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  BY SPACEFLIGHT NOW Follow the STS-105 flight of space shuttle Discovery and the handover between the Expedition Two and Expedition Three crews of the international space station. Reload this page for the very latest.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2001 The crew, Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, will prepare the station for a period without human occupation before boarding the Soyuz for its relocation. That is done as a precaution, in the unlikely event the crew is unable to return to the station. The move of the Soyuz will mark the first time the new Pirs, which arrived at the station Sept. 17, will serve as a docking port. The Soyuz will be shifted to prepare for the arrival of a new Soyuz return craft, to be launched Oct. 21 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz can serve as a crew return vehicle at the station for a maximum of about six months. On Wednesday the crewmembers reviewed relocation procedures and conducted a Soyuz communications check. On Thursday, they prepared the station for their departure. Also on Thursday they were scheduled to spend some time stowing items for return to Earth on the Soyuz. The Soyuz taxi crew, Commander Victor Afanasyev, Flight Engineer Konstantin Kozeev and French Flight Engineer Claudie Haignere, will blast off from Baikonur on Sunday at around 4:59 a.m. EDT for their two-day flight to the station. Haignere is a European Space Agency astronaut carrying out a flight program for CNES, the French Space Agency, under a commercial contract with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. They will arrive at the station Oct. 23 for an eight-day stay, riding the Soyuz currently docked to Zarya back to Earth on Oct. 31. Two Expedition Three spacewalks conducted by Dezhurov and Tyurin linked Pirs with data and power cables to the Zvezda service module to which it is docked, and mounted experiment on ZvezdaÕs exterior. The third and final Expedition Three spacewalk by Culbertson and Dezhurov was moved from Nov. 5 to Nov 8 to give the crewmembers more time to prepare after departure of the Soyuz taxi crew. The spacewalk is designed to complete the exterior outfitting of Pirs that was begun by Dezhurov and Tyurin on their initial spacewalk Oct. 8. Meanwhile, ISS officials in Moscow and Houston agreed to conduct a test of the solid-fuel oxygen-producing candles on the station on Oct. 29. The test is being performed as the final step in formally extending the expiration date of the candles. The test initially was scheduled to begin Oct. 11, but was postponed to refine procedures. The candles would be used in the unlikely event the Russian Elektron oxygen-generation system in Zvezda malfunctioned.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2001 Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin opened the hatch on the Pirs Docking Compartment at 5:17 a.m. EDT (0917 GMT) and installed three separate sets of experiment equipment designed to learn more about the space environment around their orbiting outpost. Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson helped from inside, positioning Canadarm2 so that its cameras could provide television pictures of the workmen as they completed their tasks outside. Dezhurov and Tyurin moved hand-over-hand to work sites on the Zvezda service module, using handrails to get to a site near the back end of the module. At that location, they installed a Russian experiment called Kromka, which is designed to accumulate any contamination caused by Zvezda steering jets for analysis in the design of better thrusters for future spacecraft. The duo then moved on to a nearby site, where they assembled a small truss structure and attached three suitcase-sized experiment packages provided by NASDA, the Japanese space agency. The Micro-Particles Capturer will employ aerogel and foam substances to collect naturally occurring micrometeoroids and human-made orbital debris particles. A companion Space Environment Exposure Device will expose a variety of materials such as paint, insulation and solid lubricants to the harsh environment of space. On their way back to the Pirs hatch, they removed a placard and exposure experiment with the image of the Russian Federation flag, and replaced it with another exposure experiment as part of a commercial agreement with Kodak. It was the 28th spacewalk in support of the assembly of the station, increasing the total to 178 hours, 14 minutes, the fourth spacewalk staged out of the station itself, and the 101st spacewalk in Russian history. It was Dezhurov's seventh spacewalk spanning two flights and the second for Tyurin, who is midway through his first flight into space. With all work successfully completed, Dezhurov and Tyurin re-entered the Pirs compartment and closed the hatch at 11:09 a.m. EDT (1509 GMT). A third spacewalk by Culbertson and Dezhurov is scheduled for November 5 to complete the exterior outfitting of Pirs, that was begun by Dezhurov and Tyurin on their first spacewalk of the expedition on Oct. 8. With all of its systems operating in good shape, the station is orbiting at an average altitude of 250 statute miles (395 km).
