STS-106 Day 9 Highlights

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On Sunday, September 19, 2000, 7:00 a.m. CDT, STS-106 MCC Status Report # 19 reports:

The seven STS-106 astronauts and cosmonauts turned out the lights and closed the doors on a new home in space today after spending a week working as movers, cleaners, plumbers, electricians and cable installers. In all, more than 6,600 pounds of supplies were left behind for use by Expedition crews that will live aboard the International Space Station.

The last hatch to the station was closed at 7 this morning, ending 5 days, 9 hours, 21 minutes inside the station for Atlantis^Ò crew. Undocking is scheduled for 10:44 tonight.

The exit from the station began late last night when the hatch leading to the Russian Progress supply ship was closed. The Progress has been filled with trash and packing materials and eventually will be remotely commanded to undock and burn up harmlessly in Earth^Òs atmosphere.

Before closing off the shuttle from the station, a fourth altitude boost was given to the orbiting complex. The final series of shuttle thruster firings raised the station^Òs orbit another 3½ statute miles (5.6 km) to 241 by 233 miles (388 x 375 km). In all, the four maneuvers raised the average altitude of the ISS by 14 miles (22.5 km).

Before going to bed in a few hours, the crew will prepare rendezvous tools to be used during the undocking from the station. Also, the centerline camera will be placed in the orbiter docking system window.

After wake up at 6:46 p.m. today, the crew will move into preparations for undocking. Wilcutt and Altman will guide Atlantis through a double-loop fly around of the station to fully document its current configuration.

Atlantis leaves the station in excellent shape to await its next visitors, who will board Discovery in early October on the STS-92 mission to deliver another tunnel adapter and a small truss support for the station^Òs propellant-saving gyroscopes. The Z1 truss element also will provide support for the large communications antenna and first set of U.S. solar arrays.

Shuttle Program managers met earlier this morning and elected to leave Discovery on the launch pad based on the expected path of Hurricane Gordon, forecast to make landfall along the upper west coast of the Florida peninsula.

The next STS-106 status report will be issued about 7 p.m. today, or sooner if events warrant.

On Sunday, September 17, 2000, 7:00 p.m. CDT, STS-106 MCC Status Report # 20 reports:

Following a successful week of docked operations, the seven astronauts aboard Shuttle Atlantis will depart the International Space Station later this evening, leaving behind the more than three tons (6,600 pounds) of supplies and equipment that was transferred to the orbiting facility.

Commander Terri Wilcutt, Pilot Scott Altman along with Mission Specialists Ed Lu, Rick Mastracchio, Dan Burbank, Yuri Malenchenko and Boris Moukov received their wake up call from Mission Control at 6:46 p.m. Central. The wake up song, ^ÓYMCA^Ô was played for Scott Altman at the request of his wife.

The seven STS-106 astronauts will shortly begin the final preparations for undocking. Atlantis is scheduled to separate from the station at 10:44 p.m. while the two spacecrafts are flying over the northeastern portion of the Ukraine.

The initial separation will be performed by springs in the docking mechanism that will gently push the shuttle away from the station. Both Atlantis and the station^Òs steering jets will be shut off to avoid any inadvertent firings during this initial separation.

Once the docking mechanism^Òs springs have pushed Atlantis away to a distance of about two feet, when the docking devices will be clear of one another, Altman will turn the shuttle's steering jets back on and fire them to begin very slowly moving away from the station. From the aft flight deck, Altman will manually control Atlantis within a tight corridor as he separates from the station, essentially reversing the task performed by Wilcutt when Atlantis docked.

Atlantis will continue away to a distance of about 450 feet, where Altman will begin the close fly-around of the station, first crossing a point directly behind, then directly underneath and then again above the station. Altman will circle the station twice in 90 minutes as the crew records views of the exterior with still photography and video. As Atlantis crosses directly above the station for the second time, Altman will fire Atlantis' jets to perform a final separation.

Early on Monday, all seven astronauts will conduct an in-flight press conference during which they will answer questions from reporters at various NASA centers and the Russian mission control center outside of Moscow. The press conference is scheduled to begin at 2:11 a.m. CDT.

Atlantis^Ò astronauts will get some off duty time just after 3 a.m. Central before they turn in for an eight hour sleep period at 9:46 a.m. When they wake up early Monday evening, the crew will checkout the orbiter systems used for reentry and landing and secure equipment and transfer items in preparation for landing at Kennedy Space Center at 2:56 a.m. Central on Wednesday.

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