (06/04-05/99) -Shuttle Discovery glides to smooth landing (06/05-07/99 =================================================================== Mission Preview: Shuttle Discovery set for space station supply mission (05/19/99) The space shuttle Discovery, making its 26th flight, is poised for blastoff May 27 to deliver 3,600 pounds of supplies, tools, equipment, replacement parts and fresh water to the international space station in a busy 10-day flight, the first shuttle mission in six months. Before the seven-member crew actually boards the orbital outpost, astronauts Tammy Jernigan and Daniel Barry plan to stage a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk the day after docking to cache tool bags for future assembly work and to mount a U.S. crane and parts of a Russian crane on the station's hull. Once inside the space station, the astronauts will begin transferring supplies, troubleshooting a malfunctioning radio system in the U.S.-built Unity node, replacing 18 suspect battery conditioners in the Russian-built Zarya module and working through a lengthy shopping list of housekeeping and maintenance items. Discovery's flight is NASA's second visit to the international space station, a project expected to take four years and more than 40 shuttle missions to complete. As it now stands, the station is made up of a Russian-built NASA-financed core module called Zarya and a U.S.-built multi-hatch node called Unity that will serve as a gateway to future modules. "It is an excellent mission, an excellent chance to go back up and see the hardware, see how it's been performing, work on a few components that need a little bit of attention and, of course, begin to transfer a large amount of hardware into the station that the [first full-time] crew will use in the future for living and working up there," said Frank Culbertson, deputy space station program manager. "It is an ambitious schedule for the crew because on top of that, they also will be conducting some in-flight maintenance, they'll be changing some components in the electrical power system of the [Russian Zarya module] as well as possibly doing some in-flight maintenance on our early communications system, which has had some problems recently." With commander Kent Rominger and pilot Scott Husband at the controls, Discovery is scheduled to blast off from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center around 6:48 a.m. on May 27, just as Earth's rotation carries the shuttle into the plane of the space station's orbit. The exact launch time will be determined the day of launch based on last-minute radar tracking of the station. Liftoff originally was scheduled for May 20, but Discovery's external fuel tank was damaged by hail during a thunderstorm the weekend of May 9. After hauling the shuttle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for inspections and repairs, technicians discovered 648 hail-strike divots in the foam insulation of the external tank. Of that total, 189 were so small no repairs were needed. It was determined another 211 could be repaired by sanding while 248 required foam injections. The May 27 launch window opens at 06:48:26 a.m. and closes at 06:57 a.m. Assuming Discovery gets off the ground during the first six minutes of the window, the shuttle will rendezvous and dock with the station on flight day three, around 12:24 a.m. on May 29. Should launch occur during the final four minutes of the window, docking would slip to May 30. That would force NASA to extend the mission by one day to complete all planned docked activity. In that case, mission managers could elect to delay launch one day, to 6:22 a.m. on May 28, when a flight-day three rendezvous and docking would be possible throughout the shuttle's 10-minute launch window. Joining Rominger, Husband, Jernigan and Barry for the 94th shuttle flight are flight engineer Ellen Ochoa, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and Russian Air Force Col. Valery Tokarev, a cosmonaut who originally trained to fly Russia's now discarded Buran space shuttle. Jernigan is making her fifth space flight, Rominger his fourth, Ochoa her third and Barry his second. The rest are space rookies. "This logistics flight is a first, it is the first logistics flight to the international space station and as such has been a trailblazer for later logistics flights," said Sharon Castle, a launch package manager at the Johnson Space Center. "It is international in nature, composed of U.S., Russian, Canadian and European contributions. It is also the first flight we have with significant Russian participation for the definition of what cargo we're going to fly and how we're going to stow it on station." Assuming an on-time launch, shuttle mission STS-96 will come to an end with a pre-dawn landing at the Kennedy Space Center around 3:25 a.m. on June 6. The 154-orbit four-million-mile flight is targeted for a mission duration of nine days 20 hours and 37 minutes. STS-96 is the second U.S. flight to the international space station following a dramatic mission last December in which a shuttle crew connected the Unity node to the Zarya module. Because a planned April flight to launch the Chandra X-ray Observatory was delayed, Discovery's mission marks NASA's first launch in six months. While Rominger said he is not overly concerned, "it's something that we need to be cognizant of." "I'm a Navy pilot, and the worst thing you can do with an airplane is leave it sitting around for days, weeks, months," he said. "Hopefully everybody recognizes that, you know, this long dry spell is not necessarily good. In fact, it's not good, and we need to recognize that we don't have that recent experience, and we need to consider that when we're going through the flow, and make sure we take the time needed to do things right." NASA originally intended to launch Rominger and company on station assembly flight 2A.1 after the arrival of the Russian service module, a critical command and control center that will serve as the station's initial crew quarters and provide the propulsion necessary to keep the lab at the proper altitude. But the service module is running more than a year behind schedule because of Russian funding problems and while current launch schedules continue to show a late September launch for this key component, NASA is informally tracking Nov. 20 as a more realistic launch date. Under that scenario, the first full-time station crew, known as Expedition One, will take off aboard a Soyuz rocket in late January or early February. In any case, the service module delays forced NASA to modify Discovery's current mission. Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, originally assigned to mission 2A.1 to carry out service module activation tasks, was reassigned to mission 2A.2, a logistics and resupply flight scheduled for launch Dec. 2. He was replaced by Tokarev. In addition, the shuttle's approach to the station - the rendezvous profile - had to be modified to reflect the absence of the service module, which NASA was counting on to maintain the station's orientation during docking. But Hale said Russian engineers have modified software controlling Zarya's maneuvering jets to protect the shuttle while still maintaining proper attitude control. While Discovery's logistics transfer mission might seem rather humdrum compared to upcoming assembly missions, it has proved no less complex when it comes to planning and execution. "First of all, we have to take this 3,000 pounds of stuff and put it on board the space station so the center of gravity remains balanced and the attitude control system can keep the station flying under control," Hale said. "The FGB [Zarya] is the active vehicle when the service module docking takes place so it's very important that we do it properly. We have had a lot of work going on internationally between us and the Russian experts on how to transfer these logistics. "Much of the logistics goes in the node," he continued. "A significant amount of the logistics is going to be strapped to the floor and walls of the corridor inside the FGB with velcro straps. Every single bag, every single item has got an exact place it's supposed to go and the crew has been trained to put them in one and only one place." Along with 600 pounds of fresh water, the shuttle crew will deliver 1,300 pounds of U.S. equipment and supplies along with 1,700 pounds of Russian gear. All 3,000 pounds is packed into 123 cargo transfer bags. Eighty six of the bags will be left aboard the station when the shuttle departs, 71 in Zarya and 15 in Unity. "Inside the FGB the panels open up," Hale said. "Some of the bays are empty. To put logistics inside those bays, we have to first go in and build a webbing of the velcro straps, put the bag in and then put the straps around the bag to hold it in place and then close the door. "So it's been a long process," he said. "It's not real easy. It reminds me a lot of packing for going on a long camping trip. We're trying to get everything in, make the maximum use of your space and make sure everything you're carrying is an important thing to carry. ... So it's been a big challenge and it's taken a lot of our energy and work to make sure logistics transfer happens in the right way. It's going to take most of our docked time to make sure it gets done right." As with all shuttle flights, NASA managers have prioritized the objectives for Rominger's crew. The top priority is a successful rendezvous and docking followed by the logistics transfer work and the spacewalk by Jernigan and Barry. The spacewalk, or EVA in NASA-ese, has six major goals: * To install a manually operated U.S. crane on the pressurized mating adapter between Zarya and Unity that will be used by future assembly crews to move equipment about; and to mount two parts of a Russian crane on the station's hull. Another three components of that device will be ferried up in December. * To install a mask over a docking target to make it less bright for automated Progress or Soyuz dockings. * Transfer three bags of EVA tools from Discovery to the station's hull. These tools will be used by future assembly crews. * Install a thermal cover on one of four posts used to mount the Unity node in the shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay last December. One of the covers slipped away from spacewalkers during that flight. * Check out the operation of the U.S. manual crane. * Carry out detailed photo documentation of selected areas of the station. "We have a number of areas that people would like to get photographs of on the outside," Hale said. "There's some paint flaking off handrails that people want to get some pictures of, there's some discoloration on one area of the outside of the node. We don't really understand why those things are happening, but we want to make sure we have them properly modeled, particularly the thermal characteristics. You'd hate to have a handrail that's too hot to hold onto." The spacewalk will take place the day after Discovery docks with the station. On docking day, the crew will not enter the station beyond the first pressurized mating adapter, known as PMA-2, the tunnel-like structure that serves as the station's initial shuttle docking port. After rigging the hatch leading to Unity for logistics transfer work later in the mission, the hatches between the shuttle and PMA-2 will be resealed and the crew will go to bed. The spacewalk is scheduled for the next day. The day after that, the crew will enter the station, opening all the hatches between in two vehicles. Tokarev and Payette will immediately begin installation of 18 battery conditioners in the Zarya module, three for each of the module's six batteries. The conditioners currently on board have not been working properly in some cases and Tokarev and Payette will replace the entire complement. Working while the station is in contact with Russian ground stations, the duo will replace 12 units the first day and six the next. "The problem with the electrical charging system is not critical in the sense that it's not an immediate threat to the station," Hale said. "But for the long-term health and to maintain the absolute maximum charge on the batteries on board the FGB, this is a prudent thing for us to take on." After installing the first 12 battery conditioners, Payette and Husband will troubleshoot the radio system in the Unity node. The so-called "early comm" system was installed to give NASA flight controllers direct telemetry from Unity through the agency's TDRS communications satellite system. Without the Unity radio and two antennas mounted outside during a spacewalk last December, NASA controllers would have to rely on telemetry relayed back through Zarya through Russian ground stations during limited ground passes. The early comm system is a stopgap measure, giving flight controllers insight into station systems until more sophisticated KU-band communications gear can be installed next year. But on March 2 the early comm system's starboard antenna suffered a degradation in performance. Then, on April 21, the system's return link failed. "We're not sure exactly what caused that," Culbertson said. "We were in the process of conducting a test on the antenna pattern because we had seen some anomalies in the starboard antenna. We don't know what caused the system to stop working. There are four candidates for that and we've got replacement parts for all four of those candidates either already on the station or that will be carried on 2A.1." In parallel with accomplishing the major goals of the flight, Discovery's crew also will work through the rest of the list, which includes "little things from installing a pivot pin in one of the racks, cleaning filters, installing various components around, including the soft stowage rack inserts in the node, sound suppressing equipment in the FGB ... [taking] air samples, put in environmental monitoring aids," Hale said. "We're going to transfer up to seven of our CWCs, the water containers that hold about 100 pounds of water, to the FGB. That will provide water for the Expedition One crew or a contingency crew. We're going to install a number of cables, put labels around, check out the laptop computers the expedition crew will use later. And one and on. There are about 60 items on the list that will keep us busy for all five days that we're docked." If all goes well, Rominger will fire Discovery's maneuvering jets around 4:18 a.m. on June 3 to boost the space station's altitude by up to three miles. Later that night, at 6:30 p.m., the shuttle will undock and carry out two photo-survey flyarounds before departing for good around midnight. Finally, at 3:10 a.m. on June 5, the crew will launch Starshine, a small mirror-studded satellite built as part of a student education project. =================================================================== Shuttle launch delay likely due to hail damage (05/12/99) Hail damage to the shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank likely will force NASA managers to delay the orbiter's planned May 20 launch on a space station supply and maintenance mission. A decision one way or the other is expected Thursday, after a program requirements change board meeting. If a decision is made to haul Discovery off its oceanside launch pad and back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for external tank insulation repairs, launch would be delayed one week, sources say, to 6:47 a.m. on May 27. Liftoff currently is targeted for 9:32 a.m. on May 20. Insulation on the shuttle's external fuel tank was damaged during a thunderstorm that swept across the Kennedy Space Center over the weekend. While some of the dings in the tank's protective insulation can be repaired at pad 39B, at least some of them appear to be in areas workers cannot reach as long as the shuttle is attached to the tank in a vertical orientation. The number and dimensions of those dings are not yet known. This status report will be updated as soon as more information becomes available. =================================================================== Shuttle launch may be off to May 30 or later (05/18/99) The shuttle Discovery's launch on a space station servicing mission likely will be delayed to the Memorial Day weekend - and possibly even longer - because of work to repair hail damage to the ship's external tank and other issues conspiring to slow the shuttle's return to the launch pad. Discovery originally was scheduled for takeoff May 20, but the flight was put on hold after the shuttle's external tank was damaged during a violent thunderstorm the weekend of May 9. The orbiter was hauled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Sunday. After setting up access platforms, engineers discovered some 648 hail strikes in the tank's foam insulation ranging in size from pinpricks to divots two inches across. The concern is that ice could build up in the larger pockets during fueling, break off during launch and damage the shuttle's cockpit windows or thermal tiles. The repair work itself is relatively straight forward. Of the 648 divots, 189 are so small no repairs are needed. Another 211 can be repaired by sanding and 248 will be injected with fresh foam. That repair work should be complete by Wednesday and all things being equal, the shuttle probably could be hauled back to the pad Thursday and launched on May 27 as NASA originally hoped. But all things are not equal. To make way for Discovery in the VAB, the boosters and external tank slated for use by the shuttle Columbia later this summer had to be rolled out. Because of predicted thunderstorms later this week, NASA is going to move Columbia's tank and boosters to Discovery's launch pad early Wednesday where the stack will be protected from lightning. The tank and boosters will have to be returned to the VAB before Discovery can take its place at the pad. But only one of NASA's two shuttle crawler-transporters is currently operational and it now appears the earliest Discovery can be moved back to pad 39B is Saturday and more likely, Sunday, May 23, setting up a launch attempt at 5:34 a.m. on Sunday, May 30. That would require the launch team to work over the Memorial Day holiday weekend and Kennedy Space Center managers have recommended delaying the start of the countdown to June 1 for a launch on June 4. That plan may not fly, however, because of increasingly low sun angles on the space station's solar arrays in early June. In any case, a lot will depend on the weather, which ultimately will determine when either shuttle stack can be moved. A firm launch target is expected Wednesday after another assessment of the Discovery repair work. This status report will be updated as events warrant. =================================================================== Discovery back on track for May 27 launch (05/19/99) There's good news and bad news on the shuttle front today. In the good news department, the shuttle Discovery, its hail-damaged external tank repaired, will be hauled back out to pad 39B