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STS-124 day 1 highlights

The highlights from shuttle Discovery's launch day are packaged into this movie.

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Discovery rolls out

Discovery travels from the Vehicle Assembly Building to pad 39A in preparation for the STS-124 mission.

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STS-124: The programs

In advance of shuttle Discovery's STS-124 mission to the station, managers from both programs discuss the flight.

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STS-124: The mission

A detailed preview of Discovery's mission to deliver Japan's science laboratory Kibo to the station is provided in this briefing.

 Part 1 | Part 2

STS-124: Spacewalks

Three spacewalks are planned during Discovery's STS-124 assembly mission to the station.

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STS-124: The Crew

The Discovery astronauts, led by commander Mark Kelly, meet the press in the traditional pre-flight news conference.

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Discovery to arrive at the space station today
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: June 2, 2008

The shuttle Discovery, carrying Japan's huge Kibo laboratory module, closed in on the international space station today, on course for docking around 1:54 p.m. EDT.

Commander Mark Kelly, pilot Kenneth Ham, flight engineer Ronald Garan, Karen Nyberg, Michael Fossum, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and space station flight engineer Gregory Chamitoff were awakened at 6:32 a.m. to begin docking preparations.

Trailing the station by about 9.2 miles, Kelly and Ham plan to fire Discovery's maneuvering jets at 11:16 a.m. to begin the terminal phase of the two-day rendezvous, following a carefully choreographed approach that will put the shuttle at a point 600 feet directly below the station around 12:46 p.m.

At that point, Kelly will guide the shuttle through a slow back flip, allowing the station crew to photograph the orbiter's heat shield tiles in a now-standard post-Columbia inspection. After the rotational pitch maneuver is complete, Kelly will guide Discovery to a position directly in front of the lab complex and then move in for a docking at pressurized mating adapter No. 2 on the front of node 2, or the Harmony module.

"It's a pretty standard profile," said lead Flight Director Matt Abbott. "We come up from behind and below. Once we get to what we call the r-bar, kind of an imaginary line from the station straight down to the center of the Earth, we'll stop there about 600 feet below and do the R-bar pitch maneuver, the RPM. That's so the station crew can photograph the thermal protection system on the orbiter and we'll downlink those pictures and use that as part of our analysis to clear the thermal protection system for entry as we always do.

"Then we'll transition up to what we call the v-bar, the velocity vector, which is out in front of the space station. And then Mark Kelly will manually fly the vehicle in to docking on node 2. One of the things you'll notice, it's getting pretty crowded there around node 2 with the (Japanese) logistics module, the (European) Columbus module. Of course, Kibo will go on the port side of node 2, so there's a lot of construction that's been going on lately. So Mark will guide it in and dock with the station."

Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision A of the NASA television schedule; NOTE: rev. B is the current version of the TV schedule, but it was not available in time for this posting):


EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

06/02/08

06:32 AM...01...13...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup
07:57 AM...01...14...55...Group B computer powerup
08:17 AM...01...15...15...Rendezvous timeline begins
08:32 AM...01...15...30...ISS daily planning conference
08:58 AM...01...15...56...NH rendezvous rocket firing
09:44 AM...01...16...42...NC-4 rendezvous rocket firing
10:32 AM...01...17...30...Spacesuits removed from airlock
10:34 AM...01...17...32...ISS in docking orientation
10:34 AM...01...17...32...ATV solar arrays feathered
11:16 AM...01...18...14...TI burn
11:40 AM...01...18...38...U.S. solar arrays feathered
11:41 AM...01...18...39...ISS in prox ops mode
11:42 AM...01...18...40...ISS crew meal
11:52 AM...01...18...50...Sunset
12:14 PM...01...19...12...Range: 10,000 feet
12:23 PM...01...19...21...Range: 5,000 feet
12:27 PM...01...19...25...Sunrise
12:29 PM...01...19...27...Range: 3,000 feet
12:33 PM...01...19...31...MC-4 rendezvous burn
12:37 PM...01...19...35...Range: 1,500 feet
12:39 PM...01...19...37...RPM start window open
12:42 PM...01...19...40...Range: 1,000 feet
12:45 PM...01...19...43...KU antenna to low power
12:46 PM...01...19...44...+R bar arrival directly below ISS
12:51 PM...01...19...49...Range: 600 feet
12:52 PM...01...19...50...RPM photography
12:53 PM...01...19...51...Start pitch maneuver
12:55 PM...01...19...53...Noon
01:01 PM...01...19...59...End pitch maneuver
01:03 PM...01...20...01...RPM full photo window close
01:04 PM...01...20...02...Initiate pitch up maneuver (575 ft)
01:11 PM...01...20...09...RPM start window close
01:15 PM...01...20...13...+V bar arrival; range: 310 feet
01:16 PM...01...20...14...Range: 300 feet
01:20 PM...01...20...18...Range: 250 feet
01:23 PM...01...20...21...Sunset
01:24 PM...01...20...22...Range: 200 feet
01:27 PM...01...20...25...Range: 170 feet
01:28 PM...01...20...26...Range: 150 feet
01:33 PM...01...20...31...Range: 100 feet
01:36 PM...01...20...34...Range: 75 feet
01:40 PM...01...20...38...Range: 50 feet
01:43 PM...01...20...41...Range: 30 feet; start stationkeeping
01:48 PM...01...20...46...End stationkeeping; push to dock
01:52 PM...01...20...50...Range: 10 feet

01:54 PM...01...20...52...DOCKING

01:58 PM...01...20...56...Sunrise
02:12 PM...01...21...10...Leak checks
02:37 PM...01...21...35...Group B computer powerdown
02:42 PM...01...21...40...Post docking laptop reconfig
02:47 PM...01...21...45...Orbiter docking system prepped for ingress
03:07 PM...01...22...05...Hatch open
03:52 PM...01...22...50...Welcome aboard!
04:02 PM...01...23...00...Safety briefing
04:27 PM...01...23...25...Post-docking EVA transfer
04:27 PM...01...23...25...Soyuz seatliner transfer to ISS
04:30 PM...01...23...28...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
05:02 PM...02...00...00...Soyuz seatliner installation
05:07 PM...02...00...05...REBA checkout
05:37 PM...02...00...35...Airlock preps
06:27 PM...02...01...25...EVA-1: Procedures review
08:57 PM...02...03...55...EVA-1: Mask pre-breathe
09:42 PM...02...04...40...EVA-1: Airlock 10.2 psi depress
10:02 PM...02...05...00...ISS crew sleep begins
10:32 PM...02...05...30...STS crew sleep begins
11:00 PM...02...05...58...Flight day highlights on NTV

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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: SUNDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: EXTERNAL TANK SEEN AFTER SEPARATION PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: VAB ROOF PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-1 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-2 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-6 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: FRONT CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: BEACH TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD PERIMETER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-12 TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-23 TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PLAYALINDA BEACH PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PRESS SITE PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: WEST TOWER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 009 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 041 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 049 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 050 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 051 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 054 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 060 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 061 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 063 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 070 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 071 PLAY

VIDEO: LIFTOFF OF DISCOVERY WITH KIBO LAB! PLAY
VIDEO: ONBOARD CAMERA FOOTAGE OF TANK FOAM FALLING PLAY
VIDEO: INSIDE MISSION CONTROL DURING LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: POST-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY

VIDEO: FINAL PRE-LAUNCH POLLS GIVE "GO" FOR LIFTOFF PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS QUARTERS FOR LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS DON SPACESUITS FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED RECAP OF KIBO LAB'S PRE-FLIGHT CAMPAIGN PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED RECAP OF DISCOVERY'S PRE-FLIGHT CAMPAIGN PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH PAD GANTRY RETRACTED FRIDAY NIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE OF GANTRY ROLLBACK PLAY
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
VIDEO: BRIEFING ON KIBO LABORATORY FACILITY PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT THE CAPE FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S COUNTDOWN AND WEATHER BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED MISSION PREVIEW MOVIE PLAY

VIDEO: NEWS BRIEFING FOLLOWING FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW PLAY

VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH COMMANDER MARK KELLY PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH PILOT KEN HAM PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS1 KAREN NYBERG PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS2 RON GARAN PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS3 MIKE FOSSUM PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS4 AKIHIKO HOSHIDE PLAY

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS PRACTICE EVACUATION OF SHUTTLE PLAY
VIDEO: CREW BOARDS DISCOVERY FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY
VIDEO: TRAINING SESSIONS AT LAUNCH PAD AND BUNKER PLAY
VIDEO: CREW NEWS CONFERENCE AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY

VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE OF GANTRY ENCLOSING DISCOVERY PLAY
VIDEO: PAD'S ORBITER ACCESS ARM SWUNG INTO POSITION PLAY
VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE OF CRAWLER RETREATING AFTER ROLLOUT PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE DISCOVERY ROLLED TO PAD 39A PLAY

VIDEO: SHUTTLE AND STATION PROGRAM BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: STS-124 MISSION OVERVIEW PART 1 | PART 2
VIDEO: PREVIEW BRIEFING ON MISSION'S SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: THE ASTRONAUTS' PRE-FLIGHT NEWS BRIEFING PLAY

VIDEO: KIBO LABORATORY TRAVELS TO THE LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: TRANSPORT CANISTER WITH KIBO ROTATED UPRIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: CRANE PLACES KIBO MODULE INTO TRANSPORT CANISTER PLAY

VIDEO: DISCOVERY HOISTED FOR ATTACHMENT TO FUEL TANK PLAY
VIDEO: THE SHUTTLE MOVES TO THE VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY
MORE: STS-124 VIDEO COVERAGE
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