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2001 Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin will perform this EVA, like the one conducted last Monday, while Commander Frank Culbertson remains inside to coordinate activities. It will be the 28th spacewalk in support of the assembly of the ISS. The spacewalk's main objective is to mount scientific experiments on the Zvezda service module analyzing the effect of micrometeroid impacts and other deteriorating effects of the harsh environment of space on engineering materials. The spacewalk will be staged from the new Pirs Docking Compartment. Last Monday's spacewalk accomplished all but one of its goals, which included installing telemetry and data cables between Pirs and Zvezda, to which it linked up to three weeks ago. Dezhurov and Tyurin also installed handrails, an access ladder, a cargo crane, a docking target and a navigational antenna. Because the spacewalk ran longer than planned, a test of the rigidity of the newly installed Strela cargo crane on Pirs was postponed. It is expected to be performed during the third spacewalk of the Expedition by Culbertson and Dezhurov on November 5. The focus of that spacewalk will be the completion of the exterior outfitting of Pirs. Because some discoloration was detected by Dezhurov and Tyurin near a set of thrusters on Zvezda during their spacewalk this week, U.S. and Russian station officials agreed to relocate the site of one of the experiments to be installed on Zvezda next Monday. The so-called Kromka experiment was to have been mounted on the zenith, or space-facing area of the Service Module. Now it will be installed on Zvezda's port side. The Kromka experiment is designed to study ways to minimize the dissemination of contaminate particles from spacecraft jet thrusters as they are fired, thus protecting the exterior of future spacecraft. Watch this page for live updates during Monday's spacewalk.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2001
1926 GMT (3:26 p.m. EDT) Among the list of completed chores was the installation of the Strela cargo boom, a telemetry cable, four handrails, an access ladder, a docking target and KURS antenna equipment. The one main objective not performed because the spacewalk ran longer than expected was a checkout of the Strela crane. That activity will be rescheduled for a later spacewalk. This was the first external spacewalk from Alpha without a space shuttle present, the 27th spacewalk dedicated to international space station construction and the 100th EVA in Russian spaceflight history. The two cosmonauts will venture outside again next Monday for a spacewalk that will see experiment packages attached to the hull of the station to expose various materials to the environment of space. On October 19 all three members of the Expedition Three crew, which is led by American Frank Culbertson, will climb into their Soyuz lifeboat capsule and undock from the Zarya module for a quick relocation maneuver that is scheduled to last from 6:53 to 7:15 a.m. EDT (1053-1115 GMT). They will dock the Soyuz to Pirs, freeing up the Zarya port for a fresh Soyuz capsule. The launch of the new Soyuz is slated for October 21 at 4:59 a.m. EDT (0859 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Docking will occur two days later on October 23 at 6:47 a.m. EDT (1047 GMT). The visiting Soyuz taxi crew of Russian commander Victor Afanasyev, flight engineer Konstantin Kozeev and Claudie Haignere of France is scheduled to spend a week aboard Alpha before flying the old Soyuz capsule back to Earth on October 30. The Soyuz capsules have just a six-month certified life span. The current lifeboat was delivered in April by the Dennis Tito crew.
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1740 GMT (1:40 p.m. EDT) The spacewalkers are now installing a docking target on Pirs for future spacecraft linkups.
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1510 GMT (11:10 a.m. EDT) This was the second external spacewalk from Alpha without a space shuttle present, the 28th spacewalk dedicated to international space station construction and the 101st EVA in Russian spaceflight history. Looking ahead: On Friday all three members of the Expedition Three crew, which is led by American Frank Culbertson, will climb into their Soyuz lifeboat capsule and undock from the Zarya module for a quick relocation maneuver that is scheduled to last from 6:53 to 7:15 a.m. EDT (1053-1115 GMT). They will dock the Soyuz to Pirs, freeing up the Zarya port for a fresh Soyuz capsule. The launch of the new Soyuz is slated for Sunday at 4:59 a.m. EDT (0859 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Docking will occur two days later on October 23 at 6:47 a.m. EDT (1047 GMT). The visiting Soyuz taxi crew of Russian commander Victor Afanasyev, flight engineer Konstantin Kozeev and Claudie Haignere of France is scheduled to spend a week aboard Alpha before flying the old Soyuz capsule back to Earth on the evening of October 30. The Soyuz capsules have just a six-month certified life span. The current lifeboat was delivered in April by the Dennis Tito crew.
1440 GMT (10:40 a.m. EDT) Soon both spacewalkers will return to the airlock to complete this excursion.
1315 GMT (9:15 a.m. EDT) The "Microparticles Capture and Space Environment Exposure Device" is supposed to capture micrometeoroids and tiny fragments of space debris for later return to Earth for research. The "Space Environment Exposure Device" will expose dozens of materials like paints, adhesives, lubricants and insulation to determine how they endure in the space environment for possible use in future space missions. The packages will be returned to Earth in the coming three years.
1205 GMT (8:05 a.m. EDT) Mission controllers report the cosmonauts are running as much as a half-hour behind the scheduled timeline today.
1100 GMT (7:00 a.m. EDT) Planned for installation on the zenith, or space-facing, area of Zvezda, officials opted to have the spacewalkers attach the package on the port side instead because of some discoloration seen in the original location during last week's EVA. The Kromka experiment is designed to study ways to minimize the dissemination of contaminate particles from spacecraft jet thrusters as they are fired, thus protecting the exterior of future spacecraft.
1014 GMT (6:14 a.m. EDT) Once everything is distributed, the spacewalkers are then scheduled to get down to work deploying the three suitcase-like experiments -- two Japanese and one Russian.
0917 GMT (5:17 a.m. EDT) The two men will soon float out of the airlock and set off on their second spacewalk in a week. Today's main objective is the installation of three experiment packages to the exterior of Zvezda service module. A Russian flag placard on the station also will be removed and replaced by a Kodak commercial sign. We will provide periodic status updates on this page as the spacewalk proceeds.
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1424 GMT (10:24 a.m. EDT) The two men will soon float out of the station's newly delivered Russian Pirs docking module, which serves as an airlock for spacewalks using Russian spacesuits. Dezhurov is distinguished by the red stripes on his Orlan spacesuit; Tyurin's suit has blue stripes. The goal of today's spacewalk -- the 27th dedicated to international space station assembly -- will be the outfitting of Pirs, including the installation of communications cables, handrails, an access ladder, the Russian Strela cargo crane and other gear. This is Dezhurov's sixth spacewalk and the first for space rookie Tyurin. Expedition Three commander Frank Culbertson remains inside the station, overseeing today's EVA. We will provide periodic status updates on this page as the spacewalk proceeds.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2001 The first spacewalk by Dezhurov and Tyurin is scheduled to begin around 10 a.m. Eastern time on Monday to hook up a cable between Pirs and Zvezda for telemetry and data transmission from Russian Orlan spacesuits, and to attach handrails, an access ladder and a cargo boom to Pirs, which serves as both a docking port for future Russian spacecraft arriving at the Station, and as an airlock for spacewalks out of the Russian segment of the outpost. Dezhurov and Tyurin will conduct a second spacewalk on Oct. 15 and Culbertson and Dezhurov will perform a third excursion outside the Station on Nov. 5 to complete the outfitting of Pirs. Dezhurov, who conducted five previous spacewalks on the Mir Space Station in 1995, and Tyurin, who will be making his first spacewalk, checked out their suits, communications gear and spacewalking tools this week and reviewed plans and timelines. This will be the first external spacewalk staged from the Station without the presence of a visiting Space Shuttle and the 27th spacewalk in support of the assembly of the complex. On Monday, Dezhurov and Tyurin will close hatches between the Zvezda Service Module Transfer Compartment to which Pirs is docked, and Zvezda's living quarters and the Zarya module prior to depressurizing Pirs for the first time Monday morning. Dezhurov, who will wear the Orlan spacesuit bearing the red stripes, and Tyurin, who will the suit with the blue stripes, will then float out of one of two hatches on Pirs to begin their initial spacewalk. Culbertson will monitor the spacewalk from inside Zarya, to which the Soyuz return craft is attached. He will have access to the U.S. modules to the Station during the spacewalk, but not to Zvezda. The spacewalk is expected to last at least 4 1Ú2 hours. The new Docking Compartment will be used for the first time on Oct. 19, when the crew temporarily leaves the Station and boards its Soyuz rescue craft to relocate it from its current docked position on the nadir port of the Zarya module to the Pirs. The undocking and redocking of the Soyuz is expected to take about an hour to complete. That will set the stage for the launch of a fresh Soyuz return craft on Oct. 21 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A taxi crew consisting of Commander Victor Afanasyev, Flight Engineer Konstantin Kozeev and Flight Engineer Claudie Haignere of CNES, the French Space Agency, will arrive at the station Oct. 23 for an eight-day stay and will return to Earth on Oct. 31 aboard the Soyuz currently at the Station. The orbiting trio also continued a variety of scientific investigations this week as they moved into the second half of their four-month stay on orbit. Oversight of science investigations on the station from the ground is handled by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. the Human Research Facility is managed by the Johnson Space Center. With all of its systems operating in good shape, the station is orbiting at an average altitude of 240 statute miles (385 km).
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2001 Mission controllers in Moscow fired pyrotechnic devices that activated spring pushrods to eject the 20-foot-long instrumentation and propulsion segment of the Pirs Docking Compartment at 11:36 a.m. EDT today. The segment moved away from the station at a rate of about 4 meters per second until it reached a point far enough away to fire its control system jets without contaminating the station. It then moved ahead and above the station to a distance of 24 kilometers when its thrusters were commanded to fire in a deorbit maneuver sending it into the atmosphere to burn up upon reentry. Left behind is the 16-foot long, 4-ton Pirs, which will serve as a new port for future Russian vehicles arriving at the station and as an airlock from which spacewalks will be conducted from the Russian segment of the outpost. Today's activity sets the stage for the first space walk from Pirs by Dezhurov and Tyurin on Oct. 8. On that spacewalk, the pair will use Russian Orlan space suits to connect power and data cables between the Docking Compartment and the Zvezda Service Module. A second spacewalk is planned Oct. 14, and a third in early November. Flight control teams in Houston and Moscow are working on a plan to address this week's shutdown of the Russian segment oxygen generation unit called Elektron, and an air-conditioning unit in Zvezda. Russian flight controllers are reviewing data in an attempt to determine the causes of the shutdowns and are working with their American counterparts to provide backup oxygen generation capability until the two Russian components can be repaired or replaced. The crew has about a week's worth of oxygen already in the station atmosphere, and has ample stores of oxygen from the gas tanks on the Quest Airlock as well as solid fuel oxygen candles to last for months. Other maintenance work completed by the crew this week included the replacement of 10 smoke detectors in the Zvezda module. The Elektron shutdown will have no impact on station operations. Meanwhile, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a replacement Soyuz return spacecraft is being readied for launch to the station on Oct. 21. The station crew will relocate its current Soyuz spacecraft on Oct. 19 from its present location at an Earth-facing port on the Zarya module to the new docking port on Pirs to clear the way for arrival of the fresh Soyuz and a taxi crew. Commander Victor Afanasyev, Flight Engineer Konstantin Kozeev and Flight Engineer Claudie Haignere will arrive at the station Oct. 23 for an eight-day stay. The orbiting trio has expanded its scientific investigations into new areas, including a study of the ability of certain chemical compounds to impede the formation of kidney stones. Culbertson set up and served as the first test subject for the experiment this week, which involves ingesting pills that contain either the active compound or a placebo in an effort to determine the value of the countermeasure on a small population. Urine samples are collected, as are detailed information about the crewmember's fluid and food intake. The other two crewmembers also will participate in the experiment. The crew also continued testing the Active Rack Isolation System through a series of ÒshakerÓ tests of its ability to protect sensitive experiments from vibrations caused by everyday crew activity. Oversight of science investigations on the station from the ground is handled by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. the Human Research Facility is managed by the Johnson Space Center. The station is orbiting at an average altitude of 240 statute miles (385 km).