Thursday for a launch attempt on May 27. The bad news is that the boosters and fuel tank slated for use by the shuttle Columbia later this summer, which were moved out of the Vehicle Assembly Building to make room for Discovery, will remain parked outside for one more night and possible two, exposed to potentially violent thunderstorms. NASA managers Tuesday decided to move the Columbia stack out to pad 39B where lightning protection is available. But only one of NASA's two crawler-transporters is fully operational (one is undergoing routine maintenance and cannot carry a shuttle stack up the incline to the pad surface). In addition, only one crawler crew is available and its workload must be taken into account. It became obvious overnight that technicians could not get the Columbia stack to pad 39B before afternoon thunderstorms were expected to develop. And as luck would have it, pad 39A already was off limits because of scheduled maintenance. "There's a kid's game where you have a canoe and you have a fox and a chicken and a bag of grain and you've got to get them across the river two at a time," said lead flight director Wayne Hale. "It's that kind of game we've been playing." He said the problems encountered this week "are causing people to go back and examine the ground rules on how we do these kinds of operations." Said one senior NASA manager who requested anonymity: "We shouldn't have put ourselves in this position. That's what we need to learn from." In any case, Columbia's boosters and tank will be parked by the VAB where engineers have rigged impromptu lightning wires. That will not protect the stack from hail damage or high winds, which is what prompted managers Tuesday to order the move to pad 39B. But Hale told CBS News this morning additional analysis shows the stack can safely weather the expected storms and "people are feeling better about it." "A little rain is not going to hurt, we're protected from lightning, it appears we can withstand very large wind gusts," he said. "We're exposed to hail, but we can always repair that." Playing it safe, the bolts that hold Columbia's boosters to the mobile launch platform will be instrumented with strain gauges, as will the bolts holding the external fuel tank to the boosters. "If we did see some kind of over-loading condition, you hope the worst you'd have to do is replace some of those bolts," said Hale. Discovery originally was scheduled for blastoff May 20, but the flight was put on hold after a violent thunderstorm resulted in hail damage to the shuttle's external tank. The orbiter was hauled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Sunday. After setting up access platforms, engineers discovered some 648 hail strikes in the tank's foam insulation ranging in size from pinpricks to divots two inches across. The concern is that ice could build up in the larger pockets during fueling, break off during launch and damage the shuttle's cockpit windows or thermal tiles. The repair work itself is relatively straight forward. Of the 648 divots, 189 were so small no repairs are needed. Another 211 could be repaired by sanding and 248 will be injected with fresh foam. That repair work should be complete by Wednesday evening, permitting a rollout early Thursday and a launch attempt on May 27. NASA managers want to get Discovery off the ground as soon as possible to provide a bit of cushion in case of other problems that might cause delays. One major concern is something called the beta angle, that is, the angle between the sun and the space station's orbital plane. The highest beta angle possible for the space station's orbit is 74 degrees and "somewhere before 74 degrees, you're effectively in continuous sunlight," Hale explained. "As the beta angle increases and you get more and more sun, you begin to run into thermal problems. For beta angles less than 60 degrees, we're basically OK." The issue, he said, is what the beta angle might be on the last day the shuttle is docked to the station. As it turns out, June 6 is the last day Discovery can take off and enjoy a beta angle of 60 degrees or less throughout the docked portion of the mission. "The analysis people are just about ready to sign on the dotted line that we can go to 66 degrees," he said. "That would give us a launch date up to June 8." Between June 8 and June 23, however, the angle will be greater than 66 degrees and a launch presumably would not be possible. Another such beta angle "cutout" will occur in August. =================================================================== Discovery returns to launch pad (05/20/99) The repaired shuttle Discovery was hauled from the Vehicle Assembly Building back out to pad 39B early today for blastoff May 27 on a space station servicing mission, seven days late because of work to fix hail damage to its external fuel tank. The 4.2-mile trip to the pad began at 2:08 a.m. and by 10 a.m., the vehicle was mounted atop the pad surface. The shuttle Columbia's external tank and boosters, which were parked outside the VAB to make room for Discovery, were moved back inside this morning. =================================================================== Discovery astronauts arrive for launch (05/23/99) The shuttle Discovery's four-man three-woman crew flew to the Kennedy Space Center Sunday evening to prepare for blastoff Thursday on a space station maintenance and supply mission, NASA's first shuttle flight in six months. With the countdown scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Monday, commander Kent Rominger and his six crewmates, making the flight from Houston in T-38 jets, touched down at the shuttle landing facility around 11 p.m. Sunday. "We're very excited to be here," Rominger said. "Flying in this evening, Discovery was on the pad and we came right by her. She looks like she's in beautiful shape." Launch of the 94th shuttle mission was delayed one week, from May 20 to 6:48 a.m. May 27, by work to repair hail damage to Discovery's external fuel tank. Rominger went out of his way to thank the technicians who repaired his ship and hauled it to and from pad 39B, saying "I know the thermal protection guys worked hard and did a phenomenal job of getting Discovery's tank patched back up after the hail storm a couple of weeks ago. And also the crawler crew, I understand, worked extremely long hours and did a fantastic job ... to enable us to have our launch date set for Thursday. So we're extremely excited to be here." Rominger's crewmates are pilot Rick Husband, flight engineer Ellen Ochoa, Tamara Jernigan, Daniel Barry, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and Russian Air Force Col. Valery Tokarev, a cosmonaut who originally trained to fly Russia's now discarded Buran space shuttle. Jernigan is making her fifth space flight, Rominger his fourth, Ochoa her third and Barry his second. The rest are space rookies. "It's a great flight we have up ahead of us," Ochoa told reporters at the shuttle landing facility. "Tammy and I ... both spent a couple of years coordinating all the astronaut office support for the development of the international space station and now to be able to actually go up and see it for ourselves will be really wonderful. We're especially thrilled to be able to prepare the international space station for our colleagues and our friends who are right now in training to go live on the space station." The mission "should be extremely exciting," Rominger said. "We're looking forward to a very busy mission, a very exciting mission with the spacewalk, the docking, the flyarounds we're doing and all the work inside the station." =================================================================== STS-96 countdown underway (05/24/99) With forecasters predicting a 70 percent chance of good weather, engineers today started the shuttle Discovery's countdown to blastoff Thursday on a space station servicing and supply mission, NASA's first shuttle flight in six months. The countdown began on time at 9 a.m., targeted for the opening of a 13-minute window that begins at 6:44 a.m. But the first four minutes of the window are off limits for technical reasons and the actual launch window will open around 6:48:47 a.m. The preferred launch time within that window will not be set until the morning of flight based on final radar tracking of the international space station. As of this writing, flight controllers are tentatively aiming for a launch at 6:49:40 a.m. This issue is confusing at best and even NASA managers (not to mention reporters) frequently quote out-of-date numbers. For what it's worth, the times listed above were accurate as of Monday afternoon. "I'm pleased to report we're not working any ground or flight system issues," NASA test director Doug Lyons told reporters earlier today. "All our hardware is in great shape and we're right on schedule." If all goes well, Discovery will return to the Kennedy Space Center for a landing at 1:57 a.m. on June 6. This is one orbit earlier than had been planned. Discovery's launch will mark NASA's first shuttle flight since mission STS-88 in early December. The unusual six-month hiatus was caused primarily by delays building a critical Russian space station module and problems that combined to push the launch of NASA's $1.5 billion Chandra X-ray Observatory from April to late July. On top of that, Discovery's flight was delayed from May 20 to May 27 because of work to repair hail damage to the foam insulation of the orbiter's external fuel tank. During this same period, a string of unmanned rocket failures has jolted the nation's military and commercial space programs, prompting increased concern in some quarters about Discovery's mission. But Lyons said the launch team is upbeat and confident about getting the shuttle program back into space Thursday. "The team's very excited to be back at the launch pad and in a launch countdown," he said. "We're very confident in the training we've performed over the last six months. We've gone through extensive launch countdown training runs, we've reviewed all our procedures and updated them, we've even updated our launch commit criteria. I think the team definitely feels prepared. We have confidence in our hardware and ourselves and we're ready to go." Like all launches from the East Coast, the shuttle team shares Air Force range tracking systems with other users. In this case, NASA is booked on the Eastern Range for launch attempts Thursday and Friday. If Discovery is not off the ground by Friday, the shuttle team would take a day off Saturday and try again on Sunday. Additional attempts could be made through June 7. After that, the beta angle, that is, the angle between the sun and the plane of the station's orbit, would be such that Discovery would be exposed to more solar heating than is allowable during the time it is docked with the station. As a result, Discovery cannot be launched between June 7 and June 22. But NASA managers are optimistic it won't come to that. Forecasters are predicting a 70 percent chance of good weather Thursday, with just a chance of fog due to moisture from expected afternoon thunderstorms. The outlook for Friday calls for an 80 percent chance of acceptable conditions. =================================================================== NASA managers considering mission extension for Discovery's crew (05/25/99) NASA flight controllers are studying the possibility of extending the shuttle Discovery's space station supply mission by one day to give the crew additional time to complete all planned logistics transfer and repair tasks. Discovery is scheduled for launch Thursday during a short window that opens at 6:48 a.m. If the shuttle takes off in the first six minutes of the window, docking with the international space station will take place early Saturday and a spacewalk, or EVA, will be staged Saturday night. If launch occurs in the final three minutes of the window, docking will take place Sunday. In that case, Discovery's mission definitely would be extended one day to give the crew enough time to transfer 3,600 pounds of equipment, supplies and fresh water from the shuttle to the space station. Frank Culbertson, operations manager of the space station project for NASA, said today even if the shuttle docks on Saturday - flight day 3 - as planned, the flight might be extended one day to decompress the timeline. "We have discussed whether it would be beneficial to extend on a nominal flight day three case," Culbertson said. "There are some scenarios that might suggest you'd want to do that but we really won't know until we get there and see how well the EVA and the transfers go. That's margin that we do have." The weather forecast for Thursday's launch has improved to 80 percent "go" and with no technical problems of any significance, the launch team is optimistic about getting the year's first shuttle flight underway. The only other news of note this morning was a report in two area newspapers that a Russian space program manager had a run-in with local law enforcement officials Sunday afternoon. Here is the story from the Orlando Sentinel: By Lynne Bumpus-Hooper Of The Sentinel Staff COCOA BEACH -- A top Russian space official left jail Monday, a day after turning up semiconscious on the beach and being charged with attacking two emergency medical workers. Vladimir Lobachev, 61, of Moscow is in Florida as a visiting dignitary for Thursday's launch of the space shuttle Discovery, a NASA spokesperson said. Lobachev posted $1,000 bond on the two charges of battery on an emergency medical worker and left the jail shortly after 2 p.m., records show. Police went to the Cocoa Beach pier Sunday afternoon in response to a report of a semiconscious man, the arrest report said. He was face down in the sand, wearing boxer shorts. Officers called Brevard County Fire Rescue when they discovered the man could barely respond to them. Rescue workers took him to Cape Canaveral Hospital. As they removed him from the ambulance, he woke up and became combative, police said. The man confronted the male paramedic and then kicked a female paramedic in the abdomen, knocking her through the ambulance door and to the pavement, the arrest report said. Neither medical worker was seriously hurt, said Orlando Domingez, spokesman for Fire Rescue agency. The arrest report indicated that alcohol may have been a factor in the incident. Sources said Lobachev's blood-alcohol was 0.268 percent, more than three times the legal limit for alcohol impairment. Lobachev required about 51/2 hours of treatment at the hospital before he could be discharged to go to jail. Since 1984, Lobachev has been director of the Russian space program's Mission Control Center in Korolev, a suburb of Moscow. Know by its acronym TsUP -- pronounced "soup" -- the center is the Russian counterpart of NASA's Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston. More than 2,000 people work at the Russian center, which controls the space station Mir, supports Russian launches and shares many responsibilities with NASA for the new international space station. NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham said Lobachev has no active role in the upcoming shuttle mission. Representatives of Kennedy and Johnson space centers, a member of the Russian space agency and a translator were present for Lobachev's 1 p.m. court appearance inside the Brevard County Jail. =================================================================== Shuttle Discovery cleared for launch (05/25/99) Senior NASA managers Tuesday reviewed the shuttle Discovery's ground processing and formally cleared the spacecraft and its crew for launch Thursday on a space station supply and repair mission. It will be the first shuttle flight in nearly six months, but new program manager Ron Dittemore said the astronauts, flight controllers and launch engineers are well trained, adding that additional simulations and reviews were held to ensure a safe launch. "It's true the last launch was in December, so we're a little over five-and-a-half months from the last time we launched," he said. "Last summer, between STS-91 and STS-95, we were about four-and-a-half months [between flights] and back in 1990, we had a gap of about five-and-a-half months also. So we need to take that into consideration. This is really not much out of our experience, our family [of experience]. The other thing we need to note is our hardware hasn't changed and our processes have not changed." Even so, he continued, "when you have a gap like that you want to make sure the people are paying the right attention to detail." "We have taken some precautions," he said. "We've looked at the launch team and the flight control team, we've added some additional launch team simulations where we've kept our skill and proficiency up. We've also combined those launch team sims so that we could add the folks in Houston so it looks like a real countdown. So the coordination between the two centers ... has been exercised over the last couple of months." Discovery's mission is devoted to delivering equipment and supplies to the international space station and making relatively minor repairs. Eighteen electrical devices will be replaced in the Russian Zarya module to improve battery conditioning and a U.S. radio system in NASA's Unity module will be repaired or replaced as warranted. The radio system, which lets NASA flight controllers monitor station telemetry directly, failed earlier this year. Until it is repaired, data from the U.S. module can only be received through Russian ground stations. But these problems are not considered serious and all in all, "this is an exciting time in the life cycle of the international space station," said station program manager Tommy Holloway. "It's a time when we see all the hardware coming together," he said. "There are two elements on orbit operating very well, there are five elements here in our processing facility being tested and getting ready for flight from three different countries around the world. Very soon, we'll have 60 percent of the hardware either in orbit or at the launch facilities at Baikonur or here in Florida." In the near term, Dittemore said, "we are ready to proceed as scheduled for a launch on Thursday morning at 6:48 a.m. Our vehicle processing is complete, our flight and ground crews are trained and ready to go and it has been a good flow for all involved." =================================================================== All systems 'go' for launch (05/26/99) 10:30 a.m. Update: Countdown timeline The shuttle Discovery's countdown is ticking smoothly toward launch Thursday, with no technical problems of any significance and with forecasters calling for an 80 percent chance of good weather. NASA test director Steve Artemus said engineers at pad 39B are readying the ship for fueling later tonight, setting the stage for a launch attempt around 6:50 a.m. Here is the countdown timeline (BIH: built-in hold): 05/26/99 10:00 AM...Countdown: Gantry retracted 02:54 PM...Countdown: End 13-hour 54-minute