STS-99, Mission Control Center
Status Report # 06 Sunday,
February 13, 2000 - 7 p.m. CST
The Shuttle Radar Topography
Mission’s mapping operation continues to run
smoothly, with about 17.7 million square miles of the Earth’s surface
having been
mapped by 7 p.m. Central time. Scientists also reported that 38 percent
of
landmasses had been mapped thus far in the flight. Despite a problem
with a small
nitrogen thruster on the end of the 200-foot-long mast, both the C-band
and
X-band radars continue to perform as expected, and the thruster problem
has had
no impact on mapping operations.
“We are starting to see
the first ‘quick look’ results from the X-band and C-band
antennas and the details are fantastic,” said Dr. Michael Kobrick,
SRTM project
scientist. “Even in this lower resolution, quick-look results,
we can see many
topographic features that were completely invisible in the best maps
we have
today.”
Two members of the Blue Team
– Dom Gorie and Mamoru Mohri – spent a few
minutes early this morning talking to Dr. Bob Ballard, discoverer of
the RMS
Titanic and founder of the JASON Foundation, an educational program
designed
to spark students’ interest in science and technology. They also
took questions
from the Fox News Network.
Endeavour’s crew and
flight controllers continue troubleshooting a problem with a
small nitrogen thruster mounted at the tip of the radar’s outboard
antenna. Although
gaseous nitrogen propellant is flowing, little or no thrust is being
produced. Crew
members cycled the valve open and closed in an attempt to pinpoint the
problem.
Controllers plan to leave the valve closed for several hours to attempt
to quantify
the rate of propellant usage. The thruster was designed to keep the
mast from
“righting” itself in response to Earth’s gravity and
remove the need for additional
orbiter thruster firings to keep the antenna in its data-taking position.
Without the
thruster on the antenna, crew members have to fire the orbiter’s
thrusters more than
expected.
As the Blue Team wrapped up
its third day in space, the Red Team of Kevin
Kregel, Janet Kavandi and Gerhard Thiele took over mapping operations
shortly
after their wake-up call this morning. Gorie, Mohri and Janice Voss
turned in
shortly after 2 p.m., with a wake-up call set for 10:14 tonight to begin
their fourth
day of mapping activities.
Controllers also did some
troubleshooting on one of the on-board cameras after
Gorie reported the system that records the time at which images are
taken was not
working. Controllers suspect that the batteries were weakened due to
the delay in
launching Endeavour. The weak batteries should have no impact on the
use of the
camera to support NASA’s Earth observation program.
After yesterday’s repositioning
of a camera bracket on the flight deck, EarthKAM
operations continue nominally. As of late this afternoon, some 355 images
had been
downlinked from the EarthKAM. This NASA program allows students to use
interactive Web pages to target and select images to be photographed
from a
camera onboard the shuttle. All of Endeavour’s spacecraft systems
are continuing
to function normally as it circles the Earth every 90 minutes at an
altitude of about
150 miles. The next mission status report will be issued at 6 a.m. Monday,
or as
events warrant.
- end -
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