Space watch (International Space Station)

STS-102 Report # 24 Monday, March 19, 2001 - 7:00 pm CST Moving ever further from the International Space Station, Discovery's crew is now focused on a return home with a landing at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, late Tuesday. The crew was awakened to the song "Just What I Needed," performed by The Cars and played for returning International Space Station Commander Bill Shepherd, who, along with crew mates Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, is riding home aboard Discovery after four and a half months in orbit.
Discovery's crew today will check out the flight controls the shuttle will require for the trip home, test fire the shuttle's steering jets, and perform an engine firing to adjust the shuttle's orbit to optimize Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev will take a break from packing at 11:12 p.m. Central to field questions from CNN, CBS News and KNBC-TV, Los Angeles, during a 20-minute interview. Later, at about 3:37 a.m. Central Tuesday, the crew will turn off and stow the shuttle's Ku-band antenna, used for television transmissions to the ground, for the remainder of the mission.
All preparations are focused on a landing for Discovery with a touchdown at 11:56 p.m. Central at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The weather forecast for landing in Florida currently calls for showers and low clouds that could be unacceptable. Options also exist for a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California early Wednesday, if flight controllers decide to pursue those.

STS-102 Report # 23 Monday, March 19, 2001 – 7 a.m. CST The Space Shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station at 10:32 p.m. CST Sunday, leaving the second station crew to get settled in and begin in earnest the research planned aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The hatches between the shuttle and station were closed for a final time at 8:32 p.m., about an hour after departing Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd passed responsibility for the station to Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev. As the hatches closed, Usachev, and flight engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms marked the start of their four-month stay on orbit.
The previous Expedition crew – Shepherd and Cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev – are now headed home on board Discovery. After the undocking -- which occurred as the two vehicles flew over Guyana, South America, and its capital of Georgetown -- Pilot Jim Kelly flew Discovery one-and-a-quarter turns around the space station before initiating a final steering jet separation burn at 11:48 p.m. CST. During the flyaround at a distance of 450 feet the crew recorded television and still images of the station's exterior. The two vehicles were docked for a total of 8 days, 21 hours, 54 minutes, which brings the total time shuttles have been docked to the station to 55 days, 23 hours, 7 minutes. The hatches were open for a total of 142 hours, 22 minutes during three periods punctuated by space walk-necessitated closures.
Over the course of joint operations between the station and shuttle crews, Discovery Commander Jim Wetherbee, Kelly and Mission Specialists Andy Thomas and Paul Richards worked with the station crew unloading almost five tons of experiments and equipment from the Italian-built Multipurpose Logistics Module, and packing almost one ton of items for return to Earth.
After undocking, Discovery's crew spent the rest of the day exercising, talking with their families and enjoying some scheduled off-duty time. The shuttle crew will go to sleep at 8:12 a.m. and awaken at 4:12 p.m., while the station crew will begin its sleep shift at 3:30 p.m., awakening at midnight. >p> STS-102 Report # 22 Sunday, March 18, 2001 - 7 p.m. CST Discovery's crew – including the first crew of the International Space Station now returning home after four and a half months in orbit – bids farewell to the second station crew tonight, undocking the shuttle from the outpost and preparing for a return to Earth Tuesday. The hatches between the shuttle and station were to be closed for a final time at about 7:30 tonight, leaving Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and his Flight Engineers, astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms, aboard the complex. The second crew is beginning a four-month stay aboard the station that will see the complex continue to grow in research capability and self-sufficiency as a robotic arm, more experiments and a new airlock are attached on future missions.
The first station expedition crew – led by Commander Bill Shepherd with Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev – is returning home after having brought the complex to life during its stay. The Expedition One crew docked to an uninhabited station that was about half the size and had only a fraction of the capability of the orbiting science complex and permanent home they are departing. The crews bid one another farewell about an hour before the hatch closing.