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2001 The 16-foot long Pirs, with a 20-foot instrumentation and propulsion segment still attached, is now docked to the Earth-facing port of the station's Zvezda service module. Pirs provides the station with an airlock for use with Russian Orlan space suits and a new docking port. The crew opened the hatch to Pirs on Sunday evening a few hours after it arrived and spent Monday and Tuesday unloading cargo and supporting equipment from the new module. On Wednesday, they removed automated rendezvous equipment, which will be returned to Earth for reuse on later missions. So far this week, the crew has upgraded the station's Russian software to allow control computers aboard Zvezda to work with the Pirs' systems; installed and activated Pirs' caution and warning system; set up ventilation equipment and lighting in Pirs; and tested the new computer software. All of the activities have gone smoothly, and Pirs is in excellent condition. Later this week, the crew is planned to activate Pirs' communications equipment and conduct further systems tests on the new addition. As well as working in Pirs, the crew has continued scientific investigations with experiments that study spinal cord reflexes during long-duration spaceflight; gauge the interactions between crewmembers and ground personnel; and characterize a system that isolates sensitive experiments from vibrations on the station. The crew also conducted physical examinations that are done periodically during the flight to gauge the effects of weightlessness. Oversight of science investigations on the station from the ground is handled by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. the Human Research Facility is managed by the Johnson Space Center. A highlight of the work with Pirs will be the jettison of the compartment's instrumentation and propulsion segment. The segment is scheduled to be pyrotechnically detached from Pirs on Oct. 1, backed away from the station, and moved to an orbit that will have it reenter the atmosphere and burn up. That operation will set the stage for a space walk by Dezhurov and Tyurin planned for Oct. 8, the first of three space walks to be performed from Pirs using Russian space suits to continue hooking up and activating the module during Expedition Three. Just a few days later, on Oct. 19, the crew will relocate its Soyuz spacecraft from its present location at an Earth-facing port on the Zarya module to the new docking port on Pirs. That clears the way for the arrival of a fresh Soyuz return craft with a taxi crew of Commander Victor Afanasyev, Flight Engineer Konstantin Kozeev and Flight Engineer Claudie Haignere. The new Soyuz will be launched Oct. 21 and will dock to the station Oct. 23 for an eight-day stay. The International Space Station (ISS) is orbiting at an average altitude of 240 statute miles (385 km). Sighting opportunities from the ground for many cities around the world can be viewed at: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2001 The docking went according to plan, Mission Control reported, with the automated docking system controlling a Progress-style instrumentation and propulsion system attached to the rear of the Pirs compartment. The 16-foot-long, 8,000-pound module approached the station from below and behind, beginning its automated docking sequence shortly after 6:30 p.m. EDT. About 20 minutes later, the station's thrusters moved it to the proper orientation for docking. The station's large solar array wings were positioned to eliminate contamination from the jets on Pirs as it made it final approach. After the probe-and-drogue docking system completed capture of the incoming module and pulled the two spacecraft together, 12 active latching hooks were driven to their closed position, locking the module securely in place. Pirs is the sixth pressurized module currently making up space station Alpha -- three Russian and three American. After docking, the Expedition Three crew checked to make sure there was a good seal between the station and its new module, then began to equalize pressure between the two craft prior to the first opening of the hatch to Pirs, which was scheduled later in the evening. The astronauts were slated to begin deactivating navigational equipment in the new module before going to bed at 3 a.m. EDT. They are scheduled to be awakened at 11:30 a.m. EDT for a workday that will include the start of internal outfitting chores in Pirs. The aft instrumentation and propulsion system locked onto Pirs itself will be pyrotechnically jettisoned next month to set the stage for spacewalks by the crew to install and activate key systems for the module's future operation. Pirs is an additional docking port for future Russian vehicles -- manned Soyuz capsules and Progress cargo freighters -- arriving at the station, an added storage area and an airlock for spacewalks using Russian spacesuits. Three spacewalks are to be conducted in October and November from Pirs by the Expedition Three crew - two by Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and one by Culbertson and Dezhurov - to electrically mate the module to Zvezda and install more equipment on the outside of the module. Pirs, which is the Russian word for pier, was launched on a Soyuz rocket at 7:35 p.m. EDT Friday, kicking off a two-day chase to catch Alpha.
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0105 GMT (9:05 p.m. EDT) The module expands the outpost to serve as a new docking port for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and an airlock for Russian spacewalks. The dozen hooks will be closed to firmly hold the station and module shortly. The astronauts plan to open the hatchway from the Zvezda service module into Pirs at about 10:25 p.m. EDT (0225 GMT) tonight.
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0011 GMT (8:11 p.m. EDT) See our timeline of tonight's docking activities.
