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Crew to give Endeavour thorough inspection today BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: August 9, 2007 The Endeavour astronauts are working through a busy first full day in space, completing setup of the ship's laptop computer network, checking out their spacesuits and carrying out an exhaustive inspection of the shuttle's nose cap and wing leading edge panels later this afternoon. Early today, the shuttle was trailing the international space station by 1,242 miles, closing the gap at about 160 miles per 90-minute orbit. Two rendezvous rocket firings are planned today to fine tune Endeavour's ongoing rendezvous and if all goes well, commander Scott Kelly will guide the shuttle to a linkup with the lab complex around 1:54 p.m. Friday. The astronauts were awakened during their sleep period earlier today when an alarm sounded because of apparent low pressure in one of the five liquid oxygen tanks in the shuttle's fuel cell system. Flight controllers initially thought the alarm was the result of an instrumentation problem, but they now suspect the pressure controller for oxygen tank No. 5 has failed. By manually activating and deactivating tank heaters, the astronauts can control the pressure in the tank and the flow of oxygen to the fuel cell system. Engineers view the problem as an inconvenience at this point and barring additional trouble, it is not expected to have an impact on the mission. The highlight of today's activity in space is a detailed inspection of the shuttle's nose cap and wing leading edge panels, the reinforced carbon composite panels that experience the most extreme heating during re-entry. The inspection is a now-standard part of every shuttle mission to look for signs of impact damage following launch. Today's inspection will be carried out by Tracy Caldwell and Rick Mastracchio, with assistance from pilot Charles Hobaugh and Barbara Morgan. Using an instrumented 50-foot-long boom on the end of the shuttle's robot arm, the astronauts will make laser scans and take high-resolution pictures of the nose cap and and wing leading edge panels for analysis on the ground. The inspection work will begin around 12:22 p.m. and take some five hours to complete. Here is an updated timeline of today's activity in space (in EDT and mission elapsed time; NOTE: NASA rounds down to the nearest minute; this page rounds up or down as required. As a result, times listed below may disagree slightly with NASA's television schedule): 08/09/07 08:37 AM...00...14...00...Crew wakeup 10:37 AM...00...16...00...Laptop computer setup (part 2) 10:39 AM...00...16...02...NC-2 rendezvous rocket firing 11:22 AM...00...16...45...Orbiter boom sensor system unberthing 11:47 AM...00...17...10...Spacesuit checkout preps 12:22 PM...00...17...45...OBSS starboard wing leading edge survey 12:27 PM...00...17...50...Spacesuit checkout 02:17 PM...00...19...40...OBSS nose cap survey 02:47 PM...00...20...10...Ergometer setup 03:17 PM...00...20...40...OBSS port wing leading edge survey 03:17 PM...00...20...40...Logistics transfer preps 04:17 PM...00...21...40...Crew meals begin 05:32 PM...00...22...55...OBSS berthing 06:00 PM...00...23...24...Mission status briefing on NTV 06:17 PM...00...23...40...Centerline camera installation 06:17 PM...00...23...40...Spacesuit transfer preps 06:17 PM...00...23...40...Aft rocket pod survey 06:47 PM...01...00...10...Orbiter docking system ring extension 06:47 PM...01...00...10...Laser scan data downlink 06:52 PM...01...00...15...Rendezvous tools checkout 07:52 PM...01...01...15...Spacewalk tools prepared for transfer to station 08:57 PM...01...02...20...Morgan/Kelly downlink on NTV 10:00 PM...01...03...23...NC-3 rendezvous rocket firing 11:37 PM...01...05...00...Crew sleep begins 12:00 AM...01...05...24...Flight Day 2 highlights on NTV For readers interested in a look ahead, here is an updated rendezvous timeline for Friday's docking with the international space station (in EDT and mission elapsed time): DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...EVENT 08/10/07 11:00 AM...01...16...23...International space station in docking orientation 11:16 AM...01...16...39...TI rocket firing; range: 9.2 miles 11:52 AM...01...17...15...Sunset 12:00 PM...01...17...23...U.S. solar arrays feathered 12:14 PM...01...17...37...Range: 10,000 feet 12:23 PM...01...17...46...Range: 5,000 feet 12:24 PM...01...17...47...Sunrise 12:29 PM...01...17...52...Range: 3,000 feet 12:33 PM...01...17...56...MC-4 rendezvous rocket firing 12:37 PM...01...18...00...Range: 1,500 feet 12:38 PM...01...18...01...Rendezvous pitch maneuver (RPM) start window open 12:42 PM...01...18...05...Range: 1,000 feet 12:45 PM...01...18...08...KU antenna to low power 12:46 PM...01...18...09...Shuttle directly below ISS 12:51 PM...01...18...14...Range: 600 feet 12:53 PM...01...18...16...Start pitch maneuver 12:54 PM...01...18...17...Noon 01:01 PM...01...18...24...End pitch maneuver 01:01 PM...01...18...24...RPM full photo window close 01:03 PM...01...18...26...Initiate shuttle move up in front of station 01:09 PM...01...18...32...RPM start window close 01:15 PM...01...18...38...Shuttle directly in front of station; range: 310 feet 01:16 PM...01...18...39...Range: 300 feet 01:20 PM...01...18...43...Range: 250 feet 01:23 PM...01...18...46...Sunset 01:24 PM...01...18...47...Range: 200 feet 01:27 PM...01...18...50...Range: 170 feet 01:28 PM...01...18...51...Range: 150 feet 01:32 PM...01...18...55...Range: 100 feet 01:35 PM...01...18...58...Range: 75 feet 01:40 PM...01...19...03...Range: 50 feet 01:43 PM...01...19...06...Range: 30 feet; start station keeping 01:48 PM...01...19...11...End station keeping; push to dock 01:52 PM...01...19...15...Range: 10 feet 01:54 PM...01...19...17...DOCKING 01:56 PM...01...19...19...Sunrise
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VIDEO:
ENDEAVOUR BLASTS OFF! 