"We are on a true space 'ship' now, making her way above any Earthly boundary," Shepherd said as he handed command to Usachev. "This ship was not built in a safe harbor but on the high seas," Discovery Commander Jim Wetherbee added. During the almost nine days Discovery has been docked at the station, the crews unloaded almost five tons of experiments and equipment and repacked almost a ton of returning items. Discovery's mission also has set the stage for the continued expansion of the station when a Canadian robotic arm is launched aboard the shuttle Endeavour next month. Pilot Jim Kelly will be at the shuttle's helm as Discovery undocks from the station tonight, planned to occur at 10:32 p.m.

STS-102 Report # 20 Saturday, March 17, 2001 - 10 p.m. CST With their time together drawing to a close, the crews of Discovery and the International Space Station today plan to detach the Leonardo cargo module from the station and latch it back aboard the shuttle for return to Earth. Almost five tons of equipment and experiments were unloaded from Leonardo during the six days it was attached to the station, and almost a ton of trash, unneeded equipment and items that accompany the returning station crew was loaded aboard. >br>Two of the four primary computers were turned on quickly yesterday at the request of Mission Control as part of a general power up to increase the heat being generated by shuttle electronics. The shuttle's cooling system had gotten too cold, causing ice to form in a water li.
However, while the crew slept Saturday, flight controllers spent the day evaluating whether the quick power up could cause a software glitch onboard. At no time, however, did the onboard computers experience a problem. Still, an extensive analysis was conducted to double-check the system and a decision was made to transition the software loads within the flight computers as a confidence test to ensure they are fully operational.
Meanwhile, all other timelined activities for both the shuttle and station crews continues.
Both spacecraft are in excellent shape orbiting 235 statute miles above the Earth, traveling around the globe every 92 minutes.

STS-102 Report # 16 Thursday, March 15, 2001 - 7 p.m. CST The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts aboard Discovery and the International Space Station will spend another day docked to the orbiting science outpost to pack for the trip home. Discovery's STS-102 mission now will end with a landing back in Florida about 1 a.m. Wednesday.
As the crew awoke, Mission Control informed Commander Jim Wetherbee of the mission's extension. Discovery will now spend almost nine days docked to the station, allowing ground controllers and the crew more time to ensure all necessary items are stowed away correctly aboard the Leonardo cargo module. Leonardo, filled with equipment to return to Earth, now will be detached from the station and latched back in Discovery's payload bay early Sunday morning, a day later than originally planned. Later, Wetherbee will initiate a second hour-long gentle reboost of the station, using the shuttle's small steering jets to raise the complex's altitude by several miles. A third reboost session may be performed before Discovery departs the station.

STS-102 Report # 15 Thursday, March 15, 2001 – 7 a.m. CST Aboard the International Space Station today, astronauts and cosmonauts assembled and partially activated a key piece of construction equipment – the control station for a 58-foot-long robot arm that will be delivered to the station next month. Expedition Two Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms spent most of their workday installing the Space Station Remote Manipulator System workstation inside the Destiny laboratory.
They activated a portion of the system that will be used to route television pictures from docked space shuttles to the control station for use by arm operators. The remaining activation work will start after Discovery undocks Saturday evening.
The Canadian-built appendage will be delivered on the STS-100 mission -- set to launch April 19 – and attached to the Lab Cradle Assembly that Voss and Helms bolted to the side of the Destiny laboratory module during their space walk Sunday. The station arm's first job will be to install the airlock on STS-104, set for launch this June.
Load master Andy Thomas coordinated the transfer of equipment, supplies, trash and luggage between the station and shuttle with the help of Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and fellow Mission Specialist Paul Richards. All five tons of equipment and supplies delivered aboard the Leonardo module have been transferred to the station. The crew is now concentrating on packing trash, unneeded equipment and luggage in the Italian-built Multipurpose Logistics Module for return to Earth.
Commander Jim Wetherbee and Pilot Jim Kelly answered questions posed by reporters in the area of Burlington, Iowa, Kelly's hometown.
Wetherbee, Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, Usachev and Thomas talked with school children in Dundee, Scotland, who are following the mission because the crew is carrying a piece of the sailing research ship RRS Discovery launched 100 years ago at Dundee.
