STS-105 Day 3 Highlights

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On Sunday, August 12, 2001, 6:00 a.m. CDT, STS-105 MCC Status Report # 4 reports:

The crew of Discovery, trailing the International Space Station by less than 2,000 statute miles, was awakened at 5:10 a.m. Central time to the sounds of "The White Eagle," a traditional Russian folk song played for Expedition Three Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov. Dezhurov and his crewmates, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin are just hours from reaching their new home aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Discovery Commander Scott Horowitz, Pilot Rick Sturckow and Mission Specialists Pat Forrester and Dan Barry, along with the Expedition Three crew, will begin rendezvous operations a little before 9 a.m. today. The shuttle will begin a final approach to the station from a point about 9 miles behind the outpost with the last major rendezvous maneuver scheduled at around 11:15 a.m.

With Discovery about 600 feet directly below the station, Horowitz will fly the shuttle in a quarter circle to a point in front of the complex. From there he will very slowly and precisely maneuver Discovery toward the station, pausing about 30 feet from the ISS to precisely align the docking mechanisms of the two craft.

Docking is expected to occur at 1:38 p.m. over the Indian Ocean just south of the Indonesian island of Jawa. The hatches separating the two spacecraft are to be opened around 3:30 p.m. allowing the current station residents, Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms to greet their replacements and the Discovery astronauts who will bring them home after more than five months in space.

ISS flight controllers are expected to ask the Expedition Two crew on Wednesday to try to reboot one of three command and control computers which experienced a hard drive problem last week and which has been put in standby mode with no impact to station operations. If the reboot does not recover the use of the hard drive, the crew may be asked to replace a component in the computer with a spare being brought to the station on Discovery. Two other command and control computers, a prime and a backup, are working perfectly in support of U.S. segment systems.

Discovery is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes in good shape in pursuit of the International Space Station.

On Sunday, August 12, 2001, 6:00 p.m. CDT, STS-105 MCC Status Report # 5 reports:

New residents arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) today following a flawless docking of Discovery to the orbital outpost to relieve a trio of space travelers who have lived and worked on the complex since March.

Discovery Commander Scott Horowitz, with the assistance of Pilot Rick Sturckow and Mission Specialists Pat Forrester and Dan Barry, carefully guided the Shuttle to a linkup with the ISS at 1:42 p.m. Central time as the two craft sailed 240 miles above northwestern Australia. On board Discovery were the new Station Commander Frank Culbertson, and his Expedition Three crewmates, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin.

Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms looked on from the station's Destiny laboratory as Discovery arrived this afternoon, then worked in concert with their Shuttle counterparts to ensure a tight seal and a firm mate between the two vehicles.

At 3:41 p.m., hatches finally swung open between Discovery and the ISS, and the two crews greeted one another. First aboard the station was Culbertson to survey his home for the next four months. Within minutes, all ten astronauts and cosmonauts had shared greetings before settling in for a station safety briefing conducted by Usachev.

Monday the crews will attach the Leonardo cargo carrier to the station at about 9:30 a.m. and begin unloading its supplies.

Just prior to this operation, the two station crews will systematically begin the process of handing over command from Expedition Two to Expedition Three. The plan is for Culbertson and Helms to remove her form-fitting seat liner from the Soyuz spacecraft and replace it with Culbertson's at about 7 a.m. Two hours later at about 9 a.m., Dezhurov and Usachev will do the same followed at 12:30 p.m. by the seat liner swap of Tyurin and Voss. The Soyuz is used as a return vehicle in the event of a problem on the station.

Crew sleep is scheduled for about 8 tonight with a musical wakeup call from Mission Control at 5:10 a.m. Monday. The station and shuttle complex is orbiting the Earth every 92 minutes in good shape.

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