BIH 06:30 PM...Crew: Wakeup 07:54 PM...Countdown: Start 2-hour BIH at T-6 hour mark Mission management team go/no-go for fueling 09:54 PM...Countdown: End BIH; begin fueling 11:30 PM...Crew: Optional nap 05/27/99 12:54 AM...Countdown: Start 2-hour BIH at the T-3 hour mark; fueling complete 01:30 AM...NASA TV launch coverage begins 01:49 AM...Crew: Photo opportunity 02:19 AM...Crew: Final weather briefing 02:29 AM...Crew: Suit up for launch 02:54 AM...Countdown: End 2-hour BIH 02:59 AM...Crew: Depart crew quarters 03:29 AM...Crew: Arrive launch pad 04:44 AM...Countdown: Hatch closed 05:34 AM...Countdown: Start 10-minute BIH at T-20 minute mark 05:44 AM...Countdown: T-20 minutes and counting 05:55 AM...Countdown: Start final 40-minute adjustable BIH at T-9 minute mark 06:41 AM...Countdown: T-minus nine minutes and counting 06:50 AM...Launch As usual with space station launch windows, the exact launch time will not be set until about 90 minutes before liftoff based on final radar tracking of the orbital lab. In order to catch up with the station, Discovery must be launched within five minutes or so of the moment when Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the station's orbit. For Discovery's launch Thursday, the launch window opens at 6:44:41 a.m. and closes at 10:57:48 a.m. But for technical reasons, NASA will not launch Discovery before 06:47:47 a.m. The preferred launch time, the one they'll shoot for if there are no weather or technical problems, is 6:49:42 a.m. (as computed by mission control early Wednesday). At the moment of launch, the international space station will be flying over the Atlantic Ocean just east of the North Carolina/South Carolina coastlines on a southwest-to-northeast trajectory. The countdown is timed to set up the opening of the initial window, that is, 6:44:41 a.m. To hit the preferred launch time, a final 40-minute hold at the T-minus nine-minute mark will be extended by five minutes and 42 seconds. Keep in mind all these times will change by a few seconds between now and launch! In any case, if Discovery takes off within the first six minutes of 6:47:47 a.m., the crew will dock with the space station early Saturday. If the shuttle takes off within the last three minutes or so of the window, docking will take place Sunday. In that case, the mission would be extended one day to give the astronauts time to complete all of their objectives (the flight likely will be extended anyway to decompress the timeline). The weather is 80 percent "go" Thursday and 100 percent go Friday. If launch is delayed to Friday, the window will open at 6:22:05 a.m. and close at 6:32:06 a.m. The preferred launch time Friday is 6:27:06 a.m. As with all shuttle countdowns, NASA would make attempts Thursday and Friday and stand down Saturday to give the launch team a day off. Additional attempts could be made Sunday and Monday. 01:00 p.m. Update: Motor problem delays launch pad gantry roll back Engineers readying the shuttle Discovery for blastoff Thursday are struggling to fix a balky motor that has delayed retraction of a protective gantry at launch pad 39B. The gantry, called the rotating service structure, or RSS, surrounds the shuttle during routine processing, providing weather protection and vehicle access for technicians. The hinged structure is rolled back, away from the vehicle the day before launch to clear the way for fueling. RSS retraction was scheduled to begin around 10 a.m., but the structure's drive motor failed to operate properly. The RSS must be out of the way by 5 p.m. or so or Discovery's countdown could be affected. As of this writing, engineers were still assessing what might be needed to repair the motor. This status report will be updated as warranted. 02:00 p.m. Update: Gantry problem resolved Engineers resolved problems with the shuttle Discovery's launch pad gantry and began rolling a protective structure away from the vehicle shortly before 2 p.m. to set the stage for fueling later tonight. The weather continues to look good and there are no other technical problems of any significance. =================================================================== Shuttle Discovery rockets into orbit (05/27/99) 03:15 a.m. Update: Shuttle fueled for launch; crew heads for pad Engineers pumped a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket fuel into the shuttle Discovery's external tank early today, setting the stage for blastoff on a space station servicing mission at 6:50 a.m. The exact launch time will be set shortly before liftoff based on final radar tracking of the international space station. With forecasters predicting an 80 percent chance of good weather, Discovery's four-man three-woman crew headed for pad 39B shortly after 3 a.m. to strap in for liftoff on the 94th shuttle mission. "It's been a very smooth flow," said astronaut Rick Linnehan, monitoring the countdown from the launch control center. "The preparations have gone without a hitch, the systems are all in great shape, things are looking very good this morning. The weather's holding, Discovery's all set to go." Two final built-in holds are planned, a 10-minute hold at the T-minus 20-minute mark and a 45-minute hold at T-minus nine minutes. There are no technical problems of any significance and all systems appear to be "go" for launch. 05:00 a.m. Update: Crew straps into shuttle; updating The Discovery astronauts are strapped in, the crew module hatch is closed and the countdown is continuing to tick smoothly toward a launch attempt around 6:50 a.m. There are no technical problems at pad 39B and the weather continues to appear favorable for launch. This status report will be updated as soon as NASA announces the exact launch time based on final radar tracking of the international space station. 08:30 a.m. Update: Discovery blasts off The space shuttle Discovery vaulted into orbit today, setting off after the international space station to deliver two tons of supplies, repair equipment, fresh water and other gear. Making NASA's first shuttle flight in nearly six months, Discovery's four-man three-woman crew blasted off from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center at 6:49:42 a.m. as Earth's rotation carried the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. "...three, two, one and liftoff of space shuttle Discovery, the first mission to dock with the orbiting international space station!" said NASA launch commentator George Diller as Discovery's two solid-fuel boosters ignited with a ground-shaking roar. The 4.5-million-pound vehicle, accelerating from zero to more than 100 mph - straight up - in less than 10 seconds, quickly climbed above the launch pad gantry and wheeled about to line up on a trajectory up the east coast of the United States. At the moment of liftoff, the international station was sailing some 240 miles above the Atlantic Ocean just east of the North Carolina/South Carolina coastline. The ascent was virtually flawless and after a nearly six-month hiatus in shuttle flights, NASA managers were elated to get Discovery back into orbit. "After five-and-a-half months down, we're very proud of the fact that we're up on orbit," said Donald McMonagle, chairman of NASA's mission management team. "We're in an orbit that's about 177 by 183 [nautical] miles, we're trailing the international space station and on track to have a very successful mission." Discovery's flight, known as STS-96, is NASA's second space station mission. The first was launched last December when the shuttle Endeavour's crew carried up the first U.S. module, a multi-hatch node called Unity, and attached it to a Russian module called Zarya. The solar powered Russian module is equipped with maneuvering jets to keep the station properly oriented in space. Unity provides storage space and will serve as a gateway to future modules. Discovery's flight is "an excellent mission, an excellent chance to go back up and see the hardware, see how it's been performing, work on a few components that need a little bit of attention and, of course, begin to transfer a large amount of hardware into the station that the [first full-time] crew will use in the future for living and working up there," said Frank Culbertson, deputy space station program manager. "It is an ambitious schedule for the crew because on top of that, they also will be conducting some in-flight maintenance, they'll be changing some components in the electrical power system of the [Russian Zarya module] as well as possibly doing some in-flight maintenance on our early communications system, which has had some problems recently." Over the next two days, Discovery commander Kent Rominger and pilot Rick Husband will carry out a series of rendezvous rocket firings desiged to set up a docking around 12:25 a.m. Saturday as the two spacecraft pass over a Russian ground station. Later that night, a few minutes past 11 p.m., astronauts Tamara Jernigan and Daniel Barry will stage a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to install tools and components that will be used by future assembly crews. The astronauts then will begin transferring 4,300 pounds of equipment and supplies from Discovery to the station, including more than 700 pounds that will be stowed on the station's hull during the Jernigan-Barry spacewalk, before undocking June 3. If all goes well, the shuttle will return to the Kennedy Space Center around 2 a.m. on June 6, making the 11th night landing in shuttle history. "It's an extremely complex job to put together the space station," commander Kent Rominger said in a NASA interview. "I mean this is truly a global building project. We've got Europe, we have Canada, we have Japan and the Russians as the main partners. We're fabricating equipment all around the world and these pieces are launching from different places, we're launching out of Baikonur and Kazakhstan, we're launching from the U.S., obviously, so all that adds to the complexity. Discovery's mission "is really a logistics and resupply mission," Rominger continued. "So by the nature of that, our mission is not as complex. However, what really adds to the complexity is how soon we're going. The fact that we are the second mission up means we're the first to dock." And that docking will be a bit more complex than usual because a key Russian component called the service module, which will provide the station's main propulsion and crew quarters, is more than a year behind schedule and will not be launched until late November. The service module is capable of keeping the station much more precisely oriented than Zarya's coarser jets. "This stack was never originally intended to be docked with," Rominger said. "So the more we train, the more we realize that as we're approaching the docking sequence, the control system of this stack isn't as tight as Mir nor as it will be once the service module's there. The tolerances are about twice as large as they are on those. So that's something in the rendezvous and docking we have to keep an eye on. So it's complex enough, I guess I should say." Joining Rominger, Husband, Jernigan and Barry aboard Discovery are flight engineer Ellen Ochoa, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and Russian Air Force Col. Valery Tokarev, a cosmonaut who originally trained to fly Russia's now discarded Buran space shuttle. Jernigan is making her fifth space flight, Rominger his fourth, Ochoa her third and Barry his second. The rest are space rookies. "This logistics flight is a first, it is the first logistics flight to the international space station and as such has been a trailblazer for later logistics flights," said Sharon Castle, a NASA manager at the Johnson Space Center. "It is international in nature, composed of U.S., Russian, Canadian and European contributions. It is also the first flight we have with significant Russian participation for the definition of what cargo we're going to fly and how we're going to stow it on station." Assuming the Russian service module is launched in late November as currently planned, NASA will launch the shuttle Atlantis in early December to ferry additional supplies and equipment to the station. Then, in February or March, the first three-man crew will blast off aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to begin full-time occupation of the outpost. Construction will take four years to complete. =================================================================== Discovery docks with international space station (05/28-29/99) 06:40 a.m., 05/28/99, Update: Shuttle astronauts prepare for station docking Closing in on the international space station, the Discovery astronauts spent their first full day in orbit preparing the ship for docking early Saturday and checking out gear for a spacewalk later that night. The work went smoothly and the astronauts were scheduled to go to be at 9:48 a.m. with a wakeup call expected at 5:18 p.m. Commander Kent Rominger and pilot Rick Husband fired the shuttle's maneuvering jets for 19 seconds late Thursday, changing the orbiter's velocity by about three miles per hour. The rocket firing reduced the shuttle's closure rate from 60 nautical miles to about 54 nautical miles per orbit to keep the ship on track for a docking around 12:24 a.m. Saturday. Another firing was carried out around 6:15 a.m. to reduce the closure rate by another six miles per orbit. Astronaut Tamara Jernigan and Canadian flier Julie Payette, meanwhile, spent Thursday evening activating the Spacehab module mounted in Discovery's cargo bay where much of the cargo bound for the international space station is stored. Jernigan, Payette and Daniel Barry then began checking out the spacesuits Jernigan and Barry will wear Saturday during a planned six-and-a-half-hour excursion to mount tools and other equipment on the station's hull for use by future assembly crews. Rominger and flight engineer Ellen Ochoa mounted a centerline camera in the shuttle's docking module to provide views of the station's docking port during final approach. Ochoa and Payette unlimbered and tested Discovery's robot arm to make sure it will be ready for use during the spacewalk Saturday. No problems were found. The orbiter's docking system also passed its initial operational test. Around 12:40 a.m., Rominger downlinked video shot inside the shuttle's cockpit during launch Thursday morning. So far during the 94th shuttle mission, Rominger and his crewmates have said little and he provided no narration of the tape. Otherwise, there is little to report this morning. Beyond a burned out payload bay floodlight, there are no technical problems of any significance and the crew, while not particularly talkative, is on schedule and in good spirits. A detailed docking timeline will be posted later today, along with a discussion of the rendezvous profile that will be used during final approach to the space station. This status report will be updated as warranted. NASA status reports are posted below. 01:30 p.m. Update: Station ready for docking The shuttle Discovery and the international space station are operating like "well-oiled machines" as ground controllers and the shuttle's seven astronauts gear up for docking early Saturday at 12:24 a.m. "The preparations for the docking are underway and people are very happy with the data they're seeing," said Frank Culbertson, deputy space station program manager. "The history of this moment shouldn't be lost on us. Even though the shuttle has docked to a station before, this will be the first docking to the international space station. That, in my mind, is a very significant event, one that we're looking forward to." Here is a detailed timeline of this evening's events (NOTE: times rounded up to the nearest minute; television times mean downlinks are possible, but not certain): TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 05/28/99 09:35 PM...01...14...46...Terminal initiation burn 10:38 PM...01...15...49...Orbital sunrise 10:54 PM...01...16...05...Start U.S. television opportunity 10:55 PM...01...16...06...Range: 1,500 feet 11:00 PM...01...16...11...Range: 1,000 feet 11:01 PM...01...16...12...Range: 800 feet 11:05 PM...01...16...16...Shuttle 600 feet directly below station 11:06 PM...01...16...17...Orbital noon 11:07 PM...01...16...18...KU-band antenna to low power 11:20 PM...01...16...31...Shuttle 400 feet in front of station 11:32 PM...01...16...43...Shuttle 250 feet directly above station 11:35 PM...01...16...46...Orbital sunset 11:37 PM...01...16...48...Start 170-foot station keeping 11:48 PM...01...16...59...End U.S. television opportunity 11:51 PM...01...17...02...Resume station approach 05/29/99 12:10 AM...01...17...21...Orbital sunrise 12:17 AM...01...17...28...Range: 30 feet 12:21 AM...01...17...32...Docking window opens 12:22 AM...01...17...33...Range: 10 feet 12:23 AM...01...17...34...Start U.S. television opportunity 12:24 AM...01...17...35...SHUTTLE DOCKS WITH SPACE STATION 12:28 AM...01...17...39...End U.S. television opportunity "Overall, I would say the shuttle and the station are working like well oiled machines, they're just doing great," mission operations manager Jeff Bantle said at a morning briefing. "We have no significant problems that are impacting our operations at all. ... The crew's ready to go." The space station currently is made up of two components: The Russian Zarya, or FGB, module and a multi-hatch U.S. module called the Unity node. Unity is a drum-shaped module with four hatches around its waist and one on each end. The two end hatches are connected to pressurized mating adapters, or PMAs, which serve as docking ports. Zarya is connected to PMA-1 while Discovery will dock with PMA-2. NASA originally intended for Discovery's crew to dock with the station after the arrival of a critical Russian component called the service module, which will provide the lab's initial propulsion and crew quarters. Now running more than a year behind schedule because of funding problems, the service module currently is targeted for launch around Nov. 12. The service module was designed with shuttle dockings in mind while Zarya was not. As a result, the shuttle crew must dock with the station while it is over a Russian ground station so flight controllers can uplink commands to Zarya's attitude control system at the moment of contact to disable rocket thrusters that might otherwise fire to maintain the station's orientation. Discovery's launch Thursday was timed to set up a docking early Saturday during an 18-minute window when both vehicles are in contact with the proper Russian ground station. The final phase of the rendezvous will begin at 9:35 p.m. this evening when commander Kent Rominger fires the shuttle's maneuvering jets in what is called a "terminal initiation" burn. At the same time, the space station will be commanded to maneuver to the docking attitude, that is, an orientation in which PMA-2 points straight up into deep space and Zarya points down toward Earth. At that point, Zarya's large 40-kilogram jets, which could damage the shuttle during final approach, will be disabled. Discovery will overtake the station from below, looping out ahead of the outpost and continuing around until the spacecraft is poised directly above PMA-2 with its cargo bay facing Earth. The shuttle will reach this position at 11:32 p.m. Five minutes later, Rominger will begin station keeping at a distance of 170 feet above the station while he waits for the two spacecraft to move into position for final closure. In past dockings with the Russian Mir space station, the shuttle approached from below, using Earth's gravity and orbital mechanics to provide a natural braking force. Discovery will approach from above to make sure the shuttle does not block the radio commands needed to disable the station's attitude control system. If all goes well, Rominger will guide Discovery to a gentle docking at 12:24 a.m., two minutes after the station moves into contact with Russian ground controllers over central Asia. "Everybody probably doesn't realize the choreography of the whole rendezvous and docking is very much tied together for both vehicles," said Bantle. "We originally didn't [intend] to dock with the FGB and node alone." Once docked, the astronauts will enter PMA-2 and take air samples through the main hatch leading into the Unity node. But they will not enter the station itself until after a spacewalk Saturday night by astronauts Tamara Jernigan and Daniel Barry to mount tools and other gear on the station's hull. Once the spacewalk is out of the way, the astronauts will open all the hatches and float aboard the space station Sunday night to begin stowing some two-tons of hardware and supplies. Regular updates will be posted here after the final rendezvous begins later this evening. 09:40 p.m. Update: Shuttle crew begins final rendezvous Shuttle commander Kent Rominger fired the Discovery's maneuvering jets at 9:35 p.m. to begin the terminal phase of this evening's rendezvous with the international space station. With Discovery trailing the station by about eight nautical miles, the 10-second firing of the shuttle's left-side orbital maneuvering system rocket changed the ship's 17,300-mph velocity by a scant five-and-a-half miles per hour. That will cause the shuttle to overtake the station over the next three hours and set up a docking at 12:24 a.m. as the two spacecraft pass 233 miles above a Russian ground station in central Asia. "Good burn, Discovery, you're on your way," astronaut Chris Hadfield radioed from Houston after the terminal initiation burn was complete. "We copy, Chris," Rominger replied. Four small mid-course correction rocket firings are planned, but one or more may not be required depending on the accuracy of the preceding burns. A detailed rendezvous timeline and rendezvous overview is posted below in the 1:30 p.m. update. NASA's latest status report also is available below. 11:10 p.m. Update: Shuttle passes 600 feet below space station Space shuttle Discovery is within 600 feet of the international space station, passing directly below the orbital outpost a few minutes past 11 p.m. Television from the shuttle showed the station was in the planned docking orientation with its solar arrays "feathered" to protect them from Discovery's thrusters. The flight plan calls for the shuttle to loop in front of the station to a point directly above it before beginning final approach during a pass over a Russian ground station. Docking remains on track for 12:24 a.m. There are no technical problems of any significance and everything is going smoothly. 11:45 p.m. Update: Shuttle Discovery poised for docking The shuttle Discovery is less than 200 feet directly above the international space station, setting the stage for docking at 12:24 a.m. Discovery reached a planned station-keeping point about 170 feet above the outpost around 11:43 p.m. as the two spacecraft sailed through orbital darkness 233 miles above the southern Pacific Ocean. Docking will occur two minutes after the station and shuttle move into radio contact with a Russian ground station. This status report will be updated after docking or as conditions warrant. 01:15 a.m., 05/29/99, Update: Discovery docks with space station With a jeweler's touch, former "Top Gun" jet pilot Kent Rominger deftly guided the 120-ton space shuttle Discovery to a gentle tenth-of-a-foot per second docking with the international space station early Saturday as the two craft streaked 233 miles above Russia at five miles per second. Final approach and docking capped a picture-perfect rendezvous that began with liftoff Thursday from the Kennedy Space Center. "Houston, we have capture," Rominger radioed. "Roger," replied astronaut Chris Hadfield replied from mission control in Houston. Keeping Discovery's docking port aligned within three inches of the space station's, Rominger manually guided the shuttle to an on-time link up at 12:24 a.m., just two minutes or so after the spacecraft moved into contact with a Russian ground station. A moment after the initial docking, Russian ground controllers radioed commands to the station's Zarya propulsion module to disable its attitude control thrusters, putting the station in free drift while the docking system damped out any residual motion between the two spacecraft. "And Houston, the station is in free drift," Rominger confirmed a few moments later. The docking was carried live on NASA television with split-screen views from Discovery and from a black-and-white camera mounted on the hull of the Russian Zarya module. Eleven minutes after the initial docking, commands were sent to drive latches closed to firmly lock the two spacecraft together. "Houston, Discovery, we're ready to power off the docking system," astronaut Tamara Jernigan radioed when the procedure was complete. "Discovery, Houston, you made the first docking of the space station look effortless," Hadfield said. "You've set the standard for all those who follow. Congratulations." The astronauts will not enter the main body of the space station today. After leak checks to make sure seals are tight, they will enter a connecting tunnel called a pressurized mating adapter around 4:28 a.m. and sample the air inside the station through a port in one of the hatches leading to the U.S. Unity module. But they won't enter the station proper until Sunday evening, after a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk Saturday night by astronauts Tamara Jernigan and Daniel Barry. The shuttle's Spacehab module has been sealed off and cabin air pressure already has been lowered to 10.2 psi in preparation for the spacewalk, which precludes an immediate entry into the station. In addition, engineers need a bit more time to fully warm the interior of the station to prevent condensation when the main hatches are opened. Between shuttle visits, the temperature inside the station drops below freezing. "If we opened up the hatches to the shuttle and went in under that kind of environment, the warmer air from the shuttle when it enters in would condense and we'd have a lot of condensation," said mission operations manager Jeff Bantle. "So what we'll do is warm the node up [above] the dew point." By the time the astronauts enter the station Sunday night, the temperature is expected to be in the high 60s or low 70s. "Discovery, Houston, congratulations are coming in from all around the world," Hadfield radioed a few minutes past 1 a.m. "Moscow passes along theirs, [space station deputy program manager] Frank Culbertson is standing next ot me and he congratulates you directly. Well done." "Houston, Discovery, thanks a lot," Rominger replied. "it was definitely a team effort and we appreciate all the great help you've given us." =================================================================== Jernigan, Barry stage marathon spacewalk (05/29-30/99) 03:00 p.m., 05/29/99, Update: Astronauts set for spacewalk Firmly locked to the international space station, the Discovery astronauts will stage a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk late tonight to mount cargo booms and other tools to the orbital outpost for future construction crews. The astronauts plan to enter the space station for the first time Sunday evening to begin transferring some two tons of supplies, fresh water and repair equipment from Discovery to the space station. While the supply transfer is the major priority of the mission, the spacewalk promises to provide one of the visual highlights as astronauts Tamara Jernigan and Daniel Barry work to mount several hundred pounds of hardware on the station's hull. The crew will begin working through the spacewalk, or EVA, timeline at 7:49 p.m. Jernigan and Barry will spend an hour breathing pure oxygen for an hour before leaving Discovery's airlock around 11:03 p.m. Canadian astronaut Julie Payette will serve as director of the spacewalk, following a detailed checklist to help keep Barry and Jernigan on schedule. Jernigan will spend the spacewalk anchored to the end of Discovery's robot arm, which will be operated by astronaut Ellen Ochoa, while Barry will be free to move about on his own. The spacewalk has six major goals: * To install a manually operated U.S. crane on the pressurized mating adapter between Zarya and Unity that will be used by future assembly crews to move equipment about; and to mount two parts of a Russian crane on the station's hull. Another three components of that device will be ferried up in December. * To install a mask over a docking target to make it less bright for automated Progress or Soyuz dockings. * Transfer three bags of EVA tools from Discovery to the station's hull. These tools will be used by future assembly crews. * Install a thermal cover on one of four posts used to mount the Unity node in the shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay last December. One of the covers slipped away from spacewalkers during that flight. * Check out the operation of the U.S. manual crane. * Carry out detailed photo documentation of selected areas of the station. "We have a number of areas that people would like to get photographs of on the outside," lead flight director Wayne Hale said before launch. "There's some paint flaking off handrails that people want to get some pictures of, there's some discoloration on one area of the outside of the node. We don't really understand why those things are happening, but we want to make sure we have them properly modeled, particularly the thermal characteristics. You'd hate to have a handrail that's too hot to hold onto." After leaving Discovery's airlock, Jernigan and Barry will spend about an hour breaking out tools and other equipment needed for the spacewalk. Then they will turn their attention to installing the U.S. crane. "The first thing we'll do is pick up the U.S. EVA crane out of its latches and transport it from the space shuttle to the Space Station and install it on our work site interface socket," Jernigan said in a NASA interview. "The next thing we'll do is retrieve the Russian crane, or the two pieces of the Russian crane. The crane elevates from a horizontal configuration to a vertical configuration. We'll pull it off its mounting and then mount a grapple fixture to the bottom of what's called the Russian operator post. Then we will take that entire component, which weighs several hundred pounds, and mount that on top of the FGB [Russian Zarya module]. We'll go way up to the top of the stack in order to mount the Strela, which is the Russian crane, to the top of the FGB." Components to complete assembly of the Strela boom will be ferried up in December on another shuttle flight. But for now, Barry is more than excited at the opportunity to install part of the crane on the far end of the space station. "I'm particularly looking forward to that part because it will take Tammy and me much farther away from the shuttle than I've ever been Ñ about as far away as anyone's ever been," he said. "So it'll be real what you would call "high-wire construction." Once the cranes are installed, Jernigan and Barry will mount two foot restraints on top of the station and then move a trio of large tool bags from a cargo bay carrier to mounting points on the station's hull. The duo also plans to install a thermal cover on an exposed shuttle mounting pin on the Unity module and to inspect a suspect antenna. But the major goals of the excursion "are the transfer of the Russian and the U.S. cranes, the transfer of the tools that will then later be used in the subsequent construction missions," Jernigan said. Making her fifth flight, Jernigan was scheduled to walk in space during shuttle mission STS-80 in late 1996, but she was unable to get out of the shuttle Columbia's airlock because of a jammed hatch release mechanism. This time around, she's confident everything will go smoothly. "It was frustrating to have done all the preparation for the two spacewalks on STS-80 and not be able to execute them in flight," she said. "Every once in a while fate deals you a hand that you have no control over, but we were certainly disappointed. I look forward to this opportunity to perform a space walk and contribute to the program in this manner." 11:15 p.m., 05/29/99, Update: Jernigan, Barry, begin spacewalk Running about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, astronauts Tamara Jernigan and Daniel Barry began a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk this evening to mount tools and cargo booms on the hull of the international space station for future assembly crews. The spacewalk officially began at 10:56 p.m. when the two astronauts switched their spacesuits to battery power while floating in the shuttle Discovery's airlock. Jernigan then cranked open the airlock hatch, uttering an enthusiastic "unbelievable!" when the crank handle rotated freely. During an attempted spacewalk in 1996, Jernigan never made it out of the airlock when the shuttle Columbia's airlock hatch jammed due to a loose screw in the mechanism. "I don't think that was too unexpected a comment from Tammy," said astronaut Jerry Ross, a veteran spacewalker providing commentary for this evening's excursion. "She's very happy that the hatch opened this time for her." Jernigan and Barry then floated into the orbiter's cargo bay a few moments later as the shuttle sailed over the south Atlantic Ocean in orbital darkness. Here's an updated timeline of spacewalk events that reflects the actual start of the EVA: TIME.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 05/29/99 10:56 PM...02...16...07...Spacewalk begins 11:11 PM...02...16...22...Sortie setup 05/30/99 12:11 AM...02...17...22...U.S. crane installation 01:11 AM...02...18...22...Russian Strela boom installation 02:26 AM...02...19...37...Foot restraint installation 03:11 AM...02...20...22...Tool bag installation 04:11 AM...02...21...22...Worksite cleanup 04:51 AM...02...22...02...Airlock ingress; RMS powerdown 05:11 AM...02...22...22...Airlock repressurization 05:22 AM...02...22...34...Mission status briefing 05:31 AM...02...22...42...Space Vision System survey See the 3 p.m. status report for an overview of the spacewalk's objectives. This status report will be updated periodically throughout the EVA. 01:15 a.m., 05/30/99, Update: U.S. crane installed "What a privilege this has been," marveled first time spacewalker Tamara Jernigan as she worked to mount a U.S.-built crane on the hull of the international space station. "Yes, it is, Tammy," replied fellow spacewalker Daniel Barry. Two hours into a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, Jernigan and Barry were running a few minutes ahead of schedule as they worked to install the NASA cargo boom on the station. The manually operated telescoping crane can be extended up to 19 feet. It and others like it ultimately will be mounted on small carts that can be moved from point to point on the station's truss structure to help position large components for installation. With their first major task behind them, Jernigan and Barry turned their attention to installing parts of a telescoping 45-foot-long Russian crane will be completed during a December shuttle flight. Spectaular video downlinked from Discovery showed the astronauts working to unbolt the crane components from a pallet in the cargo bay as the shuttle sailed 240 miles above Russia. The only problem in the early moments of the spacewalk - and it was strictly minor - was the loss of a safety tether while the astronauts were breaking out equipment. "And Dan, we just saw a large-small tether float in front of the pilot's window," spacewalk coordinator Julie Payette radioed from Discovery's flight deck. "Oh, no!" Barry sighed. "So we need to find out which one that is," Payette continued. "It's either the one on the fuse tether or the one on your mini work station." "I wonder if that was the one Tammy was seeing in the airlock," Barry said. A few moments later, Barry confirmed one of the tethers was missing. "Well, that's terrible," he said. "But we'll carry on." "We copy," Payette said. During the first space station assembly mission last December, astronaut Jerry Ross lost a tool and a thermal cover that managed to float away unnoticed during other work. Keeping up with small items in weightlessness would appear to be an ongoing concern during station construction. Before pressing ahead, Jernigan - for the second time - obliquely mentioned a jammed hatch that prevented her from carrying out a spacewalk in 1996. "Hey Chris, would you deliver a message for me? tell [astronaut] Tom Jones thanks for the good luck charm and I'm looking forward to watching him go out the hatch on [station assembly mission] 5A." 03:00 a.m. Update: Russian cargo boom installed after stuck bolts loosened Spacewalkers Tamara Jernigan and Daniel Barry fell a bit behind schedule this morning struggling to unscrew two overly tight bolts holding a Russian crane component to a cargo carrier in the shuttle Discovery's cargo bay. They ultimately freed the two bolts using a "cheater bar," a long extension that allowed Jernigan to apply more torque than her power wrench was able to deliver on its own. She then was able to mount the component on the space station as originally planned. "They're only a couple of minutes behind on the timeline right now," said astronaut Jerry Ross, commenting on the spacewalk from mission control. "I think they'll be able to make that up with the next series of tasks." Jernigan and Barry then went their separate ways with Jernigan working to install foot restraints on the station's hull and Barry working to place a mask over a docking target to make it less bright for automated Soyuz and Progress dockings. 08:15 a.m. Update: Spacewalk ends with all objectives accomplished Astronauts Tamara Jernigan and Daniel Barry ended a seven-hour 55-minute spacewalk - the second longest in shuttle history - at 06:51 a.m. today, moving some 700 pounds of tools and other equipment from shuttle Discovery to the space station. The duo accomplished all their major goals and squeezed in an optional item before returning to Discovery's airlock after straightening up the cargo bay. But given the length of the spacewalk, or EVA, the astronauts were unable to perform a quick test of a manually operated U.S. crane they installed on the station's hull. In addition, a photo survey to document the current condition of the station fell a bit short when one of the astronaut's cameras jammed. But these were minor issues and Milt Heflin, a mission operations manager, said a second spacewalk to tie up any loose ends did not appear likely. "We have accomplished what we intended to do, plus one extra task, so there would have to be some reason beyond just something nice to do." There had been speculation in some quarters that a second spacewalk might be in the offing, in part to retrieve an antenna on the U.S. Unity module that appears to be slightly discolored. The performance of the antenna in question degraded earlier this year and shortly thereafter, the radio system's return link to Earth failed outright. Discovery's crew plans to repair the radio system after entering the station later tonight. The antenna discoloration could be the result of rocket plume impingement from maneuvering jets on the Russian Zarya module. But Heflin said the area that was discolored did not appear to match up with the area of the antenna that suffered degraded performance earlier this year. In any case, he said, there were no plans at present to retrieve the antenna during a second spacewalk. Today's spacewalk lasted one hour 25 minutes longer than originally planned (the longest spacewalk in shuttle history lasted eight hours and 29 minutes). Including three spacewalks in December, the total amount of EVA time spent in space station assembly so far is 29 hours 17 minutes. "We added the unplanned task to do the trunnion pin cover [installation], so that in and of itself put us beyond our six-hour 35-minute window," said spacewalk planner Mike Hess. "In addition to that, we ended up taking a little bit of extra time on clean up and then they had some difficulty connecting up [Jernigan's spacesuit] umbilical on repress. "We were a little surprise the EVA went as long as it did, as well," he said. Added Heflin: "I figured since I wanted to get home and get in bed before sunrise it was a plot to keep me up after sunrise and I think it worked." Jernigan and Barry were strictly business during the excursion, making only occasional comments about the view from 240 miles up. Toward the end of the outing, during a daylight pass across Europe, Barry and spacewalk coordinator Julie Payette took a moment to marvel at the vista below. "I think we're passing over Greece, huh?" Barry asked, looking around. "That's right," Payette replied. "Wow..." Barry marveled. "And look to the starboard side," Payette said. "The whole Dead Sea and Italy." "Incredible. Incredible!" Barry exclaimed. "Too bad the station's in the way," Payette said. "Look at the Nile delta," observed Barry a moment later. "Look how huge it is. The Suez Canal, you can really see it all." =================================================================== Astronauts enter space station; begin logistics transfer (05/30-31/99> 05:00 p.m., 05/30/99, Update: Astronauts set to enter space station With a successful spacewalk behind them, the Discovery astronauts are gearing up to open hatches between the shuttle and the international space station later tonight to begin transferring critical supplies that will be used by the first full-time crew early next year. The astronauts were awakened at 5:50 p.m. with Memorial Day greetings from mission control and planned to enter the station around 7:40 p.m. By 9:10 p.m., all the hatches between Discovery, the U.S. Unity module and the Russian Zarya module should be open. The flight plan calls for Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev to head straight for Zarya to begin replacing 18 battery conditioners, known by the Russian acronym MIRTS, that have had problems since launch last November. The astronauts also will begin work to repair or replace the radio system in the U.S. Unity node, which failed earlier this year. The S-band radio allows NASA flight controllers to directly monitor telemetry and to send commands to the module without having to go through Zarya via Russian ground stations. Other repair work includes installation of mufflers on space station fans and ventilators to lower the ambient sound level inside the outpost. But the primary objective is to transfer some two tons of supplies and equipment from Discovery to the station. The work might appear relatively straight forward, but it poses challenges on several fronts. "One of the difficult aspects of planning an assembly sequence of such a large infrastructure on orbit is to plan ahead for all the pieces that the next construction crew will require," Payette explained in a NASA interview. "When we start having a permanent crew on the International space station, all the equipment that this crew requires will be onboard before they get there. In order for that to happen, the resupply mission brings a lot of equipment Ñ several thousand pounds of equipment Ñ that we transfer from the inside of the space shuttle into the International space station. "The problem with that is that there is a limited amount of cargo that we can bring on one space shuttle," she said. "So in between big pieces, we bring small pieces so that the next flight can be using what we brought up to continue the construction. And this is completely essential. That wouldn't happen, the construction would stop dead if it weren't for the resupply missions making sure that all necessary equipment is activated, installed and ready to use for the next flight to happen." Just moving the equipment on board is not enough, however. It must be carefully positioned to keep the station in balance, that is, to keep its center of gravity in the right place. That, in turn, will allow the station's attitude control system to keep the lab complex properly oriented during and after the November docking of a critical Russian component called the service module. "The service module will come in and automatically dock to the other part of the Zarya Russian module," Payette said. "This docking will be done and flown from the ground automatically. So before we can dock the station with the new module, the service module, we have to understand exactly where every piece of equipment that we've brought in is positioned, how much it weighs, how much room it takes, and how strongly it has been installed. This is so that they can calculate the mass properties of the International space station to the decimal point." If it the work seems complicated, that's because it is. Payette provided one of the most useful assessments in her NASA pre-launch interview: "Assembling the International space station in orbit is extraordinarily complicated, and it's hard to realize it, because most people haven't been to space, so it's kind of far away," Payette said. "But most people have been on a lake or at sea, so it would be just very similar as if we wanted to assemble a ship in the middle of the ocean during a storm. It's just as complicated as that. We don't have any infrastructure out there in the middle of the ocean. We have to bring along every single piece of material, every single bolt, every single cable. We have to make sure they fit somehow before you leave in the middle of the sea in the storm, because you won't have time there to devise a new cable, you have to connect it at that time. So basically that's what we're doing: we're building an enormous infrastructure in a very hostile environment, in very difficult conditions and we have to bring everything with us. And if things don't fit, and if we don't have the right bolt, well, we just can't go and walk to the store and buy it and then come back to the work site; that brings the difficulty. "The other difficulty about the International space station is in the word 'international.' We have several different nations putting together pieces, developing and designing these pieces in their own country, sometimes under a different measurement system because we have both imperial and metric measurement systems onboard the International space station. And then having everything fit together in orbit for the first time because sometimes those pieces won't see each other on the ground before they get to space. And that is an extraordinary challenge to make sure that everything is going to be fitting together, everything will connect and talk to each of the other systems. That is a challenge that we've been tackling now for several years and we see, so far, that it's working quite fine." 09:20 p.m. Update: Astronauts board international space station Running about a half-hour late, astronaut Tamara Jernigan and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev cranked open the main hatch leading into the U.S. Unity module of the international space station at 9:14 p.m., becoming the first visitors to the orbital outpost since last December. Video from the shuttle showed Jernigan, Tokarev, commander Kent Rominger and Daniel Barry floating easily in the roomy module, obviously enjoying the extra room to move about. Canadian astronaut Julie Payette then joined them, sailing smoothly across the module. "We're absolutely delighted," Jernigan said, posing in the hatch with Tokarev. Later this evening, the astronauts will open three more hatches to allow access to the Russian Zarya module and the real work of shuttle mission STS-96 will begin: The transfer of some two tons of supplies and repair equipment. See the 5 p.m. entry below for a detailed overview of the crew's docked activity. This status report will be updated as warranted throughout the night. 11:45 p.m. Update: Space station repair work underway Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev entered the Russian Zarya module at 9:07 p.m. and immediately began work to replace battery conditioners that have failed to operate properly since launch last November. The module is equipped with six batteries that are charged up by solar arrays to supply power when the station is in Earth's shadow. Each battery is equipped with three MIRTS units, devices that control how the batteries charge and discharge. Because of problems with the MIRTS units launched aboard Zarya, the batteries are not fully recharging. "The problem with the electrical charging system is not critical in the sense that it's not an immediate threat to the station," lead flight director Wayne Hale said before launch. "But for the long-term health and to maintain the absolute maximum charge on the batteries on board the [Zarya], this is a prudent thing for us to take on." As a result, Tokarev and Payette are replacing all 18 MIRTS units with improved versions expected to remedy the problem. The flight plan called for 12 to be installed overnight and the other six Monday evening. While the work is ongoing as of this writing, Tokarev and Payette were able to install the first three replacement units ahead of schedule, with no problems. In the U.S. Unity module, meanwhile, Rick Husband and Daniel Barry are working through a test procedure to repair an American S-band radio system that malfunctioned earlier this year. The so-called "early comm" system was installed in December to give NASA flight controllers direct telemetry from Unity through the agency's TDRS communications satellite system. Without the Unity radio and two antennas mounted outside during a spacewalk last December, NASA controllers would have to rely on telemetry relayed back through Zarya through Russian ground stations during limited ground passes. The early comm system is a stopgap measure, giving flight controllers insight into station systems until more sophisticated KU-band communications gear can be installed next year. But on March 2 the early comm system's starboard antenna suffered a degradation in performance. Then, on April 21, the system's return link failed. "We're not sure exactly what caused that," said deputy space station program manager Frank Culbertson. "We were in the process of conducting a test on the antenna pattern because we had seen some anomalies in the starboard antenna. We don't know what caused the system to stop working. There are four candidates for that and we've got replacement parts for all four of those candidates either already on the station or that will be carried on [Discovery]." In addition to the repair work, the astronauts have started filling water containers to deliver some 600 pounds of fresh water to the space station. The water is generated by the shuttle's electrical fuel cells and transferred to the station in collapsible contingency water containers, or CWCs. "We're going to transfer up to seven of our CWCs, the water containers that hold about 100 pounds of water, to the [Zarya]," Hale said. "That will provide water for the Expedition One crew or a contingency crew." Later this evening, the crew will begin transferring some 3,000 pounds of supplies and other equipment from Discovery to the space station. See the 5 p.m. update below for complete details. 08:00 a.m., 05/31/99, Update: Station repair work goes smoothly The Discovery astronauts completed two repair jobs aboard the international space station today and began transferring supplies, water and other equipment to ready the outpost for its first full-time crew early next year. Working in the Russian Zarya module, cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette successfully replaced 12 of 18 battery charging devices that were failing to fully recharge the module's batteries. Zarya is equipped with six batteries and the charge on each is controlled by three amp meter-type conditioners. Four batteries were serviced today and the other two will be repaired overnight. "That's gone extremely well and the crew is beating our predictions for how long that would take on each orbit by about half," said space station flight director Paul Hill. "So we're spending about 40 minutes total on each orbit replacing these amp meters in each of these batteries. And we had predicted it would take an hour to an hour and a half." While that work was going on in the Zarya module, astronaut Rick Husband was overseeing work to fix a malfunctioning S-band radio in the American Unity module. The radio allows NASA flight controllers to send commands and receive telemetry from the module through U.S. communications satellites. But the radio failed earlier this year, limiting communications to infrequent passes over Russian ground stations. After tests this morning, the astronauts replaced two of the system's major components and flight controllers said full communications were restored. The astronauts also spent time attempting to install mufflers to reduce the racket in the Russian module produced by fans and other mechanical systems. Hill said the volume is comparable to a "busy street" and NASA wants to reduce the volume to make it more comfortable for future full-time crews. But the astronauts did not have the right screws to firmly attach the mufflers, forcing them to improvise. But this was a minor annoyance. The first permanent crew is not scheduled to arrive until next March and the right repair equipment can be launched in December aboard the next shuttle servicing mission. "It's been a great day so far in space," lead flight director Wayne Hale told reporters at a 2 a.m. briefing. "So far, the mission's been proceeding just like the pre-planned timeline. We had an outstandingly successful EVA [spacewalk] yesterday. Today, we got into the station, got right to work. We've been successful so far with our in-flight maintenance work, we have worked very well with our colleagues in Moscow, the crew's in excellent spirits and it looks like we're on the way toward having a great flight." Wrapping up a busy day in space, Tamara Jernigan and Daniel Barry discussed their weekend spacewalk with network news reporters. Barry was particularly eloquent describing the view from 240 miles up. "I just can't get enough of looking at the Earth, the incredible gemstone colors of the planet, the blues of the atmosphere, photographs just don't do it justice," he told CBS News. "And last night, actually from inside the orbiter, for the first time we saw the southern lights, the Aurora Australus. The phenomena you see up here - the stars not twinkling, the contrast of the dark and the light of the clouds, the borders you can sometimes see - it just makes you realize we're all one people on this Earth, we're a small part of the universe. It's daunting, it really is." Jernigan said she, too, was struck by the view of Earth and "what a privilege it was to see our planet from that particular vantage point. Ellen [Ochoa] drove me around on the robot arm and being up high, seeing the space shuttle from a distance and the Earth in the background was just spectacular. I will carry that image with me for the rest of my life." =================================================================== Repair work completed; station in good shape (05/31-01/99) 06:15 p.m., 05/31/99, Update: Astronauts awake, ready for more supply transfers The Discovery astronauts were awakened shortly before 5:30 p.m. to begin another day of space station supply work. Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette plan to wrap up a repair job they started Sunday, installing a final six battery conditioners in the Russian Zarya module. Twelve were installed Sunday and with today's work, all six of Zarya's batteries will be equipped with a trio of new MIRTS ammeters to better regulate charging and discharging. The primary goal of the 94th shuttle mission is to transfer nearly two tons of supplies, fresh water and equipment from Discovery to the space station, work that began Sunday night when the crew first entered the orbital outpost. With a weekend spacewalk and most repair work out of the way, that logistics transfer work will begin in earnest this evening around 8:30 p.m. Early Tuesday, at 1:18 a.m., shuttle commander Kent Rominger and Tokarev will field questions from reporters in Moscow. Payette will face Canadian reporters at 7:08 p.m. Tuesday with a full crew news conference on tap at 11:58 p.m. Tuesday. Here's a timeline of events for the next two days: REV.SUBJECT................................SITE...MET........EDT 72...MIRTS INSTALLATION...........................04/13:20...08:08 PM 72...LOGISTICS TRANSFERS RESUME...................04/13:31...08:20 PM TUESDAY, JUNE 1 74...CREW MEAL....................................04/17:31...12:20 AM 75...RUSSIAN PAO EVENT....................MCC-M...04/18:30...01:18 AM 75...LOGISTICS TRANSFERS RESUME...................04/18:30...01:18 AM 78...FLIGHT DAY HIGHLIGHTS..................JSC...04/23:12...06:00 AM 79...MISSION STATUS BRIEFING................JSC...05/00:12...07:00 AM 80...CREW ACTIVITY REPORT/FLIGHT DAY........JSC...05/01:12...08:00 AM 80...CREW SLEEP BEGINS............................05/02:00...08:48 AM 82...DAILY HIGHLIGHTS........................HQ...05/05:12...12:00 PM 85...CREW WAKEUP (begins FD 7)....................05/10:00...04:48 PM 87...CANADIAN PAO EVENT.....................JSC...05/12:20...07:08 PM 90...CREW NEWS CONFERENCE...................JSC...05/17:10...11:58 PM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2 93...U.S. PAO EVENT.........................JSC...05/22:35...05:23 AM 94...MISSION STATUS BRIEFING................JSC...06/00:12...07:00 AM 95...FLIGHT DAY HIGHLIGHTS..................JSC...06/01:12...08:00 AM 96...CREW SLEEP BEGINS............................06/02:00...08:48 AM 96...DAILY HIGHLIGHTS.......................JSC...06/02:12...09:00 AM 101..CREW WAKEUP (begins FD 8)....................06/10:00...04:48 PM 08:00 a.m., 06/01/99, Update: Muffler installation snag no problem, NASA says Putting in another busy day in space, the Discovery astronauts have now moved more than 2,500 pounds of supplies, repair gear and fresh water from the shuttle to the international space station to help outfit the orbital lab before the first full-time crew arrives next March. Now more than halfway done, they also completed replacement of 18 battery charging devices in the Russian Zarya module and finished testing a repaired radio system in the U.S. Unity module. Both systems are now fully operational and working properly. To help deaden the sound of Zarya's fairly noisy ventilation system, commander Kent Rominger and cosmonaut Valery Tokarev installed custom mufflers around several fans and ducts. But one duct, made of a lightweight collapsible tubing, was unable to keep its shape when the muffling material was velcroed in place, pinching in places and preventing good airflow. "I noticed earlier this duct right here, we put a muffler on it and what it does, it causes it to bend so it collapses," Rominger said. "Once it collapses there, then it stops all the air flow. It's just in general kind of flimsy. The other thing is the duct is not noisy, the air going through there is quiet, so I'm not sure muffling is required." While the work was being carried out, a fan used to exchange air between the shuttle and the station was turned off and humidity levels in the Russian module climbed to 60 percent, a bit higher than normal due to the reduced air flow but well within safety limits (and much more comfortable than a typical day in Florida). With a temperature of 78 degrees in both station modules today and a dewpoint of 61 degrees, there was never any concern about possible condensation. "We expected the humidity level to be elevated for several reasons," said space station flight director Mark Ferring. "One was, of course, we had a lot of people in the [Zarya] doing a lot of work. Also, when we were doing the muffler installations, we put a shroud around one of the fans, which was the fan that exchanged air between the shuttle and the station. We had that fan off for about an hour and a half so we weren't removing humidity at that time. So that was expected as well. And then we had this little problem with the duct collapsing, which seems to have been fixed." He said "we're very comfortable with the situation we have right now." I mention all this in some detail because some news reports have claimed the station is too cold, too noisy, etc. In reality, it's performing exactly like engineers expected with the exception of the lone collapsed duct. But, as Rominger said, that duct isn't noisy without the insulation so it would appear the station is in good shape all the way around. "The crew commander called down and said once they removed the insulation the collapsing had gone away and they worked normally," Ferring said. "And by the way, he said it was very quiet without the insulation on there. So we feel confident that's not really required to reduce the sound level for those particular ducts." Said Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev: "Everything here is comfortable, warm and light." Discovery took off with some 3,700 pounds of equipment on board. Seven hundred pounds of gear - two cargo booms, tool boxes and other gear - was mounted on the station's hull during a weekend spacewalk. The other 3,000 pounds is being moved into the station by the astronauts. On top of all that, some 600 to 700 pounds of fresh water is being transferred to the station as it is produced by the shuttle's electrical generators. "We transferred two more water bags today for a total of four of the seven we plan to transfer," said payload manager Sharon Castle. "We also transferred clothing, a camera bag, a printer, IMAX ... some of the Russian electrical equipment, EDVs - the Russian water buckets - and some trash bags. We also returned the [broken radio equipment replaced] yesterday. So things are going really well. It seems like we're right on schedule with the timeline." While she did not have specific numbers, Castle said the crew was more than halfway done and lead flight director Paul Dye said it did not appear an extra day in space would be needed. Assuming the crew finishes its work on time, Discovery will undock from the space station at 6:34 p.m. Thursday, about five minutes earlier than originally planned. Before leaving, at 5:32 a.m. Thursday, Rominger and pilot Rick Husband will fire Discovery's maneuvering rockets to boost the station's altitude by 5.9 miles. Early today, astronaut Daniel Barry gave ground controllers a treat when he downlinked a videotape tour of the station. Starting in Discovery's flight deck, Barry demonstrated a typical supply transfer operation, narrating as he went. "So here we go, heading on down to the middeck, heading down to Spacehab to pick up a bag and transfer it to the space station," he said, floating head first to the shuttle's lower deck, making a turn and then straightening out for a "long, straight shot right down the tunnel all the way to Spacehab. We're moving kind of slow here, but now we can speed up. Sometimes we move pretty fast down this tunnel as things are getting busy." No doubt an understatement. As he floated into the Spacehab supply module mounted in the rear of Discovery's 60-foot-long cargo bay he joked that "the talented astronaut doesn't even stop, just kind of does a flip here in the air, one rotation, maybe a twirl just for style, then back down to pick up a bag and head up to either Unity or Zarya. In this case, we're going to go all the way up to Zarya." Barry then floated back up the long tunnel to the shuttle's airlock and, instead of going back into the shuttle's lower deck area, turned up, into the pressurized mating adapter tunnel connecting the station to the Discovery. Floating into the Unity module, which he described as "an inviting place, kind of warm colors, brightly lit," Barry did a slow flip before continuing on toward Zarya at the far end of the station. "And on we go!" Barry said. "As we enter the main part of Zarya, you can see there already is some stowage," he said, referring to equipment transferred earlier. "Right here at the end, we drop off our bag, again never stopping, a quick turn, actually a roll so we're upside down compared to where we were last time." He then floated back into Unity where the tour ended. "Fantastic, thanks for the tour," astronaut Robert Curbeam called from Houston. =================================================================== Astronauts praise space station; describe impressions (06/01-02/99) 08:00 p.m., 06/01/99, Update: Payette thrilled with first shuttle flight The Discovery astronauts are settling in for another night of transferring supplies and equipment from the shuttle to the international space station. A crew news conference is on tap at midnight and this status report will be updated as soon as possible thereafter. Canadian astronaut Julie Payette, one of the more eloquent shuttle fliers, chatted with Canadian Prime Minister Jacques Jean ChrŽtien this evening and fielded questions from school kids. No one committed any news, but Payette offered some interesting descriptions of spaceflight from her perspective as one of Discovery three rookies. Asked what surprised her the most, Payette said learning how to control her movements in weightlessness. "I must say we are very well prepared, we have extraordinary people on the ground, instructors and other astronauts, who train you very well to figure out what you can expect," she said. "What they can't tell you, though, is exactly how you're going to be able to move about in weightlessness. You have to learn that by yourself in the first few hours, if not the first few days. "You bump into people, you push a little too hard, you move a little too fast, just because you're not used to going easily, taking your time and just float through," she said. "So that's something one has to learn." Payette said she also was surprised by the onset of weightlessness eight-and-a-half minutes after launch. "We were very focused the morning of the launch," she recalled. "I was on the middeck, which is the deck below the flight deck where there is no window. So I got strapped in about two hours before the launch. I knew the sun would rise just before the launch. Our pilot, Rick Husband, could see it from his window and started describing it to us just a few minutes before taking off. At that time, I thought of the people on the beach in Florida watching this launch and how pretty it must be to see the sun rise and the shuttle take off. "And then it just went! A bit of rattling, we felt the engine bells moving and then it just ignited and went. Things were moving and shaking for the first two minutes while we were still attached to the big white rockets, the solid rocket boosters, and then things got more quite. But then the Gs, the acceleration, started building up and we felt very oppressed, it was like a ton of bricks on my chest while I was waiting for this to stop. And when we shut down the engines eight-and-a-half minutes later we started floating right away. I didn't expect such a sudden surge. It was very dramatic. Whoops, there we were." She said it was "a very big honor" to visit the international space station. "It was thrilling the morning when we docked and then even more thrilling when we opened the hatch and first walked in," she said. "So it was something special. We put our crest (mission patch) inside and every time now that another crew will come and visit they will know we've been here. So for me it's been wonderful, it's been an extraordinary experience and I'm very proud to represent Canada." Said ChrŽtien: "Everybody here is very excited to talk to you and all the TV stations in Canada are watching you." 01:30 a.m., 06/02/99, Update: Astronauts say station comfortable Despite noisy fans and slightly high humidity, the international space station provides a comfortable environment for crews to live and work, the Discovery astronauts say. Even so, the ventilation system in the Russian Zarya module leaves a bit to be desired, prompting installation of mufflers earlier in the mission to reduce the volume to more comfortable levels. "There is noise inside Zarya from fans and various equipment," said astronaut Daniel Barry. "I actually made some acoustic measurements that showed the noise level to be on the order of about 65 to 68 or 69 decibels before the mufflers and about 3 db less than that after the mufflers. It's interesting because there are different sounds depending on where you are in Zarya. There are some places that are quiet and others that are noisier near equipment. It is noisier than the [U.S. Unity] node but it certainly isn't a problem to be able to converse or do work." Decibels increase exponentially, so a decrease of 3 to 5 db is not insignificant. Here are db levels for common sounds (taken from a web article titled "Effects of Noise Pollution"): DB........SOUND 0.........Barely detectable 40........Whispered human speech; dripping faucet 60........Quiet conversation; refrigerator hum 70........Garbage disposal; car passing at 50 feet 80........Aircraft cabin 90........Power lawn mower, vacuum cleaner, symphony concert 100.......Motorcycle, power saw, rock concert 110.......Model airplane, auto boom box 120.......Firearms "Definitely the station is not only roomy, it is also cozy," said Canadian astronaut Julie Payette. "It is fairly warm in here and the loud level is certainly tolerable and doesn't prevent us from having conversation, it is very comfortable." The astronauts fielded questions early today from the U.S. Unity module, a multi-hatch node that will serve as a gateway to future modules. "I think one of the things we have truly enjoyed during the transfer ops is the privilege of floating for such long distances in microgravity," said spacewalker Tamara Jernigan. "So it has a new car feel, it has a very spacious feel, there's a little light humming in the background from the fans and equipment that are running. But it is truly a delightful working environment." The Unity node, in fact, is so roomy astronauts can actually get stranded. "We've been very busy transporting bags of material from one end of the space shuttle to the space station," said Payette. "But on the way there, there is the node and this immense space where you can actually get stuck in the middle and not be able to touch any of the walls. And if you have no motion at that time, it's pretty hard to get to a wall because you can't swim in the air like you do in the water. So floating is a truly amazing experience." And so is floating outside the station. Barry and Jernigan spent nearly eight hours walking in space over the weekend to move tools and other equipment from Discovery to the space station. Barry, a spacewalk, or EVA, veteran, said working on the station offers unique challenges that training cannot quite prepare one for. "There's no doubt that having EVA experience makes the EVA that you're doing easier," he said. "You're a little more confident, a little more cognizant of what you can and can't do, how to move slowly. It's not a requirement and we will have people working on station who have not gone EVA before. "I'll tell you one thing that, to me, was really different.about being on a station EVA as opposed to a shuttle EVA and that was going up into somewhat unfamiliar territory. We train with a mockup in the pool but the gravity is still there. And when you get on station you realize you were using that gravity for orientation in some cases. So my first few times up and down the node, I would move slowly and carefully because I was learning the layout of the land. And particularly when you get up high ... near Zarya, I could see where on a station of even medium size a person could get lost." =================================================================== Astronauts wrap up station work (06/02-03/99) 05:45 p.m., 06/02/99, Update: Astronauts wrap up station work The Discovery astronauts were awakened at 4:50 p.m. to begin their last day aboard the international space station. After completing a final bit of work lashing down supplies and equipment and carrying out a few last-minute tests, the astronauts will begin backing out of the station, closing hatches and turning out the lights as they go, starting around 1:23 a.m. Thursday. Egress should be complete by 4:38 a.m., setting the stage for commander Kent Rominger and pilot Rick Husband to fire the shuttle's maneuvering jets to raise the station's altitude by about six miles. If all goes well, Discovery will undock from the space station at 6:39 p.m. Thursday, leaving it alone in orbit until the automated docking next November of a key Russian component called the service module, which will provide the station's crew quarters and propulsion. Another shuttle supply mission is set for early December and the first full-time crew will take up residence in early March. For Discovery's crew, the hard work is over. "Essentially, we are complete," launch package manager Sharon Castle said early Wednesday. "We've completed almost everything we've got on our plate, so we're extremely happy." There has been confusion over just how much equipment Discovery's crew carried to the station. Before launch Castle said 3,600 pounds, including about 700 pounds that was mounted on the station's hull during a spacewalk Sunday. Frank Culbertson, deputy manager of the station program, said the total was 4,300 pounds. Early today, Castle told reporters to stick with the original numbers. Here's her breakdown (in pounds): UNITED STATES....POUNDS Internal.........813 External.........506.3 Total............1,319.3 RUSSIA Internal.........1,522.4 External.........198.5 Total............1,720.9 Total Internal...2,335.4 Total External...704.8 Total Equipment..3,040.2 Water............655 GRAND TOTAL......3,695.2 Along with transferring supplies to the station, the crew also completed repairs to the Russian module's electrical system and replaced a faulty radio in the U.S. Unity node. Part of the repair work involved installing mufflers over vents and fans in the Zarya module to deaden the sound a bit. While that work was going on, humidity in the station rose above normal, but by today it was back down to a comfortable 51 percent, with temperatures of 81 degrees in Unity and 78 in Zarya. The dewpoint was 58 degrees. "Everything is going very well," said space station flight director Mark Ferring. "We completed all the tasks we had scheduled." 09:00 a.m., 06/03/99, Update: Astronauts leave station; boost altitude The Discovery astronauts exited the international space station today, sealed its hatches and pulsed the shuttle's maneuvering jets 17 times to boost the lab's altitude by about six miles. The maneuver was accurate to within 57 feet and ensures the station will be at the proper altitude for the arrival of a key Russian module in November - and several months beyond if the module is delayed - without having to use the station's precious on-board fuel. With all supply transfers and repair work complete, Discovery's crew plans to undock from the international space station at 6:39 p.m. today as the two spacecraft pass over a Russian ground station. Pilot Rick Husband will guide the shuttle through two loops around the lab complex before breaking off and moving away for good (a detailed undocking timeline will be posted here later today). Landing now is scheduled for 2:02 a.m. this Sunday, June 6. During their last hours docked with the station, the astronauts completed a last bit of transfer work and adjusted the travel of two large hatches inside the U.S. Unity module. The main hatch to the Russian Zarya module was closed at 2:12 a.m. and the last Unity hatch was shut at 3:44 a.m. "The crew began their workday by completing the last of several transfers between the orbiter and the space station and performing a number of minor maintenance procedures," said Mark Kirasich, a senior station manager. "Egress is a choreographed procedure we have for exiting the space station, closing the hatches on the way out, setting up the right pressures in the volumes as we leave and leaving the space station in the condition it's going to spend the next several months until the next visitors arrive." Launch package manager Sharon Castle said the crew accomplished every major goal of the mission and that ground controllers learned valuable lessons that will be applied in December when a similar but more complex shuttle supply mission is launched. Castle also provided a final tally of the material transferred from Discovery to the station: MATERIAL......POUNDS Internal dry cargo......2,881 External dry cargo......661 Water...................686 TOTAL................... 4,228 This is some 600 pounds more than the number Castle supplied Wednesday and within 100 pounds of the number deputy station program manager Frank Culbertson provided before launch. Castle explained the discrepancy today by saying "we are now are going with the actual transfer weight," which apparently includes the weight of padding material in bags and boxes that was not included in the original numbers. This writer originally used Culbertson's figures and later filed a correction to go with Castle's 3,600 pounds (see the 5:45 p.m., June 2, update above). NASA's latest status report uses yet another set of numbers. My apologies for the confusion. =================================================================== Discovery undocks from space station (06/03/99) 05:00 p.m. Update: Shuttle crew set for space station undocking Discovery's crew will bid farewell to the international space station this evening, undocking and moving away after transferring more than two tons of supplies, fresh water and equipment to the orbital outpost. With shuttle pilot Rick Husband at the controls, Discovery will move straight up, away from the station starting at 6:40 p.m. as the two spacecraft sail over a Russian ground station. Astronauts Tamara Jernigan, flight engineer Ellen Ochoa and commander Kent Rominger will assist. After moving to a point 450 feet directly above the station, Husband will guide Discovery through two-and-a-half complete loops around the lab for a detailed photo survey. Finally, at 8:53 p.m., Husband will fire Discovery's maneuvering jets to leave the station for good. "We will be all set up on the flight deck again with Kent and Ellen and Tammy and me getting all the tools ready to go for the undocking," Husband said in a NASA interview. "We will make sure that we've got the go from Houston for the undocking. And then Tammy and Ellen will be working the docking system and they'll set the sequence in motion for the latches to unlock. And then at the point that the latches do unlock, we will separate from the station. At that point, we'll start flying the orbiter away. And what we'll do is we'll back out away from the station until we get out to about 450 feet and then we'll fly around the station. "Currently we plan to fly around two full revolutions and we'll do that somewhere in the range from 400 to 500 feet. And while we're doing that we'll be taking photos and video of the station, getting a good look at it and making sure that everything's in good shape. And I'm really looking forward to it myself, you know, from the standpoint of getting to fly the orbiter and do this flyaround and, you know, put in actual practice all the training that we're going through, from my standpoint as far as getting to fly. So I'm very, very much looking forward to that." Here's is NASA's description of the undocking and flyaround from the agency's on-line press kit: -------------- Once Discovery is ready to undock, the initial separation will be performed by springs in the docking mechanism that will gently push the shuttle away from the station. Both Discovery and the stationÕs steering jets will be shut off to avoid any inadvertent firings during this initial separation. Once the docking mechanismÕs springs have pushed Discovery away to a distance of about two feet, when the docking devices will be clear of one another, Husband will turn the shuttle's steering jets back on in "Low Z" mode and fire them to begin very slowly moving away. From the aft flight deck, Pilot Rick Husband will manually control Discovery within a tight corridor as he separates from the ISS, essentially the reverse of the task performed by Commander Kent Rominger when Discovery docked. Discovery will continue away to a distance of about 450 feet, where Husband will begin the close flyaround of the station, first crossing a point directly behind, then directly underneath and then again above the station. If DiscoveryÕs propellant reserves allow it, Husband will circle the station twice as the crew records views of the exterior with still photography and video. As Discovery crosses directly above the station for the second time, Husband will fire Discovery's jets to perform a final separation. The separation firing will put Discovery on a course that will have it pass about a half-mile behind the station and then about a mile and a half below the station before moving ahead of it with constantly increasing distance. -------------- For those of you scoring at home, here is the timeline (NOTE: The Rbar is the radius vector, that is, the line connecting the space station with the center of the Earth. The Vbar is the velocity vector, that is, the stations direction of travel. By convention, the -Vbar is the point directly behind the station on the velocity vector and the +Vbar is the point directly in front. The +Rbar is the point directly below the station and the -Rbar is the point directly above it. There will be a quiz later). TIME..............EVENT 06:31:52 p.m......Orbital sunrise 06:36:31 p.m......Station in contact with Russian ground station 06:39:31 p.m......Undocking window opens 06:39:31 p.m......Shuttle Discovery undocks from ISS 06:44:09 p.m......Undocking window closes 06:57:31 p.m......Begin shuttle fly-around. Range: 450 feet 07:00:05 p.m......Orbital noon 07:09:04 p.m......-Vbar crossing 07:20:37 p.m......+Rbar crossing 07:28:17 p.m......Orbital sunset 07:32:10 p.m......+Vbar crossing 07:43:43 p.m......-Rbar crossing 07:56:16 p.m......-Vbar crossing 08:04:17 p.m......Orbital sunrise 08:06:49 p.m......+Rbar crossing 08:18:22 p.m......+Vbar crossing 08:29:59 p.m......-Rbar crossing 08:32:29 p.m......Orbital noon 08:41:28 p.m......-Vbar crossing 08:53:01 p.m......+Rbar crossing; Separation burn 08:54:25 p.m......Range: 500 feet 08:58:43 p.m......Range: 1,000 feet 09:00:42 p.m......Orbital sunset 09:04:43 p.m......Range: 2,000 feet 09:06:46 p.m......+Rbar crossing 09:15:25 p.m......Range: 5,000 feet 06:45 p.m. Update: Shuttle Discovery undocks from space station With pilot Rick Husband at the controls, the shuttle Discovery undocked from the international space station at 6:39:30 p.m. and slowly pulled straight up and away from the orbital lab complex. "Houston, we have physical separation, executing the sep," Husband radioed as Discovery slowly separated from the station. Black-and-white video from the Russian Zarya module showed Discovery moving away at a glacial two-tenths of a foot per second against the deep black of space while still photos from Discovery showed the station floating on its own against the blue-white backdrop of planet Earth. Videotape of undocking from the shuttle's perspective will be downlinked later this evening. As Discovery moved away, flight controllers in Russia sent commands to turn on the station's steering jets and to unlock its solar arrays so they can track the sun to charge the lab's batteries. "Discovery, Houston; everything is nominal on the international space station and you should see the solar arrays tracking," astronaut Chris Hadfield radioed from mission control. "And Houston, we do in fact see the solar arrays moving," commander Kent Rominger replied. The flight plan calls for Husband to guide Discovery through two-and-a-half loops around the station at a distance of less than 450 feet for a detailed photo survey before pulling away for good shortly before 9 p.m. See the 5 p.m. entry below for details about the fly-around and separation. This status report will be updated after a NASA briefing at 9:30 p.m. or as conditions warrant. 09:15 p.m. Update: Discovery leaves station after fly-around The shuttle Discovery completed a two-and-a-half loop photo-survey fly around of the international space station this evening, breaking off on schedule at 8:53 a.m. and leaving the area. There was no live television from Discovery except for occasional still photos due to antenna blockage. Videotape will be downlinked later this evening, possibly as early as 10:05 p.m. This status report will be updated after a 9:30 p.m. NASA briefing. 10:45 p.m. Update: NASA managers call Discovery flight complete success With Discovery's space station supply mission winding down, NASA managers are looking ahead to upcoming assembly missions: Launch of a critical Russian module in November, an unmanned supply ship a few days later and the shuttle Atlantis in December. Atlantis's crew will carry up another load of supplies and equipment and unload the Russian Progress supply ship docked at the other end of the station. In January, another shuttle crew will deliver a large U.S. truss structure and then in March, a three-man crew will arrive aboard a Soyuz rocket to begin permanent occupation of the station. "We are about to turn this station into a home," said Frank Culbertson, deputy manager of the station program. "It's going to take us a few more months to get to the point where we can actually have people live up there permanently. But it's approaching. "There is a lot of hardware up there already, but that's just a small embryo of what's coming," he said. "As the station continues to grow, people are going to be amazed at how large it becomes, how capable it becomes and what a great place to live and work in space it will be for many, many years to come." Discovery's crew ferried two tons of hardware and supplies to the space station and carried out a spacewalk to mount nearly 700 pounds of gear on the lab's hull. Earlier Thursday, the shuttle undocked from the station, leaving it on its own until the November arrival of the Russian service module. "It was just a flawless undocking," chief flight director Jeff Bantle said at a news briefing. "I was searching for how to characterize this mission with respect to past shuttle missions and the future ones, and one of our flight activities officers gave me what I thought was a pretty good quote. She said this is a mission that took a big step toward making the station a home. This mission wasn't about taking large elements and putting them onto the space station. It was about getting all the logistical things up there that are going to be required to support a crew. ... We transferred about 4,000 pounds of logistics and it's been a very, very successful mission. We're looking forward to our next trip up to the station at the end of the year." Similar to the base block of the Russian Mir space station, the service module will serve as the new station's initial crew quarters and provide the propulsion needed to keep the outpost in orbit. The service module is running more than one full year behind schedule because of funding problems in Russia and it remains to be seen whether the module will be ready for launch in November as currently planned. "There are a number of things that need to be done, including the installation of additional equipment on board the flight article, there's more testing that needs to be done to verify the performance of the software and the other components, there are also fit checks that need to be conducted, end-to-end tests, some more acoustic tests," Culbertson said. "Right now, they show they can build a schedule that will support November. It'll all depend on how successful all the tests are." He said NASA managers should know by the end of June whether the module can make a November launch date. NASA currently is targeting Nov. 20, but agency managers would like to move it up to Nov. 12 if possible. Assuming the service module is, in fact, launched in November, Culbertson said, "the pace will pick up incredibly and I think you'll see an amazing flurry of activity in traffic into space to continue building the station." =================================================================== Starshine satellite launched (06/04-05/99) 09:30 p.m., 06/04/99, Update: Astronauts to launch 'disco ball' satellite The Discovery astronauts were awakened today at 4:50 p.m. to begin their final full day in space before packing up Saturday and returning to the Kennedy Space Center early Sunday. With generally good weather expected, touchdown on runway 15 is expected at 2:03 a.m. to close out a 153-orbit mission spanning four million miles since blastoff May 27. The final major mission objective of shuttle mission STS-96 is launch of a small student-built satellite called Starshine at 3:21 a.m. Saturday. Appropriately enough, the crew was awakened today by a recording of "Good Morning Starshine." "Discovery, Houston, good morning," astronaut Mario Runco called up from mission control. "I guess you know what you need to do today." "You bet, Mario. We're looking forward to launching the satellite," replied Discovery astronaut Daniel Barry. Starshine is a 19-inch sphere studded with small aluminum mirrors that looks like a 1970s-era disco ball. The satellite, launched from a payload bay canister by Canadian astronaut Julie Payette, will do nothing more than reflect sunlight, making it easily visible to school kids on the ground. By timing its appearances, students can determine the density of the upper atmosphere and learn a bit about orbital mechanics. The idea is to give children a chance to directly participate in a space project to encourage interest in math and science. "It's been worked on by kids all around the world, hundreds of schools, thousands of kids," Barry said today. "This is going to be something that can be seen by people from every country. We're looking forward to launching it and then hearing back from folks who are able to see it as it goes around the world reflecting sunlight down onto the kids who were polishing these mirrors." Here's the background on Starshine from NASA's on-line press kit: SOURCE: NASA on-line press kit Twenty-five thousand students scattered across the United States and around the world are set to watch for their own twinkling satellite to sweep across the sky in the morning and evening twilight hours. The students polished nearly 900 aluminum mirrors that completely cover the beachball-sized satellite's outer surface. The spacecraft, which was designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., will be ejected from the space shuttle Discovery and placed in a circular orbit 220 miles above the Earth. As STARSHINE orbits the Earth this summer and into early winter, sunlight reflecting off its mirrors will be visible during twilight hours to observers on the ground as far north as central Canada and the northern tip of Scotland and as far south as the southern tip of South America, Africa and New Zealand. Teams of elementary, middle and high school students will visually track the satellite and note the times that it passes between selected pairs of targeted stars. The students will enter their observations on the STARSHINE project's Internet site at http://www.azinet.com/starshine, and NRL and the U.S. Space Command will use the measurements to calculate the satellite's orbit. The German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhafen, Germany, will use the orbital data to issue sighting predictions so the students will know where and when to look for STARSHINE's next appearance over their observation sites. As the project progresses, high school students will be taught how to calculate the orbits on their personal computers. Throughout the mission, students will measure the daily change in the time it takes STARSHINE to circle the Earth. The students will use this information to calculate the density of the Earth's upper atmosphere. During its six-month lifetime, STARSHINE will gradually lose altitude because of the aerodynamic drag caused by the atmosphere's density and eventually will burn up like a flaming meteor approximately 60 miles above the Earth. Students will also look at daily solar images on the STARSHINE Web site and count the sunspots on the solar surface. They will plot the daily number of sunspots against the rate of change of STARSHINE's orbital period to learn how solar storms heat and expand the Earth's upper atmosphere, causing variations in its density and producing aerodynamic drag. At the end of the mission, the students will attempt to photograph the satellite's fiery reentry, and the best picture will win a prize. The STARSHINE spacecraft is an 86.6-pound hollow aluminum sphere that is 19 inches in diameter. It is covered with 878 polished aluminum mirrors that are 1 inch in diameter. The mirrors were machined by Utah high school technology students and shipped to schools in Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Finland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, the United States, and Zimbabwe for polishing. On the day before landing, the satellite will be deployed from its hitchhiker getaway special canister in Discovery's payload bay by a spring ejection system at an altitude of 205 nautical miles. A combination of spring rotation and tipoff will cause it to rotate about its pitch and yaw axes at a rate of one revolution per minute. This angular motion, combined with STARSHINE's orbital translation rate of 2 degrees per second, will produce flashes of sunlight from its mirrors every few seconds. Project STARSHINE plans to launch one satellite per year over an 11-year solar cycle. Just as soon as STARSHINE 1 gets into orbit and begins its twinkling trek across the twilight sky, project officials plan to push ahead with preparations for STARSHINE 2. The basic spacecraft structure for STARSHINE 2 has already been built by NRL, and Utah high school technolgy students are working on the mirror blanks. The principal objectives of Project STARSHINE are educational and motivational. If students help "build" the spacecraft (by polishing its mirrors), they should be more excited about tracking it and using it to measure upper atmospheric density and the response of that region of the atmosphere to solar storms. The project has received overwhelmingly positive responses from teachers and students around the world--before the satellite leaves the ground. When the satellite completes its six months in orbit, project officials believe that they will have built up a cadre of student participants who will be interested in becoming even more involved in future projects of this nature. If Project STARSHINE is able to fly a satellite every year throughout an 11-year solar cycle, as presently planned, generations of students will learn the basic principles of solar-terrestrial physics. To further this end, the project plans to post daily white-light, ground-based images of the sun on its Web site as well as satellite images in other wavelengths and will link to other solar activity indices in Boulder, Colo. In the fall, the project will begin posting auroral images as well. Besides educating and motivating students, Project STARSHINE may have scientific benefits. If enough students do serious tracking of the spacecraft to get good orbits, especially during the terminal phase of the flight, the project might be able contribute to the pool of knowledge of the average density of the atmosphere in the 60- to 120-mile altitude regime. Since STARSHINE is spherical, it has a much more unifom drag coefficient than spacecraft with solar arrays and helical antennas and other structures protruding from them, so the density measurements that will be made from tracking STARSHINE will be more precise than those from tracking other reentering spacecraft. 