STS-89 Day 3 Highlights

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On Saturday, January 24, 1998, 6 a.m. CST, STS-89 MCC Status Report # 04 reports:

As the final steps in the orbital ballet of rendezvous are taken, Space Shuttle Endeavour closes the remaining distance to the Russian Mir space station. At 6 a.m. Saturday, the two were approximately 170 nautical miles apart and closing the distance at 55 nautical miles each 90-minute orbit.

The crew is scheduled to awaken at 7:48 a.m. this morning for an eventful flight day 3. Endeavour is scheduled to dock with the Mir at 2:14 p.m. Central time today. Prior to that, at about 1: 10 p.m. the orbiter will reach a point about 70 feet below Mir along the station's radial vector with the Earth or R-bar. At 1:40, commander Terry Wilcutt begins his final approach to Mir, stopping 30 feet out at 2 p.m. to await a final."go" for the docking. After about eight minutes of station-keeping at 30-feet, Endeavour closes the final distance and docks. This will be the eighth meeting between the Shuttle and Mir, and the first by Endeavour. All previous docking missions were accomplished with the Shuttle Atlantis.

The hatch opening and welcome ceremony is planned for 3:53 p.m. CST. Transfer operations to move supplies, equipment and water to Mir begin in Sunday, The official handover between astronaut David Wolf and his replacement on Mir, Andy Thomas, comes at about 8:48 a.m. CST Sunday with the transfer of the custom-made seat liners for each astronaut.

On Friday, the Endeavour crew began preparations for the docking by checking out docking aids such as the centerline camera.

On Saturday, January 24, 1998, 6 p.m. CST, STS-89 MCC Status Report # 05 reports:

For the eighth time in three years, an American space shuttle is linked to a Russian space station following the successful on-time docking of Endeavour to the Mir Space Station at 2:14 p.m. Central time.

Endeavour Commander Terry Wilcutt eased the shuttle to a flawless docking with the Mir after a textbook rendezvous. The linkup occurred while the two spaceships flew over southeastern Russia, west of Kazakhstan, at an altitude of 214 nautical miles. Through the final phases of the rendezvous, Payload Commander Bonnie Dunbar exchanged greetings with Mir 24 Commander Anatoly Solovyev, Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut David Wolf, who is wrapping up his four-month mission aboard the Russian outpost.

After docking, the astronauts and cosmonauts conducted leak checks of the docking tunnel between the two craft, and at 4:25 p.m. Central time, Wilcutt and Solovyev swung open the hatches on their respective spacecraft and shook hands as the other crewmembers embraced each other for the start of five days of joint activities.

"You guys look great, this is a lot of fun," said Wolf, as he was greeted by Dunbar and astronaut Andy Thomas, who will officially become a member of the Mir crew tomorrow after transferring his custom made Soyuz capsule seatliner to the Russian station and completing a test of his Soyuz spacesuit. At that point, Wolf will become a part of the STS-89 crew following 119 days as a Mir crew member.

Once their initial greetings were completed, the ten astronauts and cosmonauts made their way into the Mir's Core Module for a brief welcoming ceremony before pressing on with routine safety briefings on each other vehicles. Five bags of water were transferred from Endeavour to the Mir by the end of the day, with the bulk of the transfer of logistical supplies to begin tomorrow.

The Mir cosmonauts are scheduled to begin a nine-hour sleep period at 7:48 p.m. Central time, two hours before Endeavour's astronauts begin an eight hour sleep period, which will end with a wakeup call from Mission Control Sunday at 5:48 a.m.

The Shuttle-Mir complex is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of about 216 nautical miles with all of its combined systems operating in excellent shape.

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