STS-97, Mission Control Center
Status Report # 03
Friday, December 1, 2000 – 10:30 p.m. CST

Endeavour’s astronauts spent much of Friday checking out equipment to be used
for Saturday’s docking with the International Space Station, subsequent assembly
operations and three space walks. For much of the crew's day, their spacecraft was
gaining on the space station at about 500 statute miles each 90-minute orbit of the
Earth.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner,
Marc Garneau and Carlos Noriega checked out systems they will use to deliver the
station’s first set of U.S. solar arrays. They tested the power supply to the huge
solar array structure. Tanner and Noriega also checked the spacesuits they will use
during three space walks, on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Garneau and Bloomfield tested the shuttle’s robotic arm, performing a survey of
the payload bay using cameras attached to the arm, and checked out the Space
Vision System, a computerized visual system that helps the arm operator determine
distance and relative orientation of space station elements during assembly
activities.

Jett and Bloomfield fired Endeavour's orbital maneuvering systems twice Friday, at
about 12:41 p.m. and 9:24 p.m., to bring the orbiter into the proper alignment with
the space station and close the gap between the two spacecraft. Endeavour is
about 2,515 miles from the space station and now closing at a rate of almost 400
miles every orbit.

No problems were reported aboard Endeavour as the shuttle sails toward a
docking with the ISS at 1:59 p.m. Central time Saturday.

On the International Space Station, Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd,
Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, continued preparations
for the arrival of Endeavour. Their unmanned Progress resupply vessel was
undocked at 10:23 a.m. Central time Friday to clear a path for Endeavour’s arrival.
The Progress will be left in a parking orbit well away from the ISS during
Endeavour’s visit, allowing flight controllers in Moscow and Houston the option of
redocking it to the station after Endeavour departs.

The Expedition One crew went to bed about 3:30 p.m. and will be awakened at
midnight to continue preparations to welcome the Endeavour astronauts. The space
station crew's wake-up call comes at the same time Endeavour's crew begins an
abbreviated seven-hour sleep period. Endeavour’s astronauts will awaken shortly
after 7 a.m. Central time Saturday to begin their rendezvous procedures.

The next mission status report will be issued at mid-morning Saturday or sooner if
events warrant.

-end-

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