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It's landing day for space shuttle Endeavour BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: August 20, 2007 The Endeavour astronauts are working through a busy re-entry day timeline this morning, preparing the shuttle for landing at the Kennedy Space Center to close out a two-week space station assembly mission. Generally favorable weather is expected, but crosswinds at the shuttle runway could be close to NASA's 15-knot limit. Appropriately enough, commander Scott Kelly, pilot Charles Hobaugh, Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Dave Williams, Barbara Morgan and Al Drew were awakened at 4:36 a.m. by a recording of Simon and Garfunkle's "Homeward Bound" beamed up from mission control. "Good morning, Endeavour," astronaut Shannon Lucid radioed from Houston. "And the music this morning was sent to all of you by all of your families in anticipation of a happy landing day." "Well that's very nice of them to think of that, Shannon," Kelly replied. "Although it's been a short two weeks, we've accomplished a lot and we still look very much forward to coming home today. Thanks." The deorbit timeline begins at 7:25 and barring a turn for the worse with the weather, the crew will activate internal cooling and close Endeavour's cargo bay doors at 8:45 a.m. Fresh out of a lengthy overhaul, Endeavour is the first space shuttle fully equipped with three Global Positioning System satellite navigation receivers, an upgrade intended to improve the precision of the orbiter's computer-controlled descent to the landing site. Flying backward over the Indian Ocean at a velocity of 5 miles per second, Kelly and Hobaugh plan to fire Endeavour's twin braking rockets at 11:25:12 a.m. for three minutes and 33 seconds, slowing the ship by 246 mph and lowering the far side of its orbit into the atmosphere. A half-hour later, the shuttle will reach the discernible atmosphere at an altitude of 76 miles. At that point, Endeavour will be 5,020 miles from touchdown. Two of Endeavour's heat-shield tiles, located on the belly of the craft behind the right main landing gear door, were damaged 58 seconds after launch by a small piece of foam insulation that broke off a liquid oxygen feedline bracket on the shuttle's external tank. After a lengthy analysis, NASA managers decided the damage did not require any repairs and Endeavour was cleared for re-entry as is. "We agree absolutely 100 percent with the decision to not repair the damage," Kelly said during an in-flight news conference. "We've had shuttles land with worse damage than this. We gave this a very thorough look and I am very, very comfortable and there will be no extra concern in my mind (during re-entry) due to this damage." The shuttle's ground track will carry it high above Central America west of the Panama Canal on a course carrying it across central Cuba and up the Florida peninsula to the Kennedy Space Center. Dropping below the speed of sound at an altitude of 48,000 feet above the landing site, Kelly will take over manual control and guide the shuttle through a sweeping 210-degree left turn to line up on runway 15. Touchdown around 12:32:23 p.m. will close out a 5.2-million-mile mission spanning 201 complete orbits since launch Aug. 8. If the weather prohibits an on-time deorbit rocket firing, the astronauts will go around the world one more time and make a second attempt 90 minutes later, at 1:00:12 p.m., for a landing at 2:06:44 p.m. Kelly and his crewmates also have multiple landing opportunities today at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert. But under NASA's standard entry day strategy, they only plan to attempt a return to Florida. If the weather blocks both of today's Kennedy opportunities, the astronauts will re-open the shuttle's payload bay doors, stay in orbit another day and try again Wednesday. In that case, Edwards, which is already staffed, would be activated for use if necessary. The forecast for Edwards calls for acceptable weather today through Thursday. Here is a timeline for today's two Kennedy landing opportunities (in EDT): EDT...........EVENT Rev. 201 Deorbit to KSC 07:25:12 AM...Begin deorbit timeline 07:40:12 AM...Radiator stow 07:50:12 AM...Mission specialists seat installation 07:56:12 AM...Computers set for deorbit prep 08:00:12 AM...Hydraulic system configured for entry 08:25:12 AM...Flash evaporator cooling system checkout 08:31:12 AM...Final payload deactivation 08:45:12 AM...Payload bay doors closed 08:55:12 AM...Mission control 'go' for transition to OPS-3 software 09:05:12 AM...OPS-3 entry software loaded 09:30:12 AM...Entry switchlist verification 09:40:12 AM...Deorbit burn update 09:45:12 AM...Crew entry review 10:00:12 AM...Commander/pilot don entry suits 10:17:12 AM...Inertial measurement unit alignment 10:25:12 AM...Mission specialists don entry suits 10:42:12 AM...Braking rocket steering check 10:45:12 AM...Hydraulic power unit (APU) prestart 10:52:12 AM...Toilet deactivation 11:00:12 AM...Payload bay vent doors closed for entry 11:05:12 AM...Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 11:11:12 AM...Astronaut seat ingress complete 11:20:12 AM...Single APU start 11:25:12 AM...Deorbit ignition (dT: 3:33; dV: 246 mph) 11:28:45 AM...Deorbit burn complete (alt: 213 statute miles) 12:00:25 PM...Atmospheric entry (alt 76 miles; range: 5,020 miles) 12:05:24 PM...1st roll command to left 12:20:32 PM...1st left-to-right roll reversal 12:25:55 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 (alt: 83,000 feet) 12:28:03 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 (alt: 48,000 feet) 12:29:12 PM...Shuttle on the HAC (alt: 33,000 feet; 210-degree left turn) 12:32:23 PM...Landing on runway 15 Rev. 202 Deorbit to KSC 12:40:12 PM...Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 12:55:12 PM...Single APU start 01:00:12 PM...Deorbit ignition (dT: 3:33; dV: 246 mph) 01:03:45 PM...Deorbit burn complete (alt: 213 miles) 01:34:47 PM...Atmospheric entry (alt: 76 miles; range to KSC: 5,095 miles) 01:39:47 PM...1st roll command to right 01:49:10 PM...1st right-to-left roll reversal 02:00:08 PM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 (alt: 83,000 feet) 02:02:12 PM...Velocity less than mach 1 (alt: 52,000 feet) 02:03:07 PM...Shuttle on the HAC (alt: 39,000 feet; 260-degree left turn) 02:06:44 PM...Landing on runway 15
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MISSION INDEX |
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VIDEO:
MISSION RECAP FROM PROGRAM MANAGERS 