Culbertson, Dezhurov and Tyurin began their formal residency on the
station on August 13 as their custom-made Soyuz seat liners were
installed on the Soyuz return vehicle. Their residency will
officially end once those seat liners are transferred to Endeavour and
the Expedition Four crew^Òs seat liners are installed in the Soyuz
on Saturday.
The next STS-108 mission status report will be issued at about 6
p.m. today or as events warrant.
On Friday, December 7, 2001, 6:00 p.m. CST, STS-108 MCC Status Report # 5
reports:
A new trio of residents arrived at the International Space Station
this afternoon as the shuttle Endeavour docked to the orbital outpost.
With the new Expedition Four station crew of Commander Yury
Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch looking on
from Endeavour^Òs flight deck, shuttle Commander Dom Gorie brought
Endeavour to a gentle linkup with the ISS at 2:03 p.m. CST as the two
craft sailed over England. Within minutes, Pilot Mark Kelly and
Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani began to conduct
post-docking checks of the mechanical interface between Endeavour and
the station^Òs Destiny Laboratory prior to the opening of the
hatches on the two vehicles. At first, the shuttle^Òs docking ring
and the docking mechanism on the ISS did not align properly, but after
allowing the two craft to dampen their relative motion against one
another, the vehicles were hard mated for a week of joint operations
by the ten crewmembers.
On board the ISS in their 119th day in space and their 116th day
aboard the station, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot
Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin watched as their
replacements arrived for the start of more than five months of orbital
duty. The only other visitors for the Expedition Three crew during its
increment arrived on the ISS in October to deliver a new Soyuz return
vehicle.
The hatches were opened between Endeavour and the ISS^Ò Destiny
Laboratory at 4:42 p.m. CST, enabling the ten crewmembers to greet one
another. Onufrienko, Walz and Bursch will officially take over command
of the ISS Saturday afternoon from Culbertson, Dezhurov and Tyurin
after transferring custom made Soyuz seatliners and conducting leak
checks to their spacesuits.
The crews now begin a busy week of handing over station
responsibilities and unloading tons of supplies brought to the complex
by Endeavour. Saturday's activities will be highlighted by Kelly's use
of the shuttle's robotic arm to hoist the Italian-built Raffaello
logistics module from Endeavour's payload bay and attach it to a
station berthing port. Raffaello will stay attached to the station for
most of the week while it is unloaded. The crews will begin a sleep
period at 10:19 p.m. CST today and awaken at 6:19 a.m. CST on
Saturday. The next STS-108 mission status report will be issued at
about 7 a.m. CST Saturday or as events warrant.
Go to STS-108 Flight Day 4 Highlights: