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Discovery nearing the station BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: December 11, 2006 The shuttle Discovery is closing in on the international space station for a linkup today around 5:05 p.m. The terminal phase of the rendezvous procedure will begin with a rocket firing at 2:28 p.m. Trailing the station by about eight nautical miles, commander Mark Polansky will guide Discovery through a carefully choreographed approach that will put the shuttle about 600 feet directly below the lab complex a few minutes past 4 p.m. The space station crew will train telephoto lenses on the shuttle as Polansky guides the craft through a 360-degree pitch maneuver, exposing Discovery's belly to view for a detailed heat shield inspection. The shuttle's nose cap and wing leading edge panels were inspected by the Discovery astronauts Sunday and today's inspection is intended to characterize the health of the tiles that play such a crucial role during re-entry. With the rotational pitch maneuver complete, Polansky will guide Discovery to a point about 310 feet directly in front of the station with the orbiter's tail pointing toward Earth and its open cargo bay toward pressurized mating adapter No. 2 on the forward end of the Destiny laboratory module. From that point, it will take about 40 minutes to complete the rendezvous, with docking on tap around 5:05 p.m. If all goes well, hatches between the two spacecraft will be opened about an hour later and after a brief welcoming ceremony and safety briefing, the combined crews will press ahead with a busy schedule. For station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, the highlight of the day will be transferring astronaut Sunita Williams' Soyuz seat liner from Discovery to the station. At that point, around 8 p.m., Williams will become a member of the Expedition 14 crew. Reiter, launched to the station in July, will return to Earth aboard Discovery in Williams' place. A few minutes after the seat liner transfer, Nicholas Patrick, operating the shuttle's 50-foot-long robot arm, will latch onto the P5 solar array truss segment making up Discovery's major cargo. After hoisting the segment out of the payload bay, Patrick will position it for handoff to the station's robot arm, operated by Williams, around 9 p.m. P5 will remain parked overnight on the end of the station arm until installation Tuesday during a spacewalk by Robert Curbeam and Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang. Revision D of the NASA TV schedule is posted on the CBS News STS-116 Quick-Look page. Here is an updated timeline of today's activities (in EST and mission elapsed time; best viewed with fixed-width font): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 10:17 AM...01...13...30...STS crew wakeup 11:17 AM...01...14...30...Group B computer powerup 11:32 AM...01...14...45...Rendezvous timeline begins 12:47 PM...01...16...00...Spacehab prepped for docking 12:55 PM...01...16...08...NC-4 rendezvous rocket firing 02:28 PM...01...17...41...TI burn 03:04 PM...01...18...17...Sunset 03:26 PM...01...18...39...Range: 10,000 feet 03:35 PM...01...18...48...Range: 5,000 feet 03:39 PM...01...18...52...Sunrise 03:40 PM...01...18...53...Range: 3,000 feet 03:45 PM...01...18...58...MC-4 rendezvous burn 03:49 PM...01...19...02...Range: 1,500 feet 03:51 PM...01...19...04...RPM start window open 03:54 PM...01...19...07...Range: 1,000 feet 03:57 PM...01...19...10...KU antenna to low power 03:58 PM...01...19...11...Shuttle directly below ISS 04:03 PM...01...19...16...Range: 600 feet 04:05 PM...01...19...18...Start rendezvous pitch maneuver 04:07 PM...01...19...20...Noon 04:13 PM...01...19...26...End pitch maneuver 04:15 PM...01...19...28...RPM full photo window close 04:15 PM...01...19...28...Initiate pitch up maneuver 04:23 PM...01...19...36...RPM start window close 04:27 PM...01...19...40...Shuttle in front of station; range: 310 feet 04:28 PM...01...19...41...Range: 300 feet 04:32 PM...01...19...45...Range: 250 feet 04:35 PM...01...19...48...Sunset 04:36 PM...01...19...49...Range: 200 feet 04:38 PM...01...19...51...Range: 170 feet 04:40 PM...01...19...53...Range: 150 feet 04:44 PM...01...19...57...Range: 100 feet 04:47 PM...01...20...00...Range: 75 feet 04:47 PM...01...20...00...PMA-2 prepped for docking 04:51 PM...01...20...04...Range: 50 feet 04:55 PM...01...20...08...Range: 30 feet; start stationkeeping 05:00 PM...01...20...13...End stationkeeping; push to dock 05:04 PM...01...20...17...Range: 10 feet 05:05 PM...01...20...18...DOCKING 05:10 PM...01...20...23...Sunrise 05:27 PM...01...20...40...Hard mate 05:27 PM...01...20...40...Leak checks; PGSC reconfig 05:47 PM...01...21...00...Group B computer powerdown 05:57 PM...01...21...10...Docking system prepped for entry 06:17 PM...01...21...30...Hatches open 07:07 PM...01...22...20...Safety briefing 07:32 PM...01...22...45...Spacesuit, EVA tools transfer 07:32 PM...01...22...45...Soyuz seatliner transfer 08:02 PM...01...23...15...Soyuz seatliner installation 08:17 PM...01...23...30...P5 grapple by shuttle arm (SRMS) 08:32 PM...01...23...45...P5 unberth by SRMS 09:00 PM...02...00...13...Post-MMT/mission status briefing on NTV 09:02 PM...02...00...15...P5 handoff from SRMS to station arm (SSRMS) 09:12 PM...02...00...25...Equipment lock preps 09:47 PM...02...01...00...SRMS ungrapples P5 10:02 PM...02...01...15...Docking video replay 11:02 PM...02...02...15...EVA-1: Procedures review 11:47 PM...02...03...00...P5 video playback 12:37 AM...02...03...50...EVA-1: EV1/EV2 mask prebreathe 12:37 AM...02...03...50...EVA-1: EV1/EV2 airlock campout begins 01:27 AM...02...04...40...EVA-1: Crew lock depress to 10.2 psi 02:47 AM...02...06...00...Crew sleep begins
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VIDEO:
WIDESCREEN VIEW FROM PLAYALINDA BEACH TRACKER 