The astronauts and cosmonauts also took some time off to rest after a busy week, and to continue handing over duties aboard the scientific outpost. The station and shuttle are orbiting in fine fashion at an altitude of 240 statute miles following a 50-minute long series of reboost maneuvers. The gentle, repeated firings of Discovery's smallest steering jets took place a day earlier than originally planned to ensure that the complex would remain clear of a piece of equipment that floated free during the mission's first spacewalk. Further tracking has shown that the 10.5-pound Portable Foot Restraint Attachment Device is about 20 miles below and in front.

STS-102 Report # 13 Wednesday, March 14, 2001 – 7 a.m. CST The first crew exchange aboard the International Space Station is complete now that Susan Helms has moved her custom-fitted Soyuz seat liner into the Russian return vehicle about midnight CST today. Helms was the third and final Expedition Two crew member to make the move, following Commander Yury Usachev and fellow Flight Engineer Jim Voss. Helms traded places with Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, who now joins Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev as a member of the STS-102 crew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Though the crew transfer is complete, the official end of the Expedition One increment will occur Saturday when Discovery undocks at 9:54 p.m. CST. Just after completing the transfer, Helms, who calls Portland, Oregon, home, floated into an interview with three Portland-area television stations wearing her Sokol space suit, which she would use in the unlikely event the crew needed to return home in the Soyuz capsule.
The Expedition Two crew is scheduled to return home aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in July following the second station crew exchange. >br>The hatches between Discovery and the station remain open and cargo transfer activities continue ahead of schedule. More than 70 percent of the equipment and supplies already has been moved from the Italian-built Leonardo Multipurpose Logistics Module into the station. All seven systems racks – equipment that includes electronics, communications gear, experiments and medical facilities – already are in the Destiny laboratory.
Commander Jim Wetherbee also conducted two tests using the shuttle's steering jets, looking at the potential for using the shuttle's primary reaction control system thrusters to control station attitude and at the optimum method for reboosting the station using those jets. Wetherbee also set up the shuttle's autopilot to reboost the station overnight, eventually raising the station's altitude by about 8.5 statute miles.
Both crews begin their sleep periods at 9:42 a.m. today. They will be awakened at 5:42 p.m. Wednesday. On Saturday, after two more days of cargo transfers and the return of the Leonardo module to the shuttle's cargo bay, the crews are scheduled to exchange farewells and close the hatches at 7:12 p.m. CST. Discovery and the International Space Station remain in excellent condition, orbiting Earth at an altitude of approximately 235 statute miles.

STS-102 Report # 12 Tuesday, March 13, 2001 - 7 p.m. CST Ahead of schedule in their work and with a growing record of success, the astronauts and cosmonauts of Discovery and the International Space Station will spend today finalizing the swap of crew members aboard the orbiting science complex and continuing to unload supplies. Discovery's crew was awakened this evening for the seventh day of the mission with the song "Free Fallin" by Tom Petty, a favorite of astronaut Susan Helms who today will take up official residence on the station as a member of the outpost's second crew. She will trade places with first expedition Commander Bill Shepherd, who is completing four and a half months aboard the complex. Though the crew transfer is complete tonight, the official end of the Expedition One increment occurs on Saturday when Disco Usachev, Helms and Jim Voss are beginning a four-month stay in space. Shepherd, Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev and Pilot Yuri Gidzenko have brought the station to life as members of the inaugural crew, launched Oct. 31, 2000, aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan. Both the first and second station crews will have several hours set aside today to compare notes and hand over duties. The crews are ahead of schedule in unloading the Leonardo logistics module, with all seven systems racks – equipment that includes electronics, communications gear, experiments and medical facilities – already moved to the station's Destiny Laboratory. Included among those racks is the first major piece of station science equipment, called the Human Research Facility, which will study the effects of weightlessness on the human body. They will continue unloading supplies from the Italian Space Agency-deve Helms, a Portland, Oregon, native, Usachev, Voss and Discovery Commander Jim Wetherbee will take a brief break from their work just after midnight for an interview with three Portland-area television stations. Discovery and the International Space Station remain in excellent condition, orbiting Earth once every 92 minutes. The next Mission Control Center status report will be issued Wednesday morning. STS-102 Report # 10 Monday, March 12, 2001 - 7 p.m. CST Aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station tonight, crews are preparing for a day of unloading and installing equipment both inside and outside the two spacecraft. The song "From a Distance" performed by Nanci Griffith awakened discovery's crew, and astronauts Paul Richards and Andy Thomas quickly began preparing for a planned six and a half hour space walk. Richards and Thomas plan to install a stowage platform for spare station parts as well as attach a spare pump to the platform, ready in the event future crews need it. They also will complete the connection of several cables that were put in place by astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms during their space walk c After the cable connections are completed, Richards and Thomas will climb to the top of the station where the giant, 240-foot wingspan United States solar arrays are attached and attempt to tap a brace for the port side array into its latched position. The brace, one of four, did not latch in place properly when the arrays were installed on the station last year. However, the other three braces are secure and the array's stability has not been a concern. In addition, several quick tasks are planned duri During the space walk, Discovery Pilot Jim Kelly will operate the shuttle's robotic arm to maneuver Thomas as he carries gear between the shuttle and the station. Astronaut Susan Helms will serve as the in-cabin space walk coordinator aboard Discovery. While Discovery's crew is busy installing exterior equipment, inside the station Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and Expedition Two Flight Engineer Jim Voss will continue unloading the Leonardo logistics module. Leonardo, attached to the station last night, carried almost five tons of gear to be installed aboard the complex. Richards and Thomas are scheduled to begin donning their space suits and associated gear at about 7:42 p.m. and exit Discovery's cabin at 10:47 p.m. The space walk is scheduled to conclude at 5:17 a.m. Tuesday. Discovery and the International Space Station continue to orbit in excellent condition. The next Mission Control Center status report will be issued Tuesday morning. STS-102 Report # 09 Monday, March 12, 2001 – 7:30 a.m. CST Leonardo, the first of three logistics modules developed and built by the Italian Space Agency, was affixed to a berthing port on Unity overnight as mission specialist Andy Thomas carefully maneuvered it into place at 12:02 CST a.m. today. Operating Discovery's robotic arm, Thomas grappled the "crate" full of equipment racks and supplies at 9:37 p.m. Sunday, lifting it out of the shuttle's cargo bay at 10:10 p.m. Over the course of the next two hours, he slowly and deliberately moved the 11-ton module into place. At 12:02 a.m. today, STS-102 Commander Jim Wetherbee commanded the latches on the station's Earth-facing Common Berthing Mechanism to establish a tight seal with the Leonardo module. The berthing of Leonardo to Unity took slightly longer than planned while Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd rerouted video from the Centerline Berthing Camera System to the television monitors on the shuttle's aft flight deck so that Thomas could use the view looking directly out the berthing port at its corresponding opening on Leonardo. There also was a delay in activating the cargo carrier while Shepherd connected a Unity-to-Destiny power cable that provides electricity to systems inside Leonardo. The shuttle and station crews rejoined each other at 9:15 p.m. Sunday when the hatches separating them during the previous day's record-setting 8-hour, 56-minute spacewalk were reopened. With the hatches open, Jim Voss – the station's newest resident after a 10:45 p.m. swap-out with Sergei Krikalev – joined Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd and Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev on board the station. Only one more crew swap remains to complete the station's change of watch. Expedition One Commande Meanwhile mission specialists Paul Richards and Thomas, with help from Helms, checked out the space suits they will wear for a planned 6-hour, 30-minute space walk scheduled to begin at 10:47 p.m. Monday. Richards and Thomas will finish up a task that was deferred from the first space walk, connecting cables on the Launch Cradle Assembly that will be the mounting location for the station's robotic arm when it arrives next month. Next, they'll install an External Stowage Platform on the hull of Destiny and le in February. STS-102 Report # 08 Sunday, March 11, 2001 - 7 p.m. CST The crews of Discovery and the International