STS-71 Day 10 Highlights

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On Thursday, July 6, 1995, 6:30 a.m. CDT, STS-71 MCC Status Report # 18 reports:

The Atlantis crew received a lighthearted wake-up as a parody of the Beatles' "Hello, Goodbye" and Paul Anka's "Lay Your Head on My Shoulder" greeted the eight crew members at 1:30 a.m. today.

Thursday marked the final full day on orbit for the astronauts and cosmonauts on board Atlantis and preparations for Friday's planned landing occupied much of their time. Commander Hoot Gibson, Pilot Charlie Precourt and Mission Specialist Greg Harbaugh powered on one of Atlantis' hydraulic systems and cycled the flight control surfaces that will be used during reentry. They also fired the orbiter's reaction control system jets in the traditional preflight checkout of the Shuttle's systems prior to Friday's scheduled homecoming.

Even as crew members prepared to return home, the pace of biomedical investigations in the Spacelab module continued with the Mir 18 crew members --Vladimir Dezhurov, Gennady Strekalov and Norm Thagard. Thagard and Strekalov once again climbed into the bag-like Lower Body Negative Pressure device which pulls fluids from the upper body to the lower extremities. Sessions in the LBNP are part of the countermeasures program to prepare the Mir 18 crew to return to Earth following more than 100 days in orbit.

Also in the Spacelab, Harbaugh will join Mission Specialist Ellen Baker in setting up the special recumbent seats the Mir 18 crew members will occupy during reentry. Baker and Bonnie Dunbar also will begin deactivating some of the Spacelab's systems in anticipation of Friday's landing. Some systems will remain powered on so that exercise equipment in the Spacelab module is available to crew members in the event weather precludes a landing Friday morning.

Early, at 2:15 a.m., a voice check from the new flight control room in Mission Control to the orbiting shuttle was successfully completed. STS-71 is scheduled to be the last shuttle mission to use the current mission control center for on-orbit operations. Beginning with STS-70, set for launch on July 13, on-orbit flight control will take place in the new flight control room. Wednesday night at 8:16, flight controllers in Houston passed a milestone as communications commands issued from the new flight control room in Mission Control were successfully uplinked to Atlantis. The commands were sent as Atlantis flew 218 nautical miles above the Indian Ocean.

On Thursday, July 6, 1995, 5 p.m. CDT, STS-71 MCC Status Report # 19 reports:

The crew of Atlantis packed up today and double-checked equipment in preparation for tomorrow's return home.

Earlier in the day, Commander Hoot Gibson and Pilot Charlie Precourt checked the equipment and instruments Atlantis will use for landing, finding all systems working properly. Following that checkout, they test-fired Atlantis' 38 primary steering thrusters, finding one rear, upward-firing jet failed and all others working well. The failed jet has several other jets that are backups and can perform the same function for the Shuttle and is not an issue for the landing.

After final exercise sessions by members of the Mir 18 crew, the Spacelab module was packed up by Payload Commander Ellen Baker and Mission Specialist Bonnie Dunbar in preparation for entry. Also, reclining seats were installed in the lower deck of Atlantis for the Mir 18 crewmen, Commander Vladimir Dezhurov, Flight Engineer Gennady Strekalov and astronaut Norm Thagard. The three, on their 115th day in orbit tomorrow, will ride in the seats for the landing, allowing them to take the forces of reentry in a reclined position.

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