Back to newsletter listDate:
Tue, June 10, 2008 08:05:18 AMFrom:
CBS Space News
Subject:
750a 6/10 Update: Shuttle crew works through final docked day at station
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CBS NEWS STS-124 STATUS REPORT: 50
Posted: 7:40 AM, 6/10/08
By William Harwood
CBS News Space Analyst
Changes and additions:
SR-48 (06/09/08): Astronauts plan robot arm tests; logistics module ingress
SR-49 (06/09/08): Fossum says port SARJ looks good compared to damaged starboard rotary joint; cleaning feasible, but a 'big job'
SR-50 (06/10/08): Shuttle crew enjoys final docked day; Reisman prepares for home
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7:40 AM, 6/10/08, Update: Shuttle crew enjoys final docked day; Reisman prepares for home
The Discovery astronauts are working through a final day of equipment transfers to and from the international space station before closing hatches late today and undocking early Wednesday. Outgoing flight engineer Garrett Reisman, returning to Earth after three months in space, planned to squeeze in a final few hours of handover time, briefing his replacement, Gregory Chamitoff, on the intricacies of life aboard the station.
"We schedule a minimum of 16 hours of handover between the two flight engineers when one is leaving and one's coming up," station Flight Director Emily Nelson said early today. "If you can imagine, you're going to leave your house and someone else is going to live in it for six months. You need to show them where everything is, you need to show them what you do on a regular basis to keep everything up and maintain it.
"A lot of what is in their handover package ... shows where we've thought out in advance, here are all the things that you need to show Greg, in this case, so that he knows immediately where everything is, he's had everything shown to him, everything from the basic housekeeping tasks of cleaning filters and changing out batteries and those kinds of things to how to operate the internet protocol phone, how to get logged into email on the machines that are up there, even how to use the cycle ergometer, the bikes they've got up there.
"So it's mostly just your kind of day to day, all the things that they're going to be doing in the background all day long," Nelson said. "A lot of payload details get passed from one to the other at that time, any lessons learned ... tips and tricks for how to get by up there."
Reisman was launched to the station last March. Assuming an on-time landing Saturday aboard Discovery, he will have logged 95 days in space. Early today, engineers in space station control centers in Houston, Cologne, Germany and Moscow congratulated Reisman on a productive station stay.
"Garrett, best wishes to you as you spend your last day of this mission on the space station," said Mark Vande Hei at the Johnson Space Center. "Thanks for all your hard work in space over the last several months. We all look forward to your return."
"Thanks, Mark, it's really nice for you to say that," Reisman replied. "I couldn't imagine what these past three months would have been like without all the great help you've given me. And that goes out to all the centers, I just want to say thank you to everybody. ... You guys have been just better than I ever expected."
"Yeah, we appreciate those words and those sentiments are definitely felt down here as well," Vande Hei said.
The Discovery astronauts plan to take a break this afternoon, enjoying a few hours of off-duty time before gathering in the Harmony module for a farewell ceremony with Chamitoff, station commander Sergei Volkov and flight engineer Oleg Kononenko. Hatch closure is expected around 4 p.m., setting the stage for the shuttle's undocking at 7:42 a.m. Wednesday.
"I think when they leave, it's going to be very sad for me to see them go," Chamitoff said Monday. "I think that one moment, when we close the hatch, that's going to be the hard moment. After that, I'm with really good friends that I've spent years training with and they've already been here for two months, so they know how to do it and they'll show me the ropes."
Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision M of the NASA television schedule):
EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/10/08
04:32 AM...09...11...30...Crew wakeup
06:32 AM...09...13...30...ISS daily planning conference
07:32 AM...09...14...30...Middeck transfers
09:42 AM...09...16...40...Oxygen system teardown
10:42 AM...09...17...40...EVA gear stowed
12:12 PM...09...19...10...Crew meal
01:12 PM...09...20...10...Crew off duty period
02:10 PM...09...21...08...Media interviews
02:45 PM...09...21...43...Mission status briefing on NTV
03:57 PM...09...22...55...Farewell ceremony
04:07 PM...09...23...05...Hatches closed
04:32 PM...09...23...30...Rendezvous tools checkout
04:32 PM...09...23...30...Orbiter docking system leak checks
07:32 PM...10...02...30...ISS crew sleep begins
08:02 PM...10...03...00...STS crew sleep begins
09:00 PM...10...03...58...Daily video highlights reel on NTV
For readers interested in a look ahead, here's an updated undocking timeline for Wednesday (in EDT and mission elapsed time):
EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/11/08
06:58 AM...10...13...56...Noon
07:26 AM...10...14...24...Sunset
07:42 AM...10...14...40...UNDOCKING
07:43 AM...10...14...41...ISS holds attitude
07:47 AM...10...14...45...Range: 50 feet; reselect -X jets
07:49 AM...10...14...47...Range 75 feet; low Z
08:02 AM...10...15...00...Sunrise
08:11 AM...10...15...09...Range: 400 feet; start fly around
08:20 AM...10...15...18...Range: 600 feet
08:22 AM...10...15...20...Shuttle directly above ISS
08:29 AM...10...15...27...Noon
08:34 AM...10...15...32...Shuttle directly behind ISS
08:45 AM...10...15...43...Shuttle directly below ISS
08:57 AM...10...15...55...Separation burn No. 1
08:57 AM...10...15...55...Sunset
09:25 AM...10...16...23...Separation burn No. 2
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Quick-Launch Web Links:
CBS News STS-124 Status Reports:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/current.html
CBS News STS-124 Quick-Look Page:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/currentglance.html
NASA ISS Expeditions Page:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/index.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
GoogleSatTrack: http://www.lizard-tail.com/isana/tracking/
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