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CBS NEWS STS-122 STATUS REPORT: 92
Posted: 4:45 AM, 2/20/08

By William Harwood
CBS News Space Analyst

Changes and additions:

   SR-90 (02/19/08): Good weather expected in Florida for Wednesday landing
   SR-91 (02/19/08): Deorbit timelines
   SR-92 (02/20/08): Shuttle crew gears up for landing; good weather expected

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4:45 AM, 2/20/08, Update: Shuttle crew set for landing

Commander Steve Frick and his six crewmates are rigging the shuttle Atlantis for re-entry and landing at the Kennedy Space Center today around 9:07 a.m. to close out an extended 13-day space station assembly mission. There are no technical problems of any significance and forecasters continue to predict good weather at the Florida spaceport.

"We're really looking forward to entry day today and landing on the first rev at Kennedy Space Center," pilot Alan Poindexter radioed when the crew was awakened around 12:45 a.m. "We want to thank everyone for all the hard work they've done to get us ready for today. We're ready to get to work."

Chief astronaut Steve Lindsey, flying a NASA training jet over the Kennedy Space Center around 4:45 a.m., reported "starry skies and light winds, no weather issues at all, at least at this hour," said mission control commentator Rob Navias. "Everything continuing to shape up weather wise."

Assuming no dramatic changes, Frick and Poindexter plan to fire Atlantis' twin braking rockets at 7:59:54 a.m. for two minutes and 39 seconds, slowing the ship by about 198 mph to drop out of orbit (ground-track mapss).

After a half-hour fall to an altitude of about 76 miles above the south Pacific Ocean, Atlantis will plunge back into the discernible atmosphere around 8:36 a.m., entering the zone of peak heating a few minutes later.

Following a southwest-to-northeast trajectory that will carry the ship high above central America just south of the Yucatan Peninsula, Atlantis will skirt the western tip of Cuba before crossing the southwest coast of Florida near Fort Myers.

Frick plans to take over manual control of the shuttle as it drops below the speed of sound at an altitude 50,700 feet around 9:03 a.m. Approaching from the southwest, he will guide the ship through a sweeping 301-degree right-hand overhead turn to line up on runway 33 for a landing around 9:07:39 a.m.

Frick, Poindexter, flight engineer Rex Walheim, Leland Melvin, Stan Love and European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel will be joined for the trip home by space station astronaut Dan Tani, returning to Earth after 120 days in space. To ease his return to the unfamiliar tug of Earth's gravity, Tani planned to make the trip home strapped into a reclining seat on the shuttle's lower deck.

Frick and his crewmates have four landing opportunities today on successive 90-minute orbits, two at Kennedy followed by two at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert. The shuttle has enough supplies to remain in orbit until Friday in a worst-case scenario, but NASA managers activated Edwards today to get Atlantis down, on one coast or the other, to clear the way for a Navy attempt to destroy a falling spy satellite.

Based on the satellite's orbital track and a variety of government advisories establishing a restricted zone west of Hawaii, amateur satellite trackers believe the first opportunity for a Navy cruiser to fire a missile at the crippled satellite is around 10:30 p.m. EST this evening.

Given the forecast in Florida, it would appear the Atlantis astronauts have a good shot at making it home on the first landing opportunity today to close out a 5.3-million-mile mission spanning 202 complete orbits since blastoff Feb. 7.

Here are timelines for the first two Florida landing opportunities (in EST; deorbit burn time subject to minor changes):

EST...........EVENT

FIRST FLORIDA OPPORTUNITY: Rev. 202 Deorbit to Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

04:00 AM......Deorbit timeline begins
04:15 AM......Radiator stow complete
04:25 AM......Mission specialists seat installation
04:31 AM......Computers set for deorbit prep
04:35 AM......Hydraulic system prepared for entry
05:00 AM......Flash evaporator cooling system checkout
05:06 AM......Final payload deactivation
05:20 AM......Payload bay doors closed
05:30 AM......Mission control 'go' for OPS-3 entry software load
05:40 AM......OPS-3 transition
06:05 AM......Entry switchlist verification
06:15 AM......Deorbit maneuver update
06:20 AM......Crew entry review
06:35 AM......Commander/pilot don entry suits
06:52 AM......Inertial measurement unit alignment
07:00 AM......CDR/PLT strap in; mission specialists don suits
07:17 AM......Shuttle steering check
07:20 AM......Hydraulic power system prestart
07:27 AM......Toilet deactivation
07:35 AM......Payload bay vent doors closed for entry
07:40 AM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn
07:46 AM......Mission specialists seat ingress
07:55 AM......Single hydraulic power unit start

07:59:54 AM...Deorbit ignition (dV: 197.7 mph; dT: 02:39)
08:02:33 AM...Deorbit burn complete (altitude: 211.6 sm)

08:35:59 AM...Atmospheric entry (altitude: 75.6 sm)
08:40:59 AM...1st roll command to left
08:52:05 AM...1st left-to-right roll reversal
08:54:00 AM...C-band radar acquisition
09:01:06 AM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 (altitude: 84,200 feet)
09:03:18 AM...Velocity less than mach 1 (altitude: 50,700 feet)
09:03:42 AM...Shuttle banks 301 degrees to line up on runway 33
09:07:39 AM...Landing

SECOND FLORIDA OPPORTUNITY: Rev. 203 Deorbit to Kennedy

09:15 AM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn
09:21 AM......MS seat ingress
09:30 AM......Single APU start

09:35:20 AM...Deorbit ignition (dV: 195.7 mph; dT: 02:38)
09:37:58 AM...Deorbit burn complete (altitude: 214.5 sm)

10:11:00 AM...Entry interface (altitude: 75.6 sm)
10:15:57 AM...1st roll command to right
10:27:46 AM...1st right-to-left roll reversal
10:36:05 AM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 (altitude: 84,700 feet)
10:38:18 AM...Velocity less than mach 1 (altitude: 50,200 feet)
10:38:55 AM...Shuttle banks 269 degrees to line up on runway 33
10:42:35 AM...Landing

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Quick-Launch Web Links:

CBS News STS-122 Status Reports:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/current.html

CBS News STS-122 Quick-Look Page:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/currentglance.html

NASA Shuttle Web: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/index.html
NASA Station Web: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/index.html
Spaceflight Now: http://spaceflightnow.com/index.html

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