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Shuttle performance near flawless going into docking BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: February 8, 2008 The shuttle Atlantis came through its eight-and-a-half-minute climb to space Thursday in good shape with no obvious signs of impact damage to the ship's protective heat shield. John Shannon, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team, said today the shuttle was operating near flawlessly and while it will take several more days to complete a detailed post-launch inspection and analysis, "it looks like we had an extremely clean launch." The first reports on the behavior of foam insulation on Atlantis' external fuel tank "showed absolutely nothing of interest," Shannon said. "The two small foam losses we saw at 70 seconds and 110 seconds, the experts tell us those were not of a mass that we'd be concerned about. In addition, they did not appear to hit the underside of the vehicle. So it's absolutely no concern, we're not event tracking those anymore. "There was another small foam event at 440 seconds," he added. "It appeared it might have bounced off the bottom of the vehicle, but we are well out of the atmosphere (at that point). That's well past the time that would be of concern and it was not of a mass that would cause us any issues. So from an ascent standpoint, at least what we've seen so far from the ground cameras and the on-board cameras, it looks like we had an extremely clean launch and ascent." The Atlantis astronauts spent the day carrying out a detailed inspection of the shuttle's reinforced carbon carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the most extreme heating during re-entry. Shannon said those data, along with close-up photographs of the shuttle belly that will be shot by the station crew during Atlantis' final approach Saturday, will be assessed to determine whether any additional inspections are needed. A meeting to make that decision is planned for Saturday night, but as of this writing no obvious areas of concern have been identified. "It's so far, an extremely clean flight," Shannon repeated. "The team at Kennedy Space Center that put the vehicle together should be really congratulated because it's performing flawlessly. I have never walked up into the engineering room that tracks every little problem that we have on the vehicle and seen a completely blank board. It is completely blank right now." But Shannon said he cautioned Mission Management Team members to stay sharp and on their collective toes because "we have a long way to go. ... But I absolutely could not have asked for a better start to it." Lead flight director Mike Sarafin said the astronauts were on track for an on-time rendezvous and docking with the international space station Saturday. The terminal initiation burn, or TI rocket firing to kick off the final phase of the rendezvous, is scheduled for 9:37 a.m., setting up a docking around 12:25 p.m. The goal of the mission is to attach the European Space Agency's Columbus research lab to the space station during a spacewalk Sunday. Along with inspecting the shuttle's wing lead edge panels today, the astronauts examined the spacesuits that will be used Sunday by Rex Walheim and Hans Schlegel; broke out hand-held lasers used during final approach and worked to complete setup of laptop computers that run critical rendezvous software. "It's great to finally have Atlantis on orbit and the Columbus module on its way to the international space station," Sarafin said. "The mission is proceeding as we planned it. We haven't had any significant technical issues, the team is excited and definitely got their heads down and working hard to make the mission stay on that course. "We're on track to dock to the international space station tomorrow. That'll be an opportunity to deliver a brand new module to Peggy Whitson, who's commanding the space station, on her 48th birthday." Here is an updated timeline of Saturday's rendezvous and docking (in EST and mission elapsed time): DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...EVENT 02/09/08 04:45 AM...01...14...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup 06:15 AM...01...15...30...Group B computer powerup 06:30 AM...01...15...45...Space station (ISS) daily planning conference 06:30 AM...01...15...45...Begin rendezvous timeline 08:06 AM...01...17...21...NC-4 rendezvous rocket firing 08:50 AM...01...18...05...Middeck prepped for docking 09:05 AM...01...18...20...Spacesuits removed from airlock 09:37 AM...01...18...52...Terminal initiation (TI) rocket firing 09:45 AM...01...19...00...Station in docking orientation 10:10 AM...01...19...25...U.S. solar arrays feathered 10:12 AM...01...19...27...Station in rendezvous mode 10:15 AM...01...19...30...Sunset 10:15 AM...01...19...30...Russian command module lights on 10:36 AM...01...19...51...Range: 10,000 feet 10:44 AM...01...19...59...Range: 5,000 feet 10:50 AM...01...20...05...Range: 3,000 feet 10:52 AM...01...20...07...Sunrise 10:54 AM...01...20...09...MC-4 rendezvous rocket firing 10:58 AM...01...20...13...Range: 1,500 feet 11:03 AM...01...20...18...Range: 1,000 feet 11:06 AM...01...20...21...Shuttle KU antenna to low power 11:07 AM...01...20...22...Shuttle directly below station 11:12 AM...01...20...27...Range: 600 feet 11:19 AM...01...20...34...Noon 11:23 AM...01...20...38...Start shuttle pitch-around photo survey maneuver 11:27 AM...01...20...42...RPM full photo window close 11:31 AM...01...20...46...End pitch maneuver 11:34 AM...01...20...49...Initiate pitch up maneuver to point ahead of station 11:35 AM...01...20...50...Russian solar arrays feathered 11:45 AM...01...21...00...Shuttle directly ahead of station 11:46 AM...01...21...01...Range: 300 feet 11:47 AM...01...21...02...Sunset 11:50 AM...01...21...05...Range: 250 feet 11:54 AM...01...21...09...Range: 200 feet 11:57 AM...01...21...12...Range: 170 feet 11:59 AM...01...21...14...Range: 150 feet 12:03 PM...01...21...18...Range: 100 feet 12:06 PM...01...21...21...Range: 75 feet 12:10 PM...01...21...25...Range: 50 feet 12:13 PM...01...21...28...Range: 30 feet; start stationkeeping 12:18 PM...01...21...33...End stationkeeping; push to dock 12:23 PM...01...21...38...Range: 10 feet 12:23 PM...01...21...38...Sunrise 12:24 PM...01...21...39...DOCKING 12:45 PM...01...22...00...Leak checks 01:10 PM...01...22...25...Group B computer power down 01:15 PM...01...22...30...Docking system prepped for ingress 01:35 PM...01...22...50...Hatch opening 01:35 PM...01...22...50...Post-rendezvous laptop reconfig 02:05 PM...01...23...20...Safety briefing 02:55 PM...02...00...10...Station arm (SSRMS) grapples shuttle inspection boom (OBSS) 03:00 PM...02...00...15...Mission status briefing on NTV 03:25 PM...02...00...40...SSRMS unberths OBSS 03:55 PM...02...01...10...Airlock preps 04:30 PM...02...01...45...Shuttle arm (SRMS) grapples OBSS 04:45 PM...02...02...00...SSRMS ungrapples OBSS 05:00 PM...02...02...15...Post-MMT briefing on NTV (may move earlier) 05:25 PM...02...02...40...Spacewalk No. 1 (EVA-1): Procedures review 07:00 PM...02...04...15...EVA-1: Mask pre-breathe for campout 07:55 PM...02...05...10...EVA-1: Campout begins (10.2 psi depress) 08:15 PM...02...05...30...Station crew sleep begins 08:45 PM...02...06...00...Shuttle crew sleep begin 09:00 PM...02...06...15...Daily video highlights reel
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VIDEO:
FRIDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING 