STS-121 MCC Status Report #01

STS-121 MCC Status Report #01

STS-121
Report #01
2 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

On the nation's 230th birthday, Discovery rocketed into the Florida sky this
afternoon, returning the shuttle fleet to space after almost a year.

The first human spacecraft to launch on an Independence Day holiday,
Discovery has begun a journey to resupply and service the International
Space Station. Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission
Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and
Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut, lifted off at 1:38 p.m.
CDT. The launch followed a flawless countdown.

During the next 12 days, Discovery's crew will demonstrate techniques for
inspecting and protecting the shuttle's thermal protection system, restore
the station to a three-person crew for the first time since May 2003, and
replace critical hardware needed for future station assembly. The crew is
planned to conduct two spacewalks during the mission. If supplies allow,
managers may extend Discovery's flight by an additional day, a day that will
be used by the crew to conduct a third spacewalk.

A system of new and upgraded ground-based cameras, radar and airborne
cameras aboard high altitude aircraft documented Discovery's launch. That
imagery, along with data to be gathered from in-flight inspections, will be
used to ensure Discovery's heat shield is in good condition. The in-flight
inspections will be performed by the crew using the shuttle's robotic arm,
an extension boom and laser system as well as photography to be taken from
the station of a back flip the shuttle will perform as it approaches for
docking.

Moments after main engine cutoff, less than nine minutes after liftoff,
Fossum and Wilson used handheld video and digital still cameras to document
the external tank after it separated from the shuttle. That imagery, as well
as imagery gathered by cameras in the shuttle's umbilical well where the
tank was connected, will be transmitted to the ground for review.

As Discovery lifted off, the International Space Station was 220 miles above
the southern Pacific Ocean, south of Tasmania. Aboard the outpost,
Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer and NASA
Science Officer Jeff Williams watched the launch via a television
transmission from Mission Control. Discovery is set to dock to the complex
at about 9:51 a.m. CDT July 6.

The shuttle crew will test Discovery's robot arm tomorrow and then use it to
grasp a 50-foot long boom extension, called the Orbiter Boom Sensor System.
That boom holds the laser system and TV cameras they will use to inspect the
shuttle's wings and heat shield.

During the two spacewalks, Sellers and Fossum will test the capability of
the boom extension to be used as a work platform from which repairs could be
performed to the shuttle heat shield. They also will repair a cable system
on the station's rail car, a system that will be a base for the station's
robotic arm for future assembly work. If the mission is extended by a day,
the third spacewalk will be used to test techniques under development for
repair of the reinforced carbon-carbon that makes up the heat shield on the
shuttle wing edges.

Carried inside the Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module in Discovery's
cargo bay and elsewhere on the shuttle, about 14 tons of hardware and
supplies is on its way to the space station. Discovery's crew begins an
eight-hour sleep period at 7:38 p.m. CDT. The astronauts will awaken at 3:38
a.m. CDT Wednesday to begin their first full day in orbit.

The next STS-121 status report will be issued shortly after crew wakeup, or
earlier if events warrant.



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.nl


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