0001 GMT (8:01 p.m. EDT) Designed and built by RSC Energia, the Russian space agency's developer for international space station hardware, Pirs will add a new docking port for Soyuz capsules and Progress resupply craft at Alpha. The module will also serve as an airlock for Russian spacewalks. Pirs is officially known as Docking Compartment-1. In English, the nickname means Pier. This is the first Russian module launched to the station in 14 months, not counting the Soyuz and Progress ships that come and go from the outpost. Overall, Pirs will become the sixth pressurized module making up Alpha as the station continues to be assembled in Earth orbit. Launch occurred on Friday evening at 2335 GMT (7:35 p.m. EDT). The Soyuz rocket injected Pirs into an orbit with a high point of 233.0 km and low point of 192.3 km, revolution of 88.5 minutes and inclination of 51.66 degrees to the equator. Since then a series of orbital maneuvers have been performed to boost Pirs toward the international space station. A specialized portion of a Progress craft is mounted to the bottom of Pirs, serving as the tug with engines to deliver this new module to the station. Aboard Alpha the Expedition Three astronauts are ready to receive Pirs. Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov will be ready to take over the automatic docking system tonight to manually guide the module to linkup with the Zvezda service module.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2001 The module will automatically dock to the nadir, or Earth-facing, port of the Zvezda service module. Watch this page for updates on the rendezvous starting about an hour before docking.
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1910 GMT (3:10 p.m. EDT) Later, all seven astronauts will be driven to Kennedy Space Center's Operations & Checkout Building to be reunited with their families and have dinner. They are scheduled to fly back to their homes in Houston on Friday.
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1837 GMT (2:37 p.m. EDT) It is expected to be at least a half-hour before the astronauts exit the shuttle, with medical personnel ready to assist the Expedition Two crew make their way out of Discovery as they feel the effect of gravity for the first time since March.
1833 GMT (2:33 p.m. EDT) Main Gear Touchdown 2:22:58 p.m. EDT MET: 11 days, 21 hours, 12 minutes, 44 seconds Nose Gear Touchdown 2:23:09 p.m. EDT MET: 11 days, 21 hours, 12 minutes, 55 seconds Wheels Stop 2:24:06 p.m. EDT MET: 11 days, 21 hours, 13 minutes, 52 seconds
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1812 GMT (2:12 p.m. EDT) The Merritt Island tracking station at the Cape, called MILA, has locked on to signal from space shuttle Discovery. This provides more detailed navigation data for tracking the spaceplane as it streaks to touchdown at Kennedy Space Center. And the TACAN navigation units aboard Discovery are now receiving data from beacons located at the ground.
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1803 GMT (2:03 p.m. EDT) The roll control jets on the shuttle are being turned off and the aerosurfaces on the spacecraft now able to be used as the vehicle continues descent into the atmosphere. All the wing flaps will be active shortly with the exception of the rudder, which won't be useful until the shuttle slows to Mach 5. Landing today will occur on Runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center -- the northwest to southeast strip of the Shuttle Landing Facility. Upon arrival at the heading alignment circle in skies over KSC, commander Scott Horowitz will make a 312-degree left-overhead turn to align Discovery with the runway. Touchdown is expected at 2:23 p.m. EDT. The Shuttle Landing Facility was built in 1975. It is 300 feet wide and 15,000 feet long with 1,000-foot overruns at each end. The strip is located about three miles northwest of the 525-foot tall Vehicle Assembly Building.
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1752 GMT (1:52 p.m. EDT) The shuttle is flying with its nose elevated 40 degrees, wings level, at an altitude of 400,000 feet, passing over the southern Pacific Ocean, about 4,300 nautical miles from the landing site, at a velocity of Mach 25, descending at a rate of over 500 feet per second. Touchdown is set for 2:23 p.m. EDT on Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Mission Control does have the option of switching ends of the runway if clouds dictate.
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1739 GMT (1:39 p.m. EDT) Also, excess propellant has been dumped from the shuttle's steering jets.
1727 GMT (1:27 p.m. EDT) "We trained as a four-person flight deck crew. The Expedition Two crew as you can tell is feeling in great shape and we don't expect them to have any problems in re-entry. ... If they did want the assistance of medical person, that would be my MS-2, Dr. Dan Barry, so we could send him downstairs if they needed some assistance with anything. But we don't expect any problems and we expect it'll actually make egress from the shuttle after we land much easier because there will be an open area near the exit of the shuttle where their seats are down on the middeck."
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1718 GMT (1:18 p.m. EDT) Today's landing will be the 56th to occur at Kennedy Space Center in the history of space shuttle program. Dating back to May 1996, this will mark the 34th of the last 38 shuttle missions to land in Florida. KSC is the most used landing site for the shuttle. Edwards Air Force Base in California has seen 48 landings and White Sands in New Mexico supported one.
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1710 GMT (1:10 p.m. EDT) Discovery is headed to a landing at 2:23 p.m. EDT at Kennedy Space Center. The landing will conclude the 12-day STS-105 mission. Discovery has started maneuvering to the deorbit burn attitude. The shuttle will be flying upside-down and backwards with its tail pointed in the direction of travel. Meanwhile, the shuttle's vent doors have been closed and final configuring of the onboard computers has been completed.
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1623 GMT (12:23 p.m. EDT) There is cautious optimism the weather will be improve for landing, but the situation remains iffy.
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1513 GMT (11:13 a.m. EDT) The backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California is not called up today. So if NASA doesn't get a break in the weather in Florida this afternoon, Discovery will stay in orbit until tomorrow.
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1447 GMT (10:47 a.m. EDT) Weather officials are now watching a line of clouds near the shuttle runway at Kennedy Space Center.
