STS-105 Day 6 Highlights
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- On Wednesday, August 15, 2001, 5:30 a.m. CDT, STS-105 MCC Status Report # 10
reports:
- Discovery's astronauts were awakened shortly after 4 a.m. Central
time to the sounds of "Big Boy Toys", a country and western tune by
Aaron Tippin, selected for Pilot Rick Sturckow by his wife.
- The wakeup call began a day that will focus on preparations for the
first of two space walks by Mission Specialists Dan Barry and Pat
Forrester on Thursday, while members of the International Space
Station Expedition Two crew will continue the handover of station
operations to their Expedition Three replacements.
- The crews also have time scheduled for logistical activities,
including the transfer of more equipment and supplies from Discovery
to the station and the transfer of discarded station equipment to
Leonardo, the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, which was installed on
the station on Monday. The 7,000 pounds of material carried into space
aboard Leonardo, including two scientific experiment racks for the
U.S.
- Laboratory Destiny, has been unloaded. Sturckow will assist Barry
and Forrester as they checkout their spacesuits and space walking
tools for their planned 6=-hour excursion outside Discovery
tomorrow. During the space walk, Barry and Forrester will install the
Early Ammonia Servicer on the station's P6 truss structure. It
contains spare ammonia that could be used in the station's cooling
system should the need arise. They will also attach an experiment to
the station to expose samples of engineering materials to the space
environment. The samples will be returned to Earth for analysis in
about a year.
- A second space walk will be conducted by Barry and Forrester
Saturday to hook up heater cables for a truss structure which will be
delivered to the station next year.
- Hatches between Discovery and the station will swing shut around
4:30 Central time this afternoon in advance of tomorrow's space walk
Earlier today, Russian flight controllers successfully completed the
reloading of upgraded software into the computers of the Zvezda
Service Module in preparation for next month's arrival of a new module
to the station -- the Russian Docking Compartment -- which will serve
as a new docking port for visiting Russian vehicles.
- Additionally, everything remains on schedule for the launch next
week of a new unmanned Progress resupply vehicle to the station,
carrying more supplies and hardware for the new Expedition Three
crew. The Progress will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan on Tuesday and will link up to the station on Aug. 23.
- Discovery and the station are orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at
an average altitude of 244 statute miles with no systems issues being
worked by the flight control team.
- On Wednesday, August 15, 2001, 6:00 p.m. CDT, STS-105 MCC Status Report # 11
reports:
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- The hatches swung closed between Discovery and the International
Space Station at 4:52 this afternoon Central time so that the
shuttle's cabin pressure could be lowered in preparation for a
space walk Thursday by Dan Barry and Pat Forrester
- In preparation for that Extravehicular Activity (EVA), the crew
spent part of the day checking out the suits that will be worn for the
planned six and a half hour excursion to install an ammonia servicing
unit on the outside of the station. It contains spare ammonia that
could be used in the station's cooling system if needed. They also
will attach an experiment to the station to expose samples of
engineering materials to the space environment. The samples will be
returned to Earth for analysis in about a year.
- A second space walk currently is planned for Saturday to hook up
heater cables for the first of several girder-like truss structures,
that will be delivered to the station next year.
- Meanwhile, members of the station's Expedition Two crew continued
the handover of station operations to their Expedition Three
replacements. Throughout the handover, the stowage of equipment and
supplies inside the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module continued.
Some 5,200 pounds of supplies was confirmed on board the station and
will be unpacked and stowed by the Expedition Three crew after
Discovery departs early next week.
- Early in the day, Russian flight controllers completed the reloading
of upgraded software into the computers of the Zvezda module in
preparation for next month's arrival of a new module to the station ,
the Russian Docking Compartment ,which will serve as a new docking
port for visiting Russian vehicles.
- The Russian flight control team continues to track preparations of a
Soyuz spacecraft set to deliver the next Progress supply vehicle to
the station. Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
remains targeted for Tuesday with docking Aug. 23.
- Early Thursday morning, the Expedition Three crew of Frank
Culbertson, Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin plan to televise a
commemorative message marking the one-thousandth day in space for the
International Space Station. It was Nov. 20, 1998 when the first
element , Zarya , was launched atop a Proton rocket initiating the
construction of the orbiting outpost.
- Discovery and the station are orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at
an average altitude of 246 statute miles with no systems issues being
worked by the flight control team.
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