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Atlantis astronauts prepare for undocking BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: September 17, 2006
With shuttle pilot Chris Ferguson at the controls, Atlantis is scheduled to undock from pressurized mating adapter No. 2 on the front of the Destiny laboratory module at 8:50 a.m. Ferguson will guide the shuttle to a point about 400 feet directly in front of the lab complex before beginning a 360-degree fly around for photo documentation. "We're really looking forward to the flyaround, seeing the station in a new configuration," said lead flight director Paul Dye. "I just think itıs going to be gorgeous. The views I've seen already - you know, the beautiful gold arrays, and the Earth in the background - itıs going to be real nice." Passing 600 feet directly above, behind and below the space station, Ferguson will guide Atlantis back to a point directly in front of the outpost and carry out the first of two rocket firings at 10:05 a.m. to begin the shuttle's final separation. This will be the first complete space station fly around since the Columbia disaster and engineers are looking forward to getting a good look at the lab complex and its new set of solar arrays. "It wasn't a real high priority, but it's certainly nice to have and I think we should get some pretty spectacular video of the station," Dye said. "And that helps everybody, because if you have any questions about the external configuration, you can go back and look for it." A second separation burn is scheduled for 10:33 a.m. Atlantis will drop back to a point about 40 nautical miles behind the space station where it will remain through Monday when the crew plans to carry out a final heat shield inspection. At the sprawling Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, meanwhile, Russian rocket engineers are preparing the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft for launch at 12:09 a.m. Monday to ferry the station's next full-time crew to the international outpost. If all goes well, Expedition 14 commander Mike Lopez-Alegria, cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and space tourist Anousheh Ansari will dock at the aft port of the Russian Zvezda command module at 1:24 a.m Wednesday, about four-and-a-half-hours before Atlantis is scheduled for landing at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA television coverage of the Soyuz TMA-9 launch begins this evening at 11:30 p.m. Ansari will return to Earth Sept. 28 with Expedition 13 commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineer Jeff Williams. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, who flew to the station aboard the shuttle Discovery in July, will remain aboard the lab complex as a member of the Expedition 14 crew until late December. Here is an updated timeline of today's activities that combines the NASA television schedule (rev. N), the crew's summary flight plan and the detailed undocking timeline (in EDT and mission elapsed time): TIME/EDT DD HH MM EVENT 12:15 AM 07 13 00 STS/ISS crew wakeup 02:35 AM 07 15 20 Transfers resume 03:35 AM 07 16 20 Rendezvous tools checkout 04:15 AM 07 17 00 Oxygen transfer hardware tear down 04:35 AM 07 17 20 Transfer tagup 05:00 AM 07 17 45 Joint crew meal 06:00 AM 07 18 45 Farewell ceremony 06:24 AM 07 19 09 Hatch closure 06:45 AM 07 19 30 Centerline camera installation 06:45 AM 07 19 30 Orbiter docking system leak check 07:30 AM 07 20 15 Spacesuit installation 07:30 AM 07 20 15 Group B computer powerup 07:36 AM 07 20 21 Sunrise 07:45 AM 07 20 30 ISS maneuver to undocking attitude 08:00 AM 07 20 45 Shuttle undocking timeline begins 08:07 AM 07 20 52 Noon 08:30 AM 07 21 15 P6 solar arrays feathered 08:37 AM 07 21 22 U.S. feathering complete 08:36 AM 07 21 21 Sunset 08:50 AM 07 21 35 Atlantis undocks from space station 08:51 AM 07 21 36 Initial orbiter separation (+10 seconds) 08:52 AM 07 21 37 ISS holds current attitude 08:55 AM 07 21 40 Range: 50 feet; reselect -X jets 08:57 AM 07 21 42 Range: 75 feet; low-Z jets 09:00 AM 07 21 45 Russian arrays resume tracking 09:05 AM 07 21 50 Range: 170 feet 09:08 AM 07 21 53 Sunrise 09:19 AM 07 22 04 Range: 400 feet; start flyaround 09:29 AM 07 22 14 Range: 600 feet 09:30 AM 07 22 15 P6 arrays resume tracking 09:30 AM 07 22 15 ISS maneuvers (+YVV) 09:31 AM 07 22 16 Atlantis directly above ISS 09:38 AM 07 22 23 Noon 09:42 AM 07 22 27 Atlantis directly behind ISS 09:54 AM 07 22 39 Atlantis directly below ISS 10:05 AM 07 22 50 Atlantis directly in front of ISS 10:05 AM 07 22 50 Separation burn No. 1 10:08 AM 07 22 53 Sunset 10:30 AM 07 23 15 PMA-2 depressurization 10:33 AM 07 23 18 Separation burn No. 2 10:35 AM 07 23 20 Group B computer powerdown 10:39 AM 07 23 24 Sunrise 11:00 AM 07 23 45 Mission status briefing on NASA TV 11:15 AM 08 00 00 Undocking videotape replay 12:00 PM 08 00 45 ISS-14 pre-launch briefing replay on NASA TV 12:15 PM 08 01 00 NC-5 rocket firing 03:15 PM 08 04 00 STS crew sleep begins 03:45 PM 08 04 30 ISS crew sleep begins 04:00 PM 08 04 45 Daily video highlights reel on NASA TV 10:30 PM 08 11 15 ISS-14 pre-launch b-roll feel on NASA TV 11:15 PM 08 12 00 STS crew wakeup 11:30 PM 08 12 15 ISS-14 launch coverage begins on NASA TV 12:09 AM 08 12 54 ISS-14/Soyuz TMA-9 launch
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