STS-74 Day 2 Highlights

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On Monday, November 13, 1995, 5 a.m. CST, STS-74 MCC Status Report # 03 reports:

The five member crew aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis spent the bulk of its second day in space readying the orbiter and its payloads for Tuesday's mating of the Russian Docking Module to the Orbiter Docking System in advance of Wednesday's docking to Russia's Space Station Mir. Both the module and the docking system are located in Atlantis' payload bay.

Mission specialists Jerry Ross and Bill McArthur early Monday inspected the space suits they would don should a space walk become necessary during Tuesday's mating operation or the actual linkup of Atlantis to Mir at 12:28 a.m. Wednesday.

Following the space suit inspection, Mission Specialist Chris Hadfield powered up the orbiter's robot arm which he will use Tuesday to move the docking module over to the docking system. All systems affiliated with the robot arm operated as expected and are ready to support Tuesday's activities.

Crew members also checked out the Orbiter Space Vision System, a precise alignment system for the robot arm that is being tested on STS-74. The OSVS, which will be used during Tuesday's mating operation, consists of a series of large dots placed on the exterior of the docking module and the docking system.

Today's schedule also included the installation and alignment of the centerline camera in the center of the Orbiter Docking System. The camera will assist Commander Ken Cameron in final piloting tasks as Atlantis moves into and docks with Russia's Space Station Mir. Additionally, Atlantis' jets will be fired to further refine the closing rate between the orbiter and Mir. At 5 a.m. CST, Atlantis was about 4,000 statute miles behind Mir, and was closing in to the space station at a rate of about 380 statute miles per orbit.

This morning, Cameron, Hadfield and other available crew members answered questions posed by Canadian reporters who are in Montreal and Toronto. Hadfield is a Canadian Space Agency astronaut and the fourth Canadian astronaut to fly on the shuttle.

On Monday, November 13, 1995, 6 p.m. CST, STS-74 MCC Status Report # 04 reports:

With all of the systems that will be used to put the Russian Docking Module in place for a Wednesday link-up with the Mir Space Station checked out and ready to go, the STS-74 crew settled down for 8 hours of sleep Monday afternoon. Atlantis, orbiting flawlessly 238 miles above the Earth, is about 2,000 miles away from Mir and catching up at 135 miles per orbit.

Earlier in the day, Commander Ken Cameron, Pilot Jim Halsell and Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield, Jerry Ross and Bill McArthur checked out the docking module, the Orbiter Docking System, the shuttle's robot arm and the Orbiter Space Vision System and found all to be in good working order. Ross and McArthur also inspected the space suits they will don should a space walk become necessary during Tuesday's mating operation or the actual linkup of Atlantis to Mir.

After an 8:31 p.m. CST wake-up call, Atlantis' astronauts will begin the process of moving the docking module. At 11:31 p.m., Hadfield will power up the Orbiter Space Visions System. At 11:46 p.m., Hadfield and McArthur will grapple the module with the robot arm. At 12:21 a.m. Tuesday, the pair will remove the module from its payload bay moorings and Cameron and Halsell will prepare the Orbiter Docking System for connection to the docking module. At 12:56 a.m., Hadfield and McArthur will use the robot arm to move the docking module over the Orbiter Docking System, then place the arm in a "limp" mode with the docking module and Orbiter Docking System just four inches apart. Cameron will fire Atlantis' steering jets, forcing the hooks and latches to engage and locking the Russian Docking Module in place. Hadfield and Ross will then test the mated Russian docking module's systems.

After a rendezvous burn of the shuttle's steering jets at 2:16 a.m., the crew will continue work to configure the docking module systems for Wednesday's docking with the Russian space station. Another firing of the shuttle's thrusters is scheduled for 10:20 a.m. The astronauts will end their day at 12:31 p.m. Tuesday, beginning a six-hour sleep shift that will synchronize their sleep cycle with that of the Mir 20 cosmonauts.

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