Space Station will join forces again today as hatches between the spacecraft are reopened, a change of shift aboard the science outpost continues, and a cargo carrier is attached to the complex. Discovery's crew was awakened today by the song "Blast Off" from the animated feature Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders, played for astronaut Paul Richards as a selection from his children. The shuttle and station crews plan to reopen hatches between the two spacecraft at about 8:12 p.m. today. They will remain open for about eight hours before they again must be closed in preparation for a second space walk Monday night. Just after the hatches open this evening, the crew exchange will continue with Expedition Two Flight Engineer Jim Voss taking up residence aboard the station and Expedition One Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev moving to Discovery. With Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev already aboard the complex since Saturday, only one more crewmember switch remains to complete the station's change of watch. Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd will trade places with Expedition Two Flight Engineer Susan Helms Tuesd As the crews work together tonight, moving gear inside the shuttle and station, Astronaut Andy Thomas will use Discovery's robotic arm to remove the Italian Space Agency-built Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module from the shuttle's cargo bay and attach it to the station's Unity module. Leonardo carries more than 10 tons of equipment and experiments that will be unloaded during the next few days before it is again detached from the station and stowed aboard Discovery to return to Earth. Tonight's plan calls for Thomas to begin lifting Leonardo from Discovery's cargo bay at 9:12 p.m. He will maneuver it into place and latch it to the station at about 10:57 p.m. The station crew plans to enter the cargo module at about 5:42 a.m. Monday to begin the unloading. STS-102 Report # 07 Sunday, March 11, 2001 – 10 a.m. CST STS-102 Mission Specialists Susan Helms and Jim Voss donned space suits and stepped outside Discovery late last night to prepare one of the International Space Station's berthing ports for the Leonardo transfer module. The pair, destined to become members of the Expedition Two crew aboard the station later in the mission, began the 17th station assembly spacewalk at 11:12 p.m. CST Saturday. Inside Discovery, Paul Richards choreographed their activities and served as liaison with Mission Control. The spacewalkers were delayed early in their excursion when a portable foot restraint attachment device became untethered, and Voss had to retrieve a spare from its storage location on the outside of the station's Unity module. Helms and Voss successfully prepared Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 for repositioning from Unity's Earth-facing berth to its port-side berth to make room for Leonardo, the Italian Space Agency-built Multipurpose Logistics Module. They disconnected eight cables and removed an Early Communications System antenna from the left-side Common Berthing Mechanism so that shuttle robotic arm operator Andy Thomas could put the mating adapter in its place, freeing up the Earth-facing berthing port for Leonardo. The space walkers also removed a Lab Cradle Assembly from the cargo bay and installed it on the side of the Destiny laboratory module, where it will form the base for station robotic arm to be launched on STS-100 in mid-April. Because of the early delay, they were instructed to defer power and data cable connections for the cradle until Monday's scheduled space walk by Kelly and Thomas. Voss and Helms also installed a cable tray to Destiny for later use by the station's robot arm. The pair reentered Discovery's airlock early Sunday and waited for Thomas to maneuver the docking port to its new location, but remained at the ready to assist if needed. After Commander Jim Wetherbee drove the Common Berthing Mechanism latches home and secured the docking port at 7:43 a.m., the airlock was repressurized, ending the space walk at 8:08 a.m. Sunday after 8 hours 56 minutes, making it the longest space walk in Shuttle history. The space walk brings the total exterior construction time on the Meanwhile aboard the station, Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev began a handover of duties from Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, with Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev also still on board. The hatches between Discovery and the International Space Station are to be reopened shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday, as the crew begins the fifth day of the mission. Both crews are scheduled to begin an eight-hour sleep period at 9:42 a.m. central time, awakening at 5:42 p.m. Discovery and the station are in excellent condition in an orbit of about 235 statute miles. The next mission control center status report will be issued Sunday evening.