STS-121 MCC Status Report #04
- From: "Jacques van Oene" <oene0072@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 18:21:23 +0200
4 a.m. CDT, Thursday, July 6, 2006
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
07.06.06
STATUS REPORT: STS-121-04
STS-121 MCC Status Report #04
A third crewmember will join the International Space Station today after the
docking of the Space Shuttle Discovery. It will mark the first time since
May 2003 that more than two long-duration crew members have called the
orbiting laboratory home.
Discovery, with Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission
Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and
Thomas Reiter aboard, is scheduled to dock with the station at 9:52 a.m.
CDT.
Shortly after the welcome by station Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA
Science Officer Jeff Williams and a mandatory safety briefing, Reiter will
transfer his seat liner to the Soyuz spacecraft attached to the station,
making him an official station crewmember. Reiter is a European Space Agency
astronaut from Germany, flying under a contract between ESA and the Russian
Federal Space Agency.
During Discovery's approach to the station, Lindsey will pilot the shuttle
on what amounts to a back flip, called the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver. At
about 600 feet below the station, the flip will give Vinogradov and Williams
a chance to photograph the thermal protection tiles on the bottom of
Discovery. Using digital cameras with 400mm and 800mm lenses, they will take
a carefully planned series of photos of the shuttle's underside.
The images will be downlinked for study by experts on the ground, starting
with the more detailed images from the 800mm lens. More 800mm photos will be
taken than during Discovery's approach during STS-114. One increased photo
emphasis will be looking for protruding gap fillers, like those removed by
STS-114 spacewalker Steve Robinson last year.
These photos and other data, including images from more than 100 cameras on
the ground, in aircraft and on the shuttle, as well as data from the shuttle
arm and the Orbital Boom Sensor System (OBSS) attached to it, will be used,
along with data from subsequent surveys, to make sure that Discovery
sustained no major damage on launch, ascent and in orbit.
About three hours after docking, both crews get to work with more robotic
operations to prepare for additional surveys. Nowak, Wilson and Williams
will operate the space station robotic arm, Canadarm2, from inside the
Destiny Lab.
They will use the arm to lift the OBSS from Discovery's payload bay sill and
hand it over to the shuttle arm, operated by Lindsey and Fossum. Clearance
restraints around the shuttle's docking mechanism do not allow the shuttle
arm to grapple the boom on its own.
Transfer of cargo from the shuttle's middeck including spacesuits will begin
shortly after docking. At least two spacewalks are scheduled, one on
Saturday and another on Monday. A third may be done if the mission is
extended a day.
Discovery's crew was awakened at 2:38 a.m. Thursday by "Daniel," performed
by Elton John and dedicated to Reiter. The station crew was awakened at the
same time by its standard wakeup tone.
The next STS-121 mission status report will be issued Thursday afternoon, or
earlier if events warrant.
- end -
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.nl
.
- Prev by Date: Re: after the next accident...
- Next by Date: status reports not going to news?
- Previous by thread: Proper attire at NASA (Shuttle Images)
- Next by thread: status reports not going to news?
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
