STS-96 Day 10 Highlights

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On Saturday, June 5, 1999, 7:00 a.m. CDT, STS-96 MCC Status Report # 20 reports:

During their final full day in orbit, Discovery's astronauts released a small student satellite high over the Indian Ocean and prepared for a Sunday morning landing at the Kennedy Space Center.

Mission Specialist Julie Payette of the Canadian Space Agency deployed the spherical, mirror-covered STARSHINE satellite at 2:31 a.m. CDT. The satellite rose slowly out of its payload bay and entered an orbit two miles below Discovery. At 6 a.m. CDT, the two spacecraft were 26 miles apart, with the distance between them widening by 10 miles each orbit.

STARSHINE project officials at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center report they have already been able to see the bright satellite. More than 25,000 students from 18 countries are participating in the project. As the students track the satellite - which is visible to the naked eye - they will calculate the density of the Earth's upper atmosphere by recording changes in STARSHINE'S orbit. The satellite is expected to remain aloft for about 8 months, re-entering the atmosphere in January.

Earlier in the day, the shuttle crew successfully verified the performance of Discovery's small steering jets and flight control surfaces, ensuring their readiness to support landing. The crew also tested all the necessary communications channels, and stowed away some of the equipment and hardware used on board over the past several days.

With favorable weather conditions forecast for the primary landing site, mission managers decided not to activate the back-up landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California. There are two landing opportunities at the Kennedy Space Center.on Sunday. For the first, Commander Kent Rominger would fire Discovery's engines in a deorbit burn at 11:54 p.m. Saturday with a landing following at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility at 1:03 a.m. Sunday. The second landing opportunity calls for a deorbit burn at 1:30 a.m. Sunday, resulting in a landing at 2:38 a.m. This will be the 11th night landing for the shuttle program.

Meanwhile the International Space Station continues to circle the globe at an altitude of 246 miles, trailing Discovery by 210 miles, with the distance increasing 10 miles each orbit.

The next STS-96 mission status report will be issued at 6 p.m. Saturday or as developments warrant.

On Saturday, June 5, 1999, 7:00 p.m. CDT, STS-96 MCC Status Report # 21 reports:

Discovery and its seven-member crew are preparing to return home tonight with landing planned for 1:03 a.m. Central time following a flight that will go into the books as the first docking of a shuttle with the International Space Station.

Weather permitting, Discovery's computers will ignite the twin breaking rockets on the tail just before midnight to slow the vehicle toward a descent through the atmosphere high above the Pacific Ocean. The ground track shows the orbiter navigating its way to its seaside home at the Kennedy Space Center.from the south after crossing Costa Rica, Cuba, the Florida Everglades, and East of Lake Okechobee.

The forecast for landing still shows a chance of rain within 30 miles of the runway and a possibility of crosswind violations on the 3-mile-long concrete Shuttle Landing Facility. The runway of choice for tonight's landing is Runway 15. The final turn to align the shuttle with the runway would be out over the water with landing from the northwest to the southeast. If landing is delayed one orbit, touchdown one orbit later at 2:38 a.m. CDT.

Following crew wakeup at 4 p.m. today, the astronauts began the final preparations for landing, including closing the hatches to the Spacehab module, which has served as the cargo transfer compartment throughout the flight. The wakeup music was "The Longest Day," to commemorate what spacecraft communicator in Mission Control Mario Runco called a "landing of a different kind." His reference was to the 55th anniversary of the Allied troop landing on the beaches of Normandy during World War II that occurred on June 6, 1944.

If all goes as planned, Discovery's cargo bay doors will swing shut at 9:18 p.m., after which the astronauts will climb into their launch and entry suits and strap into their seats. Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Rick Husband and Flight Engineer Ellen Ochoa will be joined on the flight deck for entry by Mission Specialist Julie Payette. Tammy Jernigan, Dan Barry and Valery Tokarev will be seated down on the middeck for entry.

If landing occurs on the first opportunity, Discovery will have covered 3.8 million miles during the mission. STS-96 will be the 11th shuttle mission to end in darkness. Five previous flights have ended at Edwards AFB in California and five at KSC.

The next STS-96 mission status report will be issued after landing. The next International Space Station status report will be issued on Thursday, June 10.

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