STS-101 Day 1 Highlights
Return to STS-101 Mission Summary
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- On Friday, May 19, 2000, 6:00 a.m. CDT, STS-101 MCC Status Report # 01
reports:
- With dawn's first light glimmering above, six American astronauts and
one Russian cosmonaut blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center.to pay
a "home improvement" house call on the fledgling International Space
Station.
- Riding aboard the upgraded and refurbished space Shuttle Atlantis,
Commander Jim Halsell, Pilot Scott Horowitz and Mission Specialists
Mary Ellen Weber, Jeff Williams, Jim Voss, Susan Helms and Yury
Usachev rocketed away from their Florida launch site at 5:11
a.m. Central time, a pre-dawn launch by Shuttle standards. Atlantis
quickly rose into daylight as it raced up the Eastern seaboard in
pursuit of the 76-foot long, 35-ton international station, which was
flying over the Ukraine, southwest of Kiev.
- The launch was Atlantis' first since September 1997. Atlantis
recently underwent major modifications, including the introduction of
a state-of-the-art, hi-tech glass cockpit filled with computer
displays to replace the old cockpit dials and switches.
- Atlantis launched on time after three delays last month caused by
high winds at the launch site and at overseas emergency landing
strips. Today, conditions were perfect. Atlantis is scheduled to link
up to the space station at 11:31 p.m. Central time Saturday night
(12:31 a.m. Eastern time Sunday morning).
- Once on orbit, Atlantis' crew began to set up shuttle systems for
the planned 10-day mission, preparing to open the ship's cargo bay
doors, which will be followed by the activation of the double SPACEHAB
module housed in the rear of the cargo bay, containing more than a ton
of supplies the crew will transfer to the station.
- The astronauts will begin their first eight-hour sleep period just
five hours after liftoff, at 10:11 a.m. Central time, and will be
awakened at 6:11 p.m. this evening to begin their first full day in
orbit. Prior to the start of that sleep period, Halsell and Horowitz
will fire Atlantis' maneuvering jets in the first of a series of
maneuvers designed to put the shuttle on a precise course to the
International Space Station.
- After the first rendezvous maneuver, Atlantis will be circling the
Earth in a slightly elliptical orbit of about 201 by 124 statute
miles, inclined 51.6 degrees to either side of the equator.
- The next STS-101 status report will be issued at around 7:00
p.m. Central time Friday unless developments warrant.
- On Friday, May 19, 2000, 7:00 p.m. CDT, STS-101 MCC Status Report # 02
reports:
- The crew of STS-101 was awakened just after 6 p.m. to Tom Petty's song
"Free Fallin'," played for Mission Specialist Susan Helms.
Once awake, Atlantis' seven-member crew began preparing for its first
full day on orbit to ready the vehicle for tomorrow night's docking
with the International Space Station and a spacewalk Sunday night.
- Commander Jim Halsell, Pilot Scott Horowitz and Mission Specialists
Mary Ellen Weber, Jeff Williams, Jim Voss, Susan Helms and Yury
Usachev will spend much of the day checking out orbiter systems and
spacewalking equipment, while continuing to slowly close in on the
station through a series of calculated rendezvous maneuvers.
- The crew will examine and prepare the tools required to support
rendezvous and docking operations as well as perform checks of the
extravehicular mobility units, or space suits, that will be used by
Williams and Voss during the planned spacewalk Sunday night into
Monday morning. Both suits are checked far enough ahead of the
spacewalk to ensure good working condition in plenty of time to allow
for any required troubleshooting work by the specialists on the
ground.
- Also tonight and into tomorrow, Halsell will assist Weber in testing
Atlantis' mechanical arm, checking its operation while conducting a
video survey of the payload bay. This procedure will make certain the
arm is functioning properly to support the spacewalk.
- Atlantis is currently in a highly elliptical orbit of 199 x 98 statute
miles. At about 7 o'clock this evening, Central time, the shuttle was
a little over 2,700 s.m. behind the station, closing in at a rate of
about 546 s.m. miles every 90 minutes.
- The next STS-101 mission status report will be issued at 7
a.m. Central Saturday, or as events warrant.
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