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Crew spending first day in space inspecting Discovery BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: March 16, 2009 The Discovery astronauts are working through a busy day of heat shield inspections, spacesuit checkouts and work to ready the shuttle for docking Tuesday with the international space station. Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, meanwhile, are continuing to evaluate the orbit of a piece of Russian space junk to determine if a space station debris avoidance maneuver might be necessary later today. "Tracking data from government resources indicated a piece of a Cosmos spacecraft ... was going to pass within the (safety) threshold," said Pat Ryan in mission control. "Plans at that point were begun for a possible debris avoidance maneuver, an engine burn by the international space station that would move it so that it was well clear of this piece of space junk." A more recent update indicated "there is now no threshold violation anticipated by this piece of space junk," Ryan said. "But because the target has seemed to be a moving one, the station teams are proceeding with their plans to be ready with a debris avoidance maneuver tonight and they are content to wait until at least the next round of tracking data ... before coming to a final decision." If a debris avoidance maneuver is required, a rocket firing would be targeted for around 9:50 p.m., Ryan said. The debris, from the Russian Cosmos 1275 military navigation satellite launched in 1981, is expected to make its closest approach to the station around 3:14 a.m. Tuesday. But it was not immediately known how big the debris might be or how close it might come to the station. Tracking data from U.S. Strategic Command are used to calculate potential debris encounters, or conjunctions, that would result in passage through an imaginary pizza box-shaped zone extending 15 miles to either side of the station and about 2,460 feet above and below. Shuttle flight planners are preparing to make changes to Discovery's rendezvous rocket firing sequence to accommodate any move by the space station if an avoidance maneuver is, in fact, ordered. Commander Lee Archambault and his crewmates - pilot Dominic "Tony" Antonelli, shuttle and station veteran John Phillips, incoming space station flight engineer Koichi Wakata, Japan's first long-duration station crew member, and spacewalkers Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Joseph Acaba - began their first full day in space around 10:15 a.m. with a recording of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" beamed up from mission control. "Good morning, Discovery, and especially to Tony," called astronaut Janice Voss from Houston. "And good morning, Houston," Antonelli replied. "Thanks for that great song. I'd like to say thanks to my family. ... I know we've got a long day, so I guess we should get right to work." "Indeed you do." Archambault and Antonelli already planned on two rendezvous rocket firings today, one around 12:42 p.m. and the other just before midnight. The bulk of the crew's day will be devoted to checking out the spacesuits needed for upcoming station assembly spacewalks and inspecting the shuttle's reinforced carbon carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels. Using a 50-foot-long boom on the end of the shuttle's robot arm, the astronauts will carry out a now-standard, inch-by-inch inspection with a laser scanner and a high-resolution camera to look for any signs of impact damage that might have occurred during launch Sunday. The nose cap and wing leading edge panels experience the most extreme heating during re-entry. There were no obvious signs of debris or damage seen in video downlinked from the shuttle during the climb to space, but analysts will need several days to complete a detailed assessment. NASA's Mission Management Team chairman will brief reporters today at 5 p.m., followed by a mission status briefing at 7 p.m. Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision B of the NASA television schedule): EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 03/16/09 10:13 AM...00...14...30...Crew wakeup 11:00 AM...00...15...17...Video File on NTV 12:42 PM...00...16...59...NC-2 rendezvous rocket firing 12:58 PM...00...17...15...Shuttle arm (SRMS) unberths inspection boom (OBSS) 01:33 PM...00...17...50...Spacesuit checkout preps 02:03 PM...00...18...20...Spacesuit checkout 02:28 PM...00...18...45...OBSS starboard wing survey 04:18 PM...00...20...35...Ergometer exercise machine setup 04:23 PM...00...20...40...OBSS nose cap survey 05:00 PM...00...21...17...Post-Mission Management Team briefing on NASA TV 05:13 PM...00...21...30...Crew meals begin 06:13 PM...00...22...30...OBSS port wing survey 06:13 PM...00...22...30...Spacesuit prepped for transfer to station 07:00 PM...00...23...17...Mission status briefing on NTV 08:13 PM...01...00...30...SRMS berths OBSS 08:18 PM...01...00...35...OMS rocket pod survey 08:43 PM...01...01...00...Laser scanner data downlink 09:08 PM...01...01...25...Centerline docking camera setup 09:38 PM...01...01...55...Orbiter docking system ring extension 10:08 PM...01...02...25...Rendezvous tools checkout 10:18 PM...01...02...35...Crew choice downlink on NASA TV 11:54 PM...01...04...11...NC-3 rendezvous rocket firing 03/17/09 01:43 AM...01...06...00...Crew sleep begins 03:14 AM...01...07...31...Possible ISS close approach by space debris 08:53 AM...01...13...10...ISS crew wakeup 09:43 AM...01...14...00...STS crew wakeup (flight day 3) If the space station crew carries out a debris avoidance maneuver later today, the timing of Tuesday's final rendezvous and docking sequence may change slightly. For readers interested in a look ahead, here is the docking timeline as it stands today (in EDT and mission elapsed time): EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 03/17/09 02:34 PM...01...18...51...Terminal initiation (TI) burn 03:10 PM...01...19...27...Sunset 03:33 PM...01...19...50...Range: 10,000 feet 03:42 PM...01...19...59...Range: 5,000 feet 03:43 PM...01...20...00...Sunrise 03:47 PM...01...20...04...Range: 3,000 feet 03:50 PM...01...20...07...MC-4 rendezvous burn 03:54 PM...01...20...11...Range: 1,500 feet 03:57 PM...01...20...14...Rendezvous pitch maneuver (RPM) start window open 03:59 PM...01...20...16...Range: 1,000 feet 04:02 PM...01...20...19...KU antenna to low power 04:03 PM...01...20...20...+R bar arrival; shuttle directly below ISS 04:09 PM...01...20...26...Range: 600 feet 04:10 PM...01...20...27...Start RPM 04:13 PM...01...20...30...Noon 04:18 PM...01...20...35...End RPM 04:20 PM...01...20...37...RPM full photo window close 04:21 PM...01...20...38...Initiate pitch up maneuver to velocity vector (575 ft) 04:29 PM...01...20...46...RPM start window close 04:33 PM...01...20...50...+V bar arrival; shuttle directly in front of ISS; 04:33 PM...01...20...50...Range: 310 feet 04:33 PM...01...20...50...Range: 300 feet 04:38 PM...01...20...55...Range: 250 feet 04:42 PM...01...20...59...Range: 200 feet 04:52 PM...01...20...69...Sunset 04:44 PM...01...21...01...Range: 170 feet 04:46 PM...01...21...03...Range: 150 feet 04:50 PM...01...21...07...Range: 100 feet 04:53 PM...01...21...10...Range: 75 feet 04:57 PM...01...21...14...Range: 50 feet 05:01 PM...01...21...18...Range: 30 feet; start stationkeeping 05:06 PM...01...21...23...End stationkeeping; push to dock 05:10 PM...01...21...27...Range: 10 feet 05:12 PM...01...21...29...DOCKING 05:15 PM...01...21...32...Sunrise
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VIDEO:
SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY BLASTS OFF 