07:30 a.m., 06/05/99, Update: Starshine satellite launched A small mirror-studded satellite was launched from shuttle Discovery early today as part of an educational project to give school kids around the world a chance to participate in a space experiment. The 19-inch wide satellite was ejected from a payload canister in Discovery's cargo bay at 3:21 a.m. The satellite should remain in orbit until January 2000. It does nothing but reflect sunlight, providing a beacon that students around the world can track as part of a project to demonstrate orbital mechanics and to motivate students to study math and science. The launch itself was a bit surprising to the astronauts. When the satellite emerged from its canister, sunlight reflecting off its mirrored surface had the same effect as a 1970s-era disco ball. Cameras on the shuttle showed scores of bright reflections that initially looked like debris of some sort emerging from the launch canister. "It was a fantastic sight to see it, especially when we fired the satellite," said astronaut Julie Payette, who launched Starshine. "The first thing we all saw was the flickering of the mirrors so we all thought something was coming out of the box except the satellite. But it wasn't, it was just the reflections off the mirrors. It was like glistening. And then the ball just went up and shot almost vertically away from the orbiter's cargo bay. Then we saw orbital mechanics at its best when it started disappearing below us. We could track it with our camera for the longest time because it now and then flashed. It was beautiful." Sighting reports already are coming in. One observer in Abington, Mass., said in an email "it was slightly ahead and off to the side of the shuttle. The dawn sky was quite bright and only a few stars were visible. It flashed on a random basis with at least five seconds between flashes. It was as bright as the shuttle and brighter than ISS [international space station]. I estimate at least magnitude 1.0." Gil Moore, the principal investigator, said Starshine's deploy from the shuttle was so smooth the satellite is not rotating as much as had been originally hoped. "The fact that it was seen from the ground, naked eye, on the first rev was gratifying," he said. "You always worry about whether your calculations are correct or not. It was a beautiful deploy. It was almost too good. We were sort of expecting to get about 1 rpm revolution rate out of the satellite as a result of the spring deploy system. But the deploy was so smooth and so precise, I don't think the satellite is rotating very much at all. The flash rate may not be as fast as we had hoped for, at least for now. That's bad and that's good. It's bad because the flashes won't be quite so often. But it means the flashes won't be so short in duration, either." =================================================================== Shuttle Discovery glides to smooth landing (06/05-07/99 06:00 p.m., 06/05/99, Update: Shuttle crew gears up for landing The Discovery astronauts are readying the space shuttle for a fiery plunge back to Earth and a rare nighttime landing at the Kennedy Space Center early Sunday to wrap up a successful space station maintenance and supply delivery mission. Here's the crew's re-entry timeline: Saturday 08:54 p.m...Deorbit prep timeline begins 10:14 p.m...Payload bay door closing 10:26 p.m...Flight computers loaded with OPS-3 entry software 11:30 p.m...Astronauts don pressure suits 11:54 p.m...The crew begins strapping in Sunday 12:16 a.m...OMS braking rockets steering test 12:20 a.m...Orbiter hydraulic system configured for entry 12:34 a.m...Mission control "go" for deorbit burn 12:36 a.m...Shuttle maneuvers to deorbit orientation 12:54 a.m...Deorbit ignition 02:03 a.m...Landing on runway 15 Flying upside down and backward over southeast Asia, commander Kent Rominger and pilot Rick Husband plan to fire the shuttle's twin braking rockets for three minutes 26 seconds starting at 12:54:09 a.m. to begin the trip back to Earth. The rocket firing will slow Discovery by 235 mph, just enough to drop the other side of the shuttle's orbit into the atmosphere for a Kennedy Space Center landing. The shuttle will drop into the discernible atmosphere 400,000 feet - 76 miles - above the southern Pacific Ocean at 1:31 a.m. The orbiter will approach the space center from the southwest, banking through a left overhead turn to line up on runway 15. Touchdown at 02:02:38 a.m. to close out a four-million-mile voyage spanning 153 complete orbits since blastoff May 27. The weather for this evening's landing is generally favorable. But there is a chance of showers within 30 nautical miles of KSC and crosswinds are expected to be close to the shuttle's nighttime limit of 12 knots. If Rominger and company can't make the first landing opportunity for any reason, they can try again one orbit later for a touchdown at 3:38 a.m. If they miss both opportunities, the flight will be extended one day and the astronauts will try again Monday. But forecasters say conditions will deteriorate Monday and Tuesday, raising the prospect of a diversion to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Monday if the crew doesn't get back to Florida Sunday. "Since we do have so many opportunities and because we have go weather at Edwards on Monday, we've decided not to call up Edwards for the Sunday morning landing opportunities," said entry flight director Linda Ham. "\We're going to go for the first two opportunities to KSC on Sunday and then if we happen to wave off both of those we'll make a decision on whether we'll call up Edwards the following day." Here are the latest deorbit rocket firing and landing times for Sunday and Monday (all times in EDT): ORBIT...SITE..DEORBIT.....LANDING SUNDAY 153.....KSC...12:54:09 a.m...02:02:38 a.m. 154.....KSC...02:30:12 a.m...03:38:07 a.m. MONDAY 169.....KSC...01:37 a.m......02:41 a.m. 170.....KSC...03:14 a.m......04:17 a.m. 171.....EDW...04:45 a.m......05:48 a.m. 172.....EDW...06:22 a.m......07:25 a.m. For readers interested in statistics, here are the numbers going into this evening's landing (WS: White Sands, N.M.): ................KSC........EAFB........WS........Total Night landings..05.........05..........00........10 Day landings....41.........40..........01........82 TOTAL...........46.........45..........01........92 Most recent.....12/15/98...03/31/96....03/30/82 11:00 p.m., 06/05/99, Update: Payload bay doors closed for entry The shuttle Discovery's cargo bay doors are closed and latched and re-entry software has been loaded into the ship's flight computers, setting the stage for a deorbit rocket firing at 12:54 a.m. and a touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center at 2:02:38 a.m. While there are no technical problems with the orbiter, flight controllers continue to monitor off-shore rain showers to make sure they don't move within 30 nautical miles of the runway. So far, they appear to be holding off. 12:40 a.m., 06/06/99, Update: Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn Flight director Linda Ham has given the shuttle Discovery's crew formal permission to fire the ship's braking rockets on time at 12:54 a.m. to begin an hourlong descent to touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center. Landing on runway 15 remains scheduled for 2:03 a.m. Earlier concern about offshore rain clouds moving within 30 nautical miles of the runway eased as the night wore on and forecasters now say the clouds appear to be dissipating. 01:00 a.m., 06/06/99, Update: Shuttle Discovery heads for home Sailing 245 miles above Thailand, commander Kent Rominger and pilot Rick Husband fired the shuttle Discovery's twin braking rockets at 12:54 a.m. for three minutes 38 seconds, slowing the vehicle by 235 mph to set up a 2:03 a.m. touchdown on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center. The rocket firing went smoothly and the weather continues to hold at the Cape. This status report will be updated after touchdown or as conditions warrant. 02:10 a.m., 06/06/99, Update: Shuttle Discovery returns to Earth The shuttle Discovery dropped out of the night sky and floated to a ghostly touchdown at 2:02:43 a.m. to close out NASA's first space station servicing and supply mission. It was only the 11th night landing in shuttle history and the 18th landing in a row at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The trip home began at 12:54 a.m., 246 miles above Thailand, when commander Kent Rominger and pilot Rick Husband fired Discovery's twin braking rockets for three minutes 38 seconds to slow the shuttle by about 235 mph. The maneuver lowered the other side of Discovery's orbit deep into the atmosphere and about a half-hour later, the shuttle's altitude had dropped to just 76 miles, the somewhat arbitrary point marking the beginning of the discernible atmosphere. Heralded by twin sonic booms, Discovery approached the Kennedy Space Center from the southwest as its on-board flight computers set up for a northwest-to-southeast landing on runway 15. As the spaceplane passed through 50,000 feet and dropped below speed of sound, Rominger, a former "Topgun" Navy pilot, took over manual control and guided the shuttle through a sweeping left overhead turn to line up on the runway. Just as Discovery settled into the glare of the runway spotlights, pilot Rick Husband lowered the landing gear and the shuttle glided on to a smooth touchdown to close out a four-million-mile voyage spanning 153 complete orbits since blastoff from pad 39B on May 27. "Houston, Discovery. Wheels stopped," Rominger radioed mission control as the shuttle rolled to a halt. "Welcome home, Discovery, from the first docking mission to the international space station," replied astronaut Susan Kilrain in Houston. "And thank you, Houston," Rominger said. Rominger, Husband, flight engineer Ellen Ochoa, Daniel Barry, Tamara Jernigan, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev were expected to climb out of the shuttle within an hour or so of touchdown. All seven planned to spend the night at the Kennedy Space Center before flying back to Houston early Monday. Shuttle mission STS-96, the 94th flight in shuttle history and NASA's first mission in nearly six months, was the first to carry supplies to the international space station. After docking with the outpost May 29, Jernigan and Barry completed a marathon spacewalk the next evening - the second longest in shuttle history - to mount tools and construction equipment on the space station's hull for use by future assembly teams. The following day, the astronauts opened all the hatches in the station and got to work transferring equipment, supplies and repair gear from Discovery to the lab complex. When all was said and done, 2,881 pounds of dry cargo were moved into the station, 661 pounds of equipment were mounted on the station's hull during the spacewalk and seven collapsible bags containing 686 pounds of fresh water were moved on board for use by the first full-time crew early next year. The astronauts also replaced 18 battery charging devices in the Russian Zarya module to improve performance and repaired a broken S-band radio system in the U.S. Unity node. They also adjusted hatches in the U.S. module and installed mufflers on noisy ventilation fans and ducts in the Zarya module. Finally, Rominger used Discovery's maneuvering jets to boost the station's altitude by about six miles, ensuring it will remain at a safe altitude through next January without having to burn any of Zarya's on-board fuel. Next up for the space station program is launch of the Russian service module in mid-to-late November. Already running more than one year behind schedule because of funding problems in Russia, the service module will provide long-term propulsion and the station's initial crew quarters, docking on the far end of Zarya. Downstream flights cannot be launched until the service module is in place. Launch currently is targeted for Nov. 20, but NASA managers hope it can go as early as Nov. 12. Assuming the module is, in fact, launched in November, more supplies and equipment will be ferried aloft by a Russian Progress cargo ship that will dock on the far end of the service module. The crew of the shuttle Atlantis then would be launched in early December to deliver still more supplies and to unload the Progress. A large truss element would be attached to the station in February and the first full-time crew would move aboard in early March. From that point forward, NASA hopes, the station will be permanently manned. In the near term, NASA will now focus on launching the shuttle Columbia in late July to carry the $1.5 billion Chandra X-ray Observatory into orbit. The flight originally was scheduled for launch in April, but it was delayed to early July because of problems with delaminating circuit boards in the satellite. An additional delay was ordered when a solid-fuel inertial upper stage booster similar to the one that will boost Chandra into its final orbit malfunctioned during launch of an Air Force satellite in April. Chandra's IUS booster has now been cleared for flight and NASA hopes to get Columbia off the ground around July 22. 04:45 a.m., 06/06/99, Update: Crew skips shuttle inspection; NASA says no problem Discovery's four-man three-woman crew declined a traditional post-landing runway inspection of their space shuttle and instead opted to head for crew quarters and reunions with family members, NASA officials said. The crew was driven away from the runway about two hours after landing, leaving NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and other senior agency managers at the landing strip. Reporters initially suspected one or more of the astronauts might have been ill, but NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham, quoting astronaut Robert Cabana, said the crew was in good spirits and doing well. "The crew is great," Buckingham said. "He [Cabana] said they're in great spirits and doing fine. They decided not to walk around the vehicle this time and instead to go back to crew quarters together and see their families." While standing up the administrator after two hours on the runway is a bit unusual, Buckingham offered no other explanation. The astronauts are scheduled to hold a news briefing at 10 a.m. Monday to discuss their mission before flying back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. 11:00 a.m., 06/07/99, Update: Shuttle crew praises station Speaking to reporters the day after landing, Discovery commander Kent Rominger dispelled any concerns about crew health following touchdown June 6, saying he opted to pass up a traditional vehicle walk-around inspection to speed up reunions with family and friends. "When we got back, it seemed it was slow post landing going through the checklist on board," he said. "It took a while to get the external power hooked up, it took a while to get us off the CTV [crew transport vehicle]. Once we did get off, it was taking us a while to get our Earth legs back. "Believe it or not, we had already made plans that we were looking forward to later in the day, we had people waiting for us. So I made the decision that instead of doing the walk around and losing another hour, hour and a half of time, basically, in Cocoa Beach, I wanted to keep things moving. I've done walk-arounds before and to some people it's very important. But to me, it's not that important. So we just wanted to head on back and get on with our day off." After nine months of around-the-clock training, he said, "it is so nice at wheels stop, for at least a day, to relax and go see family and friends that you haven't seen for months, even years, and basically get away from it all for a day." In so doing, the astronauts left NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and senior Canadian Space Agency officials waiting on the runway at 4 a.m. One can only wonder if there was more to Rominger's comment about getting their "earth legs" back than meets the eye. The astronauts spent five days docked with the international space station to deliver supplies and make repairs. Flight engineer Ellen Ochoa said the crew's biggest surprise was the amount of volume available to move around. "One thing we all enjoyed was being ... in the Node because it's so big," she said. "When you're used to being in the shuttle on the middeck or the flight deck and then you go inside the node, it's like you just entered this huge area and we all commented on how big, and bright and spacious and just really fun it was to be in there. Even though we were really busy, we tried to take a few minutes one of the evenings before we went to bed and just tried to enjoy a space like that. Because you can actually float in the middle and not be able to touch anything. That's something you can't ever really do in the shuttle because there's equipment all around you. ... It's one of those things you have to really experience to appreciate." Shuttle pilot Rick Husband, one of three rookies on board, said the 94th shuttle mission was "a new experience every minute of the day." "The launch was fantastic, the views out the window were absolutly gorgeous and to get to work with all these great people was probably the highlight of the whole thing," he said. "Seeing the station for the first time was very exciting, translating from the shuttle back to Spacehab, into station and back and forth was a lot of fun. And the work we did was both rewarding and enjoyable. We had a great time. "This mission was one where we did just about everything you can do on a space shuttle, from the rendezvous, the docking, the EVA, the work in station with repair and transferring supplies and then getting to do the undocking and fly around," Husband continued. "That was a tremendous thrill to me to get to fly the orbiter during the flyaround and then to deploy a satellite and get some time, also, looking out the window at the beautiful Earth, we had a great time. Coming back in for entry was a big a thrill as any other part of the mission, seeing the glow out the windows, feeling the Gs come back on and then coming in for a beautiful landing, it was incredible. It was a fantastic mission." ===================================================================