STS-102 Day 10 Highlights

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On Saturday, March 17, 2001, 8:00 a.m. CST, STS-102 MCC Status Report # 19 reports:

The crews of Discovery and the International Space Station spent their day carefully packing the Leonardo cargo transfer module and reboosting the station’s orbit.

Mission Specialist Andy Thomas coordinated the loading of about a ton of materials and equipment into the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module with help from Pilot Jim Kelly and Mission Specialist Paul Richards. The astronauts are to exit the module at 8:42 p.m. CST, deactivate it at 9:02 p.m. and uncouple it from the station at 11:52 p.m. Using the shuttle’s robotic arm, they are to latch it in the payload bay at 12:57 a.m. Sunday.

Commander Jim Wetherbee set in motion the third and final reboost of the station’s altitude by executing a programmed series of gentle steering jet firings. The third reboost raised the shuttle altitude two statute miles, making the total reboost imparted during the STS-102 mission a little more than seven statute miles.

Departing Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev concentrated on sharing their handover notes with Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss.

Kelly, Richards and Thomas took time to answer questions from NBC News’ Weekend Today Show and ABC News. About an hour later, Usachev, Gidzenko and Krikalev talked with reporters gathered in the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow.

Discovery is scheduled to undock from the station at 10:32 p.m. Sunday. When Discovery undocks from the station, it will mark the end of the Expedition One crew’s 136-day stay onboard the outpost, beginning with their Nov. 2 arrival onboard a Soyuz spacecraft.

The shuttle and station remain in excellent health orbiting Earth at an altitude of approximately 235 statute miles.

The next Mission Control Center status report will be issued

Saturday evening.

On Saturday, March 17, 2001, 10:00 p.m. CST, STS-102 MCC Status Report # 20 reports:

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. The module is planned to be detached from the station just before midnight Sunday and loaded in Discovery’s cargo bay about an hour later.

Flight controllers cleared about three hours of time for Commander Jim Wetherbee and Pilot Jim Kelly aboard Discovery this evening in the event some troubleshooting steps were required with the onboard shuttle flight control computers. 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 line, and controllers needed several more electronics powered on to warm up the cooling system. These electronics normally are off when the shuttle is docked to the station. The procedure worked, and the cooling system quickly returned to normal.

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 as the final day of joint operations draws near. Both spacecraft are in excellent shape orbiting 235 statute miles above the Earth, traveling around the globe every 92 minutes. The next mission status report will be issued Sunday morning.

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