STS-101 Day 3 Highlights
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- On Sunday, May 21, 2000, 4:00 a.m. CDT, STS-101 MCC Status Report # 05
reports:
- Flying five miles a second above the Ukraine, Commander Jim Halsell
gently pulled the Shuttle Atlantis into port last night, flawlessly
latching his 200-ton spacecraft to the 35-ton International Space
Station for a five-day stay.
- Halsell and his crew performed the rendezvous and docking with the
station by the book, docking on target at 11:31 p.m. CDT
Saturday. Although Atlantis is now firmly attached to the station, the
astronauts will not enter the new outpost until Monday, turning their
immediate attention instead to a six and half-hour spacewalk to begin
late tonight.
- Astronauts Jim Voss and Jeff Williams will perform tonight's
spacewalk to install the final part of a Russian-built crane on the
station's exterior; replace a faulty communications antenna; and
install various cables and handrails. Following the docking, Voss and
Williams spent several hours this morning preparing the tools and
equipment they will use for the sojourn outside and double-checking
the spacewalk plans with the rest of the crew.
- The crew also lowered the air pressure inside Atlantis from the
standard sea-level pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch to 10.2
pounds per square inch, a pressure equivalent to that felt at an
altitude of 10,000 feet on Earth. The lower cabin pressure helps Voss
and Williams purge nitrogen from their bodies to avoid decompression
sickness when they go to the 4.2 pounds per square inch, pure oxygen
atmosphere of the spacesuits this evening.
- The International Space Station remains in good condition, ready for
the crew to enter on Monday to start several days of maintenance and
unloading of supplies. As the crew's waking hours wound down early
this morning, Mary Ellen Weber, who will oversee much of the transfer
of equipment, and Halsell made some early preparations of the docking
system for the eventual entry into the station.
- The crew will begin a sleep period at 8:11 a.m. and awaken at 4:11
p.m. for a fourth day in space, a day devoted to the spacewalk. Voss
and Williams are planned to begin donning their gear and suits at 6:11
p.m., leading to a predicted exit from Atlantis' airlock hatch at 9:31
p.m. During the spacewalk, Williams' suit will be distinguishable from
Voss' suit by red stripes around the legs. The astronauts are
scheduled to conclude the spacewalk at 4:01 a.m. Monday.
- Atlantis is operating well with flight controllers reporting no
problems of significance for any of the mission's activities. The
shuttle and station are in an orbit with a high point of 209 statute
miles and a low point of 203 statute miles, circling Earth every 91
minutes. The next mission status report will be issued about 7
p.m. today.
- On Sunday, May 21, 2000, 7:00 p.m. CDT, STS-101 MCC Status Report # 06
reports:
- The seven astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis were awakened at
4:11 p.m. CDT to the song ^ÓLookin^Ò Out the Window^Ô by
Stevie Ray Vaughn and are now busy with preparations for tonight^Òs
spacewalk which is scheduled to begin about 9:15 p.m. CDT.
- Mission Specialists Jeff Williams and Jim Voss will have several
tasks as part of the planned six and a half hour extravehicular
activity, or EVA, this evening. They will inspect and then secure a
U.S.-built cargo crane known as the Orbital replacement unit Transfer
Device that originally was installed during a spacewalk on the STS-96
mission in June 1999. Williams and Voss then will complete assembly
of a Russian cargo crane called Strela (Russian for ^Óarrow^Ô)
that was begun on a spacewalk during STS-96. Strela will be placed on
the Pressurized Mating Adapter-1 that connects the Unity node to the
Zarya control module in the same vicinity as the American crane.
- The two spacewalkers then will turn their attention to replacing one
of Unity's two early communication antennas. That antenna has been
experiencing some problems. Williams and Voss then will move on to
their final EVA task with the installation of eight handrails on the
station's exterior. This is part of some get ahead work for two
upcoming assembly flights -- STS-92 in late September and STS-97 in
January 2001. The STS-92 crew will install the Z-1 truss structure,
and the STS-97 crew will deliver the U.S. Laboratory module. If all
activities go as planned, the spacewalk should conclude about 3:45
a.m. CDT. Monday.
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- During tonight^Òs EVA activity, Williams will be identifiable by
red stripes on the arms and legs of his spacesuit while Voss^Ò
spacesuit will be solid white. Tonight^Òs EVA will mark the 85th
spacewalk in U.S. history and the fifth dedicated to assembly of the
International Space Station. To date, Shuttle astronauts have
performed almost 300 hours of EVAs (297 hours, 53 minutes). The
duration of the four previous station assembly spacewalks is 29 hours,
17 minutes.
- Atlantis is operating well with flight controllers reporting no
problems of significance for any of the mission's activities. The
shuttle and station are docked in an orbit with a high point of 209
statute miles and a low point of 203 statute miles, circling Earth
every 91 minutes.
- The next mission status report will be issued at 5:00 a.m. on
Monday.
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