STS-102 Day 5 Highlights

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On Monday, March 12, 2001, 7:30 a.m. CST, STS-102 MCC Status Report # 9 reports:

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. Shepherd briefly entered the Leonardo module at 5:51 a.m. to retrieve the cable. He took it to the vestibule between the U.S. laboratory and Unity and made the required connections. Leonardo carries more than five 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.

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 space walk 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 Commander Bill Shepherd will trade places with Expedition Two Flight Engineer Susan Helms on Tuesday. The hatches were closed once again at 5:39 a.m. today after 8 hours, 24 minutes. So far, the hatches between the shuttle and station have been open for a total of 10 hours, 27 minutes.

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 Lab 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 hook up cables that will provide heater power to spare equipment that will be stored there. They’ll place the first of such spares, a Pump and Flow Control Subassembly that regulates ammonia coolant flow, on the platform. The pair also will inspect the Floating Potential Probe that is designed to measure the electrical charge on the outside of the station but has not been providing data since being temporarily shut down for repositioning of the station’s Soyuz escape vehicle in February.

Discovery and the International Space Station remain in excellent condition at an altitude of about 235 statute miles. The next Mission Control Center status report will be issued Monday evening.

On Monday, March 12, 2001, 7:00 p.m. CST, STS-102 MCC Status Report # 10 reports:

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 conducted on Sunday. The cables, on the exterior of the Destiny laboratory, will be used by the station’s robotic arm set for launch aboard the next space shuttle in April.

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 during the space walk, including work with a connector on the Unity module as part of an analysis of a past lab heater problem; taking photos of a vent on the Destiny lab and of the Zvezda service module’s general exterior; and inspecting an exterior experiment called the Floating Potential Probe that has operated intermittently since it was installed on the station a few months ago.

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.

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