STS-100 Day 8 Highlights

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On Thursday, April 26, 2001, 5:30 a.m. CDT, STS-100 MCC Status Report # 14 reports:

Good news greeted space station flight controllers this morning when, shortly after awakening, Expedition Two flight engineer Susan Helms reported that the International Space Station computer systems may be returning to normal. Working at a laptop computer aboard the station that serves as the crew's primary interface with the station's United States command and control computer system, Helms reported the good news at about 3:45 a.m. Shortly afterward, Helms performed a series of troubleshooting steps that restored the ground's ability to monitor and send commands to the station's U.S. systems.

Space station flight controllers then sent commands that have put the station's systems in a better configuration in the event computer problems recur today. They also are planning to send commands that will transmit data to the ground from the station computers to allow technicians to thoroughly analyze those computers' hardware and software as part of the investigation that is under way to determine the cause of the computer problems.

Today's plan for the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard Endeavour and the station will have them continue joint work this morning to reload the Raffaello logistics module with unneeded station equipment and supplies for return to Earth. The crews have almost completed unloading the 4,000 pounds of equipment that Raffaello carried to the station. While that reloading work takes place, flight controllers will continue their analysis of the station computers.

Given continued success with the computer troubleshooting, the crews will resume work with the station's new Canadarm2 and the shuttle's robotic arm after 8 a.m., handing off a 3,000-pound Spacelab Pallet from the station arm to the shuttle arm to store the pallet back in Endeavour's payload bay. Another reboost of the spacecraft's altitude is planned later today as well, an hour-long jet firing by Endeavour that will raise the complex's altitude by almost 4= miles.

A practice run with the new station arm to rehearse moves the arm must make during the next shuttle assembly mission to the station to attach a new airlock will be conducted on Friday.

The crew of Endeavour was awakened just after 2:40 a.m. by a Russian folk song, "Behind the Fog." That song was played for Endeavour crewmember Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov. The two spacecraft are orbiting the Earth every 92 minutes at an altitude of 243 statute miles. The next status report will be issued this evening at the end of the crews' day or as events warrant.

On Thursday, April 26, 2001, 10:30 a.m. CDT, STS-100 MCC Status Report # 15 reports:

Today, the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard Endeavour will continue joint work to reload the Raffaello Logistics Module with unneeded station equipment and supplies for return to Earth. The crews have completed unloading the 4,000 pounds of equipment that Raffaello carried to the station. While the reloading of Raffaello takes place, flight controllers will continue their analysis of the station computers. The station command and control computer brought on line early this morning has continued to be fully functional and operate normally throughout the day. Controllers are working to bring another such computer online as a backup system later today. The recovery of the one command and control computer during the night is believed to have resulted from an automatic sequence aboard the station that powered each of the three command and control computers on and off in an attempt to bring them on line. The other two computers remained off line, however.

Given continued success with the computer recovery, the shuttle and station crews will resume work with the station's new Canadarm2 and the shuttle's robotic arm on Friday, handing off a 3,000-pound Spacelab Pallet from the station arm to the shuttle arm to store the pallet back in Endeavour's payload bay. A practice run with the new station arm to rehearse moves the arm must make during the next shuttle assembly mission to the station to attach a new airlock also will be conducted on Friday.

A second reboost of the station's altitude remains planned for later today. It will be an hour-long jet firing by Endeavour that will raise the complex's altitude by almost 4= miles. The two spacecraft are now orbiting the Earth every 92 minutes at an altitude of 243 statute miles.

On Thursday, April 26, 2001, 8:30 p.m. CDT, STS-100 MCC Status Report # 16 reports:

As flight controllers continued to troubleshoot computer systems on board the International Space Station (ISS), the ten crewmembers were told late today they would spend some bonus time together, after mission managers requested an additional two days of docked operations to allow ground teams to recover the use of command computers in the Destiny laboratory and to complete joint activities.

Final confirmation of the two-day extension is pending Russian concurrence of NASA's request for a one-day delay to their Soyuz launch, currently scheduled for Saturday. That would allow Endeavour to remain docked to the Station until at least Monday to help resolve the computer problems which were first noticed Tuesday night. The Soyuz vehicle was rolled out to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at dawn today.

With one of three command and control computers still up and running on board the station, flight controllers worked through the day to overcome what is believed to be a software problem with the other two command computers and their processing systems. Ultimately a decision was made to postpone the unberthing of the Raffaello logistics module from the Unity module until Friday while ground controllers worked to recover the computers. With other work on hold, the crewmembers completed packing up Raffaello with unneeded gear and trash, which will be brought back to Earth.

If at least one additional command computer can be recovered overnight, and engineers can reboot two fault protection computers in the Unity module which also shut down earlier today, the Raffaello module could be unberthed around midday Friday. Procedures to bring at least one additional computer back on line for further operations are expected to take about 10 hours.

If Raffaello can be returned to Endeavour's cargo bay tomorrow, then the crew will likely be given the green light to press ahead with the handoff of a pallet from the newly installed Canadarm2 Station robot arm to Endeavour's slightly smaller robot arm on Saturday, setting the stage for undocking on Monday.

To recover the two Unity computers, which offer a defense against other computer malfunctions by automatically rebooting them, controllers will have to perform a complex resynchronization procedure early Friday shortly before the planned wakeup of the two crews.

Endeavour has enough power and other consumables to remain in orbit until Friday, if necessary. With a two-day mission extension, landing would occur on Wednesday.

The crews of Endeavour and the International Space Station are scheduled to be awakened around 2:40 a.m. Central time Friday. Meanwhile, all of Endeavour's systems continue to function flawlessly as it orbits the Earth linked to the ISS.

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