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Discovery crew puts away module, scans heat shield
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: April 16, 2010


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The Discovery astronauts parked the Leonardo cargo module in the shuttle's payload bay Friday and carried out a final heat shield inspection to set the stage for undocking Saturday from the International Space Station.


Joint shuttle and station crews. Credit: NASA
 
The inspection of the shuttle's carbon composite nose cap and wing leading edge panels normally is carried out after the shuttle leaves the station. But the failure of Discovery's Ku-band antenna earlier in the mission forced the crew to move the examination up one day so the laser scan data could be downlinked to mission control using the station's communications system.

Complicating the timeline, problems with the berthing mechanism that held Leonardo in place on the space station delayed the module's transfer back to the shuttle. Instead of berthing the cargo carrier Thursday as originally planned, the astronauts, using the station's robot arm, left it parked just above the shuttle's cargo bay overnight and completed the installation early Friday.

"This has been a set of fun-filled days, to say the least, for the on-orbit crew and for the operations team," said Flight Director Richard Jones. "We've been working through quite a few late-breaking issues, but we handled each one in stride. I must say, I'm very proud of the teams on how well they handled and responded to all the adversities we've been faced with over the past few days."

The Leonardo berthing went smoothly and "we finished up this shift by accomplishing what we call the docked late inspection," Jones said. "We had to perform these docked late inspections as a result of the Ku failure we've got on board Discovery. We weren't going to be able to downlink any of the imagery that we collected had we done this after undocking like we normally do. So we accomplished that today. The crew literally just flew through it, they were well ahead of the timeline."

It will take most of the day to downlink the multi-gigabyte data files to analysts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Jones said Discovery's crew likely would be cleared for undocking Saturday even if the analysis is not complete.

"Typically, it's a little bit more than 24 hours before we have a final decision on whether or not there are any issues with respect to the wing leading edge or the nose cap areas," he said. "Do we have to have that data in hand before we undock? No, we don't. What we will have are some preliminary assurances that what we have shows no surprises."

As with all station assembly missions, the shuttle has enough fuel on board to re-rendezvous with the lab complex if any major problems are detected.

The astronauts plan to go to bed around 4:21 p.m. Wakeup is scheduled for 12:21 a.m. Saturday. After a final joint meal and a brief farewell ceremony with the space station's six-member crew, the Discovery astronauts will move back into the orbiter and close the hatch around 6:11 a.m. Undocking is targeted for 8:52 a.m.

Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision L of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):


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

04/16
04:00 PM...11...09...39...00...Ascent highlights video on NTV
04:21 PM...11...10...00...00...STS crew sleep begins
05:00 PM...11...10...39...00...Daily highlights reel on NTV

04/17
12:21 AM...11...18...00...00...Crew wakeup
02:21 AM...11...20...00...00...ISS daily planning conference
04:56 AM...11...22...35...00...Joint crew meal
05:56 AM...11...23...35...00...Farewell ceremony
06:09 AM...11...23...48...00...Sunrise
06:11 AM...11...23...50...00...Rendezvous tools checkout
06:11 AM...11...23...50...00...Hatches closed
06:37 AM...12...00...16...06...Noon
06:41 AM...12...00...20...00...Orbiter docking system leak checks
06:51 AM...12...00...30...00...Centerline camera install
07:05 AM...12...00...44...11...Sunset
07:11 AM...12...00...50...00...Group B computer powerup
07:16 AM...12...00...54...35...US arrays in undock config
07:36 AM...12...01...14...35...Maneuver to undocking attitude
07:40 AM...12...01...19...26...Sunrise
08:06 AM...12...01...44...35...Maneuver complete
08:08 AM...12...01...47...32...Noon
08:36 AM...12...02...14...35...ISS Ku antenna park complete
08:37 AM...12...02...15...37...Sunset

08:52 AM...12...02...31...00...UNDOCKING

08:52 AM...12...02...31...05...Maintain corridor 
08:53 AM...12...02...32...00...Initial separation
08:54 AM...12...02...32...40...ISS holds current attitude
08:57 AM...12...02...36...00...50 ft
08:59 AM...12...02...38...00...75 ft
09:12 AM...12...02...50...51...Sunrise
09:20 AM...12...02...58...35...ISS Ku band un-park
09:21 AM...12...03...00...00...400 ft; start flyaround
09:30 AM...12...03...09...30...600 feet
09:32 AM...12...03...11...30...Shuttle directly above ISS
09:40 AM...12...03...18...58...Noon
09:44 AM...12...03...23...00...Shuttle directly behind ISS
09:55 AM...12...03...34...30...Shuttle directly below ISS
10:07 AM...12...03...46...00...Shuttle directly ahead of ISS
10:07 AM...12...03...46...00...Separation burn 1 (1.5 fps radial burn)
10:08 AM...12...03...47...05...Sunset
10:35 AM...12...04...14...00...Separation burn 2 (3.0 fps retrograde burn)
10:36 AM...12...04...15...00...Group B computer powerdown
10:40 AM...12...04...18...35...US solar arrays unlocked
11:30 AM...12...05...09...00...Mission status briefing on NTV
11:56 AM...12...05...35...00...EVA unpack and stow
12:41 PM...12...06...20...00...OBSS stow
01:56 PM...12...07...35...00...Ku antenna stow
02:00 PM...12...07...39...00...Post-MMT briefing on NTV
03:21 PM...12...09...00...00...ISS crew sleep begins
04:21 PM...12...10...00...00...STS crew sleep begins
05:00 PM...12...10...39...00...Daily highlights reel on NTV

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VIDEO: FRIDAY MORNING'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: LEONARDO PLACED INTO SHUTTLE BAY FOR LANDING PLAY
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VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 11 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: ROBOTIC ARM PLUCKS LEONARDO OFF THE STATION PLAY
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VIDEO: RATE GYRO ASSEMBLY REMOVED FROM STATION PLAY
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VIDEO: ANCHORING FIXTURE ATTACHED TO AMMONIA TANK PLAY
VIDEO: EXPERIMENT RETRIEVED FROM JAPAN'S SCIENCE DECK PLAY
VIDEO: STATION'S ROBOTIC ARM LIFTS TANK FROM SHUTTLE PLAY
VIDEO: NEW AMMONIA COOLANT TANK UNBOLTED FROM CARRIER PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALKER PREPS AMMONIA TANK IN SHUTTLE BAY PLAY
VIDEO: THE START OF MISSION'S FIRST SPACEWALK PLAY
VIDEO: STEP-BY-STEP WALKTHROUGH OF EVA NO. 1 PLAY
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VIDEO: THURSDAY EVENING'S FLIGHT DIRECTOR INTERVIEW PLAY
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VIDEO: TRANSPORT CANISTER ROTATED VERTICALLY PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: LEONARDO PLACED INTO THE TRANSPORTER PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: STATION'S NEW AMMONIA COOLANT TANK PLAY | HI-DEF
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VIDEO: DISCOVERY MOVES TO ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS VISIT THEIR SPACECRAFT PLAY | HI-DEF
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VIDEO: EXTERNAL TANK ATTACHED TO BOOSTERS PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: FUEL TANK LIFTED INTO CHECKOUT CELL PLAY | HI-DEF
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VIDEO: DISCOVERY'S NOSE POD ATTACHED PLAY | HI-DEF
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VIDEO: KSC'S SHUTTLE MAIN ENGINE SHOP PLAY | HI-DEF
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