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Atlantis prepares to leave station after successful visit BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: June 19, 2007 The Atlantis astronauts are preparing to undock from the international space station this morning after a dramatic visit highlighted by installation of a new set of solar arrays and recovery from major computer problems on the lab complex. "It's really exciting to see the station in this configuration," said Flight Director Holly Ridings. "I think we all feel like we've accomplished the mission objectives. ... There were certainly a lot of things to overcome, but in spite of all those surprises we managed to do what we always do and meet our mission objectives and have a successful mission." The space station has a new look with the retraction of the P6-2B solar panel and installation of the new S3/S4 solar array truss segment on the right side of the lab's main solar power truss. The station now sports two huge solar panels mounted on each end of the power truss, slowly rotating like giant paddle wheels to track the sun. Flight controllers will get a chance to take in the station's new look during a one-lap fly-around by Atlantis after undocking to photograph the outpost from different angles. Flight controllers successfully tested the station's orientation control system Monday to make sure revived computers in the Russian segment of the lab complex will be able to keep the outpost properly oriented after Atlantis departs. There were no problems and while troubleshooting continues to find the original cause of the computer problems, engineers are confident the system is healthy. "The international space station right now is in very, very good shape," Ridings said. "The other thing we did yesterday was do our test on the Russian thrusters, both with the (Russian) terminal computer controlling as the brains of the operation and then the U.S. navigation computer controlling it. Both of those activities went nominal, there were no problems, no issues. "We should expect it to work just fine today," she said. "We certainly still have a lot of work to do in terms of the root cause, but as far as getting everything back up and running, we're very, very comfortable those systems and processes are on line and running properly." Undocking is expected at 10:42 a.m. Here is an updated timeline of today's activities (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes rev. O of the NASA television schedule): DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...EVENT 06/19/07 06:38 AM...10...11...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup 08:43 AM...10...13...05...Group C computer powerup 08:58 AM...10...13...20...Group B computer powerup 09:28 AM...10...13...50...Centerline camera installation 09:31 AM...10...13...53...Sunrise 09:53 AM...10...14...15...U.S. arrays feathered 09:59 AM...10...14...21...Noon 10:26 AM...10...14...48...Sunset 10:27 AM...10...14...49...Last Russian ground station loss of signal 10:37 AM...10...14...59...Russian arrays feathered 10:42 AM...10...15...04...UNDOCKING 10:43 AM...10...15...05...Initial orbiter separation (+10 seconds) 10:44 AM...10...15...06...ISS holds current attitude 10:47 AM...10...15...09...Range: 50 feet; reselect -X jets 10:49 AM...10...15...11...Range: 75 feet; low-Z jets 10:50 AM...10...15...12...Russian arrays resume auto sun tracking 11:02 AM...10...15...24...Sunrise 11:11 AM...10...15...33...Range: 400 feet; start flyaround 11:21 AM...10...15...43...Range: 600 feet 11:23 AM...10...15...45...Shuttle directly above ISS 11:24 AM...10...15...46...ISS maneuvers to XVV TEA 11:29 AM...10...15...51...U.S. arrays resume sun auto track 11:30 AM...10...15...52...Noon 11:34 AM...10...15...56...Shuttle directly behind ISS 11:46 AM...10...16...08...Shuttle directly below ISS 11:57 AM...10...16...19...Separation burn No. 1 11:58 AM...10...16...20...Sunset 12:23 PM...10...16...45...PMA-2 depressurization 12:25 PM...10...16...47...Separation burn No. 2 12:28 PM...10...16...50...Group B computer powerdown 12:28 PM...10...16...50...Shuttle robot arm powerup 12:58 PM...10...17...20...Crew meals begin 01:58 PM...10...18...20...Heat shield inspection boom unberth 02:43 PM...10...19...05...Starboard wing survey 03:58 PM...10...20...20...Nose cap survey 04:28 PM...10...20...50...EVA unpack and stow 04:58 PM...10...21...20...Port wing survey 04:58 PM...10...21...20...Post EVA entry prep 05:00 PM...10...21...22...Mission status briefing on NTV 06:18 PM...10...22...40...Inspection boom berthing 06:53 PM...10...23...15...Robot arm powerdown 06:53 PM...10...23...15...Orbit adjust rocket firing window 10:08 PM...11...02...30...STS crew sleep begins 11:00 PM...11...03...22...Daily video highlights reel on NTV
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VIDEO:
FLIGHT DAY 11 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE 