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Shuttle to undock today BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: November 5, 2007 The Discovery astronauts prepared the shuttle for undocking from the international space station today to close out a dramatic assembly mission that sets the stage for the long-awaited attachment of European and Japanese research modules over the next three shuttle flights. With pilot George Zamka at the controls, Discovery was scheduled to disconnect from pressurized mating adapter No. 2 on the front of the Destiny laboratory module at 5:32 a.m. as the two spacecraft sailed high above the south Pacific Ocean. The flight plan called for Zamka to guide Discovery to a point about 600 feet directly in front of the lab complex before firing thrusters to begin a photo-documentation fly around, looping up above the station then behind and below it before returning to his starting point. The first of two separation rocket firings is planned at that point with a second burn a few minutes later to begin moving the shuttle away from the station. "This is very similar to what we've seen in the past," said shuttle flight director Rick LaBrode. "The fly around occurs around 600 feet, all the way around. We essentially do a full lap. We try to time it such that we have good lighting for the entire fly around." Flight controllers and engineers were looking forward to seeing the station with the newly installed Harmony module in its temporary location on the left side of the central Unity module and the redeployed P6 solar arrays extended and tracking the sun on the left end of the station's main power truss. "The shuttle crew's continuously taking pictures of the outside of the station (during the fly around) to monitor how the external part of the station's operation," LaBrode said. "We get views during this flyaround that we don't normally get except during shuttle missions. "Then, after the complete flyaround, we do sep 1. When we get basically right on top of it, we do sep 2. And we're off and away." After a break for lunch, the astronauts plan to begin a final heat shield inspection using laser scanners and cameras on the end of a 50-foot-long boom attached to the shuttle's robot arm. A similar inspection was carried out the day after launch to look for any signs of ascent debris impact damage. The goal of today's so-called late inspection is to check the shuttle's nose cap and wing leading edge panels for any damage that might have occurred since the first inspection because of impacts by space debris. Sensors behind the leading edge panels recorded a half dozen or so readings over the coarse of the mission. Similar readings on past flights were chalked up the shuttle's aluminum structure responding to temperature changes. Today's inspection should provide the data necessary to resolve the matter. The orbiter boom sensor system served as astronaut Scott Parazynski's work platform during a spacewalk Saturday to repair the left-side P6-4B solar array. The four sensors on the boom - two laser scanners, a video camera and a digital camera - were unpowered for about nine hours, but tests after the boom was reconnected to shuttle power showed they were "fully functional and ready to support" the late inspection, NASA's mission management team told the crew in an overnight message. "The LCS (Laser Camera System) hardware appears nominal, and the unexpected indications from the LCS checkout are likely associated with the software and not thermally related," the MMT told the crew. "If there is time (Monday), the LCS checkout steps, which are part of the STBD survey procedures, will be performed to gather more data on the status of the LCS." The repaired and redeployed P6 solar array and its port-side counterpart, P4, are now rotating to track the sun. Station flight director Heather Rarick said late Sunday the station is not yet tapping into the power generated by P6, pending final tests and checkout. "We got the OK to let it rotate, so it's been tracking the sun like it's supposed to," she said. "I haven't heard any issues with it, no problems, everything seems to be working fine. So we're just waiting on a 'go' so we can start drawing the power off of it, using it to power some loads, and we're hoping that could be as early as (today). We have to have our specialists take a good, solid look, that everything's going to be OK when we go to do that." Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EST and mission elapsed time; includes revision O of the NASA television schedule): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 11/05/07 01:38 AM...12...15...00...ISS crew wakeup 02:08 AM...12...15...30...STS crew wakeup 03:38 AM...12...17...00...ISS daily planning conference 04:08 AM...12...17...30...Group B computer power up 04:23 AM...12...17...45...Centerline camera installation 04:48 AM...12...18...10...Undocking operations begin 05:18 AM...12...18...40...Sunset 05:32 AM...12...18...54...UNDOCKING 05:33 AM...12...18...55...Initial orbiter separation (+10 seconds) 05:34 AM...12...18...56...ISS holds current attitude 05:37 AM...12...18...59...Range: 50 feet; reselect -X jets 05:39 AM...12...19...01...Range: 75 feet; low-Z jets 05:48 AM...12...19...10...Sunrise 06:01 AM...12...19...23...Range: 400 feet; start flyaround 06:11 AM...12...19...33...Range: 600 feet 06:13 AM...12...19...35...Shuttle directly above station 06:19 AM...12...19...41...Noon 06:24 AM...12...19...46...Shuttle directly behind station 06:36 AM...12...19...58...Shuttle directly below station 06:47 AM...12...20...09...Separation burn No. 1 06:49 AM...12...20...11...Sunset 07:13 AM...12...20...35...Playback of undocking video 07:15 AM...12...20...37...Separation burn No. 2 07:19 AM...12...20...41...Sunrise 07:23 AM...12...20...45...Post undocking network reconfiguration 07:43 AM...12...21...05...Group B computer power down 08:03 AM...12...21...25...Crew meal 08:23 AM...12...21...45...ISS: Centerline berthing camera target installation 09:03 AM...12...22...25...Spacesuit installation 09:13 AM...12...22...35...OBSS unberth 09:38 AM...12...23...00...Starboard wing survey 09:53 AM...12...23...15...ISS: Hatch thermal cover installation 11:18 AM...13...00...40...Nose cap survey 12:18 PM...13...01...40...Port wing survey 01:00 PM...13...02...22...Mission status briefing on NASA TV 02:03 PM...13...03...25...OBSS berthing 02:18 PM...13...03...40...ISS: Daily planning conference 02:38 PM...13...04...00...SRMS powerdown 02:43 PM...13...04...05...Laser scanner downlink 04:23 PM...13...05...45...Crew choice downlink 04:28 PM...13...05...50...ISS crew sleep begins 06:38 PM...13...08...00...STS crew sleep begins 07:00 PM...13...08...22...Daily video highlights reel on NASA TV
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VIDEO:
FAREWELL CEREMONY BETWEEN SHUTTLE AND ISS CREWS 