1430 GMT (10:30 a.m. EDT) The weather conditions here at the Kennedy Space Center continue to be monitored. However, meteorologists remain hopeful the weather will permit an on-time homecoming today. A final "go/no go" decision for the deorbit burn by entry flight director John Shannon is expected in about 45 minutes. If Shannon gives his approval for Discovery to reenter, the deorbit burn would begin at 11:37 a.m. EDT to start the shuttle's decent back into the atmosphere. Landing on Runway 33 at Kennedy would occur at 12:46 p.m. EDT.
1303 GMT (9:03 a.m. EDT) Also, Mission Control has given commander Scott Horowitz a "go" to transition Discovery's onboard computers from the OPS-2 software used during the shuttle's stay in space to OPS-3, which is the software package that governs reentry and landing. And Discovery will soon maneuver to a new orientation in space to improve the communications link with NASA's orbiting data relay satellites.
1240 GMT (8:40 a.m. EDT) The latest weather forecast for Discovery's planned landing at the Kennedy Space Center is "very favorable", with no rain showers in the forecast, according to mission control commentator Rob Navias. If all goes according to plan, the winged spaceship is scheduled to touch down on its three-mile-long runway in Florida at 1646 (12:46 p.m. EDT). The crew of Discovery was awakened at 0810 GMT (4:10 a.m. EDT) this morning to begin final preparations for landing. The next major activity, coming up in the next few minutes, will be the closure of the payload bay doors.
0602 GMT (2:02 a.m. EDT) The ship is being discarded to make way for the fresh Progress 5P that is slated to dock to the now-open Zvezda port at about 1000 GMT (6 a.m. EDT) on Thursday. Meanwhile, it is homecoming day for the international space station's Expedition Two astronauts after 167 days in Earth orbit. If the Florida weather cooperates today, space shuttle Discovery will head for a 12:46 p.m. EDT landing at Kennedy Space Center. But there is the threat of rain within 30 miles of the Shuttle Landing Facility, which would force NASA to keep Discovery in space. A backup landing opportunity is available one orbit later with touchdown at 2:23 p.m. EDT. See our entry timeline for all the key events leading up to Discovery's landing. Should the weather at Kennedy thwart both attempts today, the shuttle would remain in space until Thursday. Mission managers have decided not to call upon Edwards Air Force Base in California to support as a backup site today. Discovery has enough consumables to safely stay in orbit through Friday. Forecasters are calling for a few layers of scattered clouds, northeasterly winds at 5 peaking to 8 knots and that chance of showers within 30 nautical miles. The first landing opportunity is expected to have better weather than the second since the daily summertime thunderstorms in Florida will be more of threat as the day goes on. We will have complete live coverage on this page throughout the morning as the astronauts prepare for entry and landing.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2001 Known as Progress 5P in the international space station assembly sequence, the unmanned cargo freighter is carrying about 3,000 pounds of supplies, 1,400 pounds of fuel, 90 pounds of air and 60 gallons of water for the orbiting outpost. Docking to the station's Zvezda module is slated for about 1000 GMT (6 a.m. EDT) on Thursday. Liftoff occurred right on time at 0924 GMT (5:24 a.m. EDT) today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Progress 4P craft currently attached to the aft port on Zvezda will undock at 0606 GMT (2:06 a.m. EDT) on Wednesday to reenter the atmosphere and burn up. The Expedition Three astronauts plan to activate some of the Progress' systems today in preparation for the undocking. Meanwhile, space shuttle Discovery is spending its last full day in space today. The astronauts will pack up the crew cabin and check out Discovery's flight control aerosurfaces, hydraulics and steering jets in preparation for reentry and landing back at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Also today, the crew will set up the special recumbent seats on Discovery's middeck for use by the Expedition Two astronauts. The seats will provide comfort for the astronauts as they return to Earth and feel gravity for the first time in over five months. The early weather forecast for Kennedy Space Center is somewhat favorable, but there is the threat of thunderstorms and rainshowers in the area. There will be two landing opportunities on consecutive orbits with touchdown possible at 12:46 p.m. EDT and 2:23 p.m. EDT. Two opportunities also exist at the backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California with touchdown at 2:17 p.m. EDT and 3:53 p.m. EDT. Mission Control will decide later today whether to call up Edwards for support on Wednesday or focus completely on Kennedy Space Center.
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MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2001 Meanwhile, a Russian Soyuz-U rocket is scheduled to launch the fifth Progress cargo freighter for the international space station on Tuesday. Liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is expected at 0924 GMT (5:24 a.m. EDT). The unmanned supply ship will spend two days catching up with the station for an automatic docking to the Zvezda service module at 1003 GMT (6:03 a.m. EDT) on Thursday. To make way for the new craft, which is loaded with more supplies, food and logistics for the Expedition Three crew along with fuel for station, the fourth Progress currently attached to Alpha will undock at 0606 GMT (2:06 a.m. EDT) on Wednesday to reenter the atmosphere and burn up.
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1612 GMT (12:12 p.m. EDT) The next major event today will be deployment of the Simplesat satellite from Discovery's payload bay at 2:05 p.m. EDT (1805 GMT).
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1447 GMT (10:47 a.m. EDT) In another pre-flight interview Discovery commander Scott Horowitz, who flew to the station in 1999 on STS-96, described what his feelings would be at undocking: "Well, again, the last time I went to station, there was nobody there. So, we were just leaving, basically, a large piece of hardware in orbit. But, now it's come alive because we have people living on the station. So, I guess it'll be kind of like going to visit somebody who lives in a really remote, far-off place. "You know, you're sort of sad to say goodbye because you know it's going to be a long time before you get to see them again. Of course, you know, they have a lot to keep them busy, and they'll be very productive for the next several months. Then, we have a lot of work to do to get our space shuttle ready to come home. So, it'll be, again, interesting, the emotions of saying goodbye to fellow astronauts and cosmonauts who are going to go live on the space station for a while as we basically fly home."
1434 GMT (10:34 a.m. EDT) Discovery pilot Rick Sturckow is in control today for undocking, which is typical for an station undocking. In a pre-flight interview he described the events of the day: "As the pilot, I'll be flying the space shuttle Discovery as we back away from the space station. We'll move out to about 400 feet, and then we will fly around it and attempt to photograph - in daylight - all sides of the space station. These photographs are very important for not only general publicity purposes, but we've actually used similar photographs. During our training, we'll pull out fly-around photos and see the exact configuration of different cables, for example."
1158 GMT (7:58 a.m. EDT) Discovery is set to depart Alpha at 10:52 a.m. EDT (1452 GMT), taking the three-person Expedition Two away from the outpost for the first time since March. Expedition Three will be left to fly in orbit until late November when shuttle Endeavour is launched with the next station resident crew. At the time of undocking the two crew will be flying over the South Pacific, due west of the southern coast of Chile at 50.6 degrees South Latitude and 142.8 degrees West Longitude. The shuttle will perform a one-and-a-quarter lap flyaround of the station at a distance of about 450 feet with Discovery pilot Rick Sturckow at the controls. A final thruster firing at 12:12 p.m. EDT will drop Discovery into a lower orbit for final separation from the station. Later today, a small science satellite, called Simplesat, is scheduled for deployment from Discovery. The craft is designed to demonstrate Global Positioning System attitude control and pointing in free flight. The spring-ejection from a canister at the rear of the shuttle's payload bay is expected at 2:05 p.m. EDT (1805 GMT). You can see all the day's activities in our Daily Flight Plan.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2001 Leonardo delivered over three tons of supplies and equipment to the station for the new Expedition Three crew. It is now loaded with over a ton of trash and unneeded materials in an effort to keep the station clean. Plans call for the reusable Leonardo module to fly again next April for its third mission to ferry supplies and equipment to the international space station. On tap Monday will be the farewell ceremony and final hatch closure between the station and shuttle at 7:50 a.m. EDT in preparation for undocking at 10:52 a.m. EDT. Discovery is slated for landing at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday at about 12:46 p.m. EDT.
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1735 GMT (1:35 p.m. EDT) In a pre-flight interview, Discovery commander Scott Horowitz describes the return of Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) "Leonardo" to the shuttle: "To return the MPLM, the first thing you have to do is obviously pack it up. The load master on the shuttle side is Dan Barry, my MS-2, and then we'll have one crewmember from each of the ISS Expedition Two and Expedition Three teams who will be responsible for making sure that all the things that need to go in the MPLM are in the right place and all secured down and sealed up, ready to come home. "Then, the MPLM will be prepared to be returned to the orbiter's bay. Obviously close the hatch, turn off all the systems, get everything powered down, and then grapple it with the arm so Pat Forrester will take the arm again from the shuttle, grapple the side of the MPLM. Then, the Expedition crews will release the MPLM from the station. And, once it's clear and released, Pat will fly the MPLM in a reverse trajectory back down into the payload bay. At that point, we will activate the latches that hang on to it and hold it for reentry."
1600 GMT (12:00 p.m. EDT) Leonardo delivered nearly 7,000 pounds of equipment, experiments, supplies, food and clothing to the station for use by the new Expedition Three astronauts. The crews have since loaded the Italian-built module with 2,300 pounds of trash and no-longer-needed station equipment. Just like its mounting to the station last Monday, the shuttle's robotic arm will be used to move the space-age cargo moving van. Mission specialist Pat Forrester will be at the controls of the arm today. The revised schedule calls for the separation of Leonardo from the Unity node to occur at 1:25 p.m., with the module berthed in Discovery's payload bay at 2:05 p.m. EDT. Leonardo -- making its second flight into space -- is one of three such pressurized modules provided by the Italian Space Agency for station resupply.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 2001
1912 GMT (3:12 p.m. EDT) This was the 110th spacewalk in U.S. space program history, the 68th from a space shuttle, the 26th dedicated to international space station construction and second of two planned during Discovery's current mission. In about an hour the hatches between Discovery and space station will re-opened to resume joint operations between the crews of the two spacecraft. Tomorrow will see the Leonardo cargo module undocked from the station and returned to Discovery's payload bay using the shuttle's robotic arm.
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1350 GMT (9:50 a.m. EDT) Continuing with his pre-flight interview, Barry provides a very detailed description of today's spacewalk actvities: "When we first come out of the airlock, basically I'm the bag man. Because, what we will do is: Pat Forrester will hand out to me a total of four bags. Two bags that contain the cables that I've been talking about and two bags that contain handrails that we will be placing. So I'll attach all four of those bags to the robot arm. Then, Pat will come out of the airlock and he will come on the robot arm. "So, EV 1 and EV 2 and four bags will all be, kind of, together on the robot arm right off the bat, and we will come out of the payload bay up to a point where we will be able to get off the arm and onto the (Destiny) Laboratory Module. Once we're on the Laboratory Module, Pat and I will take the two big cable bags and put them in place where they need to be for when it's time to deploy the cables. Then, we'll come back, and each of us will take a handrail bag, Pat will have five handrails and I'll have six and we will go through the process of laying down the handrails. I will put them down on the starboard side, and Pat will put them down on the port side. "Once we've completed the handrail installation, Pat will come over to the starboard side and we'll go to where I had placed the bag. He will release the straps that hold the bag down and hand it to me and I will be in place on the starboard side of handrails. The cable itself on the starboard side has sort of three components to it. Two components we're gonna leave in bags, and one component is the cable that we're gonna run down the handrails. So really, I will tend and hold onto the cable that's gonna run down the handrails while Pat does this process of unfolding the two bags and getting the straps off and basically moving one of those two bags over into its position. Then, he'll come join me and the two of us will tend this forty-five foot-long cable together as we lay it along the handrails. "I will then, once we have it all laid out, go and connect three connectors on the forward on the Lab and that will effectively complete the installation of the starboard cable. We'll tend it up and make sure that it doesn't get in the way of other objects or having a loop that's way out into space. "Once it's properly, configured, we'll then go and do effectively the same thing on the port side switching roles. I'll go over to the bag stowage location, Pat will go down to the handrails, I'll unstrap the cable from the bag, hand it to him, go down and join him, and we will run that cable down. He'll connect the single connector on that cable at the forward end on the port side of the Lab and that effectively completes both cable tasks and is the major objective of EVA 2."
1342 GMT (9:42 a.m. EDT) The main objective of this spacewalkers is the deployment of two 45-foot-long electrical cables along the exterior of the U.S. Destiny laboratory. One goes straight down the starboard side of the module, the other goes straight down the port side. In a pre-flight interview Barry explains the use of these cables for Mission 8A scheduled for early next year: "The purpose of these cables is to supply power for a future module that (ISS mission) 8A will be bringing up. And, in fact, the cables may not ever get used. The issue for the 8A truss is that it will have to be deployed in a fairly short period of time. If the device that they're bringing up, this big truss with many different, types of avionics boxes onboard, stays un-powered for too long, the devices inside will be damaged. "So should 8A run into trouble during their spacewalk and be unable to get the truss completely installed, these cables provide an emergency source of power. So they're really there just in case things don't go as planned during 8A's spacewalks. The process of installing them requires us to put handrails in place on the Laboratory module, again along the port and starboard side, a total of about eleven or twelve handrails. Once we put those handrails in place, we have a place to tie the cable to. So we'll put the handrails down and then we'll take these cables and run them along the handrails. "We'll hook the cables up to three connectors on the starboard side, one connector on the port side on the forward end of the Lab. The other end of the cables we're going to leave attached to the space station in bags for 8A to use in a location that's convenient for them should the need arise."
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 2001 Expedition Two has been living and working aboard the outpost since March and will return to Earth aboard shuttle Discovery next week. Expedition Three is scheduled to remain aloft until December. Back in Mission Control, officials today decided not to extend Discovery's mission an extra day. NASA had considered allowing the shuttle to remain docked to the station an additional 24 hours to give the crews more time to pack up the Leonardo cargo module with trash and other unneeded material, finish the handover briefings between Expedition crews and complete tomorrow's spacewalk. But in the end, ground controllers and the astronauts felt the work remaining could be completed as originally scheduled. Discovery is slated to undock from Alpha at 10:54 a.m. EDT on Monday, with landing on tap at Kennedy Space Center at about 12:48 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. On Saturday, shuttle astronauts Dan Barry and Pat Forrester will head back outside Discovery for the second of two spacewalks planned for this mission. The main goal of their five-hour excursion will be routing a pair of power cables on the space station's exterior for use by spacewalking astronauts early next year when a truss segment is delivered.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2001 Astronauts Dan Barry and Pat Forrester completed the first of two planned spacewalks during Discovery's voyage to the international space station. The excursion lasted 6 hours, 16 minutes and involved installing the Early Ammonia Servicer and the first external experiment on the station's hull. The servicer contains spare ammonia that can be used in the space station's cooling systems if needed. The Materials ISS Experiment (pronounced 'missy' by its acronym) will expose 750 material samples to the space environment for about 18 months before being returned home late next year. During the space walk, Discovery's Commander Scott Horowitz operated the shuttle robot arm, and Pilot Rick Sturckow choreographed the spacewalk from the orbiter's flight deck. This was the 25th spacewalk devoted to the construction of the space station and the 12th this year. Barry and Forrester will perform the mission's second spacewalk on Saturday to hook up heater cables for another truss structure to be delivered to the station next year. Mission managers Friday will evaluate the consumables onboard Discovery and assess the progress made by the crews in transferring items into the Leonardo logistics module from the station before making a determination as to whether the docked phase of the flight should be extended by one day. Earlier today, the computers inside the Zvezda module once again assumed control of the station's attitude -- or position in space -- after Russian flight controllers completed the loading of upgraded software commands to those computers. In the meantime, Discovery maintained control of the complex until the computer upgrades were completed with no impact to station operations. The Expedition Three crew -- Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin -- earlier today offered commemorative remarks on the occasion of the 1,000th day in space for the International Space Station since the Zarya module was launched on Nov. 20, 1998 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Discovery and the station are orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an average altitude of 244 statute miles with all systems functioning normally.
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VIDEO: FLOATING OUT OF PIRS MODULE