STS-100, Mission
Control Center
Status Report # 08
Monday, April 23, 2001 – 3 a.m. CDT
The 10 astronauts
and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station and the docked
shuttle Endeavour are beginning a day that will see the first opening
of hatches linking the two spacecraft. Highlights will include an impressive
first step by the station’s new Canadarm2 and the berthing to the
station of Raffaello, the Italian-built logistics module.
Hatch opening was
set for 4 a.m. following a wakeup call from Mission Control earlier
this morning. Judy Collins’ “Both Sides Now” for Pilot
Jeff Ashby started the shuttle crews’ day.
After transfer
of equipment and supplies, the hatches will be closed again a little
after 2 p.m. so that the Shuttle cabin pressure can once again be lowered
to prepare for Tuesday’s second spacewalk. That spacewalk will
focus on permanently powering the station arm and doing further checkouts.
The 57.7-foot arm
was installed and unfolded Sunday during a 7 hour, 10 minute spacewalk
by Scott Parazynski and Chris Hadfield. They also installed a UHF antenna
on the station’s U.S. laboratory Destiny. It was the 19th spacewalk
devoted to ISS assembly and the 63rd in the history of the shuttle program.
After additional
checkouts by Helms and Voss this morning, the arm will “walk”
off the Spacelab Pallet on which it was launched. Its free end will
be attached to a Power and Data Grapple Fixture on Destiny, becoming
the arm’s base. That first step, beginning a little after 5 a.m.,
will cover just over 24 feet. Wednesday morning, the station arm will
hand the pallet to the shuttle arm, to be berthed in Endeavour’s
cargo bay for return to Earth.
Endeavour’s
own 50-foot robotic arm, operated by Ashby, will grapple the Raffaello
logistics module in the cargo bay and dock it to the Unity module. Its
installation there should be complete about 10 a.m. today. Early Tuesday,
the Expedition Two crew will begin transferring the food, supplies,
equipment and two experiment racks for installation in Destiny from
Raffaello to the station.
Both crews are
scheduled to end their day about 6:30 p.m. today. Both spacecraft are
in excellent shape orbiting Earth every 92 minutes at an altitude of
240 statute miles.
The next status
report will be issued this afternoon, or as events warrant.
###
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