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Endeavour heads for midnight arrival at station BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: February 9, 2010 
The shuttle Endeavour closed in on the International Space Station Tuesday, bringing a new habitation module and a multi-window observation deck that will give crew members a bird's eye view of Earth and approaching cargo ships.
Docking at the station's forward port is expected around 12:06 a.m. Wednesday. "We start with a whole lot of closure ... but at docking, we'll have a relative speed of a little more than an inch per second so it ends up being very controlled," Zamka said in a NASA interview. "It's a great day because we'll be playing with orbital mechanics and using the shuttle's control system to have a nice, smooth, controlled docking with the space station." Joining Zamka and Virts aboard Endeavour are Kathryn Hire, flight engineer Stephen Robinson and spacewalkers Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick. After the shuttle-station docking system engages and firmly locks the two spacecraft together, the shuttle's steering jets will be used to yaw the combined vehicles 180 degrees, putting Endeavour at the back of the "stack" to provide additional protection from micrometeoroids and space debris. Hatches will be opened around 2 a.m. and the shuttle astronauts will be welcomed aboard by Expedition 22 commander Jeffrey Williams, cosmonauts Maxim Suraev and Oleg Kotov, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and NASA flight engineer Timothy Creamer. The primary goal of Endeavour's mission is to deliver and install the 15-ton Tranquility module, or node 3, and a seven-window cupola that will be attached to the new module's Earth-facing port. The cupola will provide spectacular views of Earth and serve as a control tower for robot arm operators. Tranquility will be attached to the central Unity module's left port. It will house NASA life support equipment currently located elsewhere, including the station's U.S. toilet and urine recycling system, as well as exercise equipment. Tranquility and the cupola will be installed overnight Thursday during the crew's first spacewalk. The cupola, attached to module's outboard port for launch, will be moved to the Earth-facing port Sunday night. As with all post-Columbia docking missions, the flight plan called for Zamka to first guide Endeavour to a point 600 feet directly below the station about an hour before docking, carrying out a computer-assisted back-flip maneuver to expose the ship's belly to powerful cameras aboard the lab.
During launch early Monday, a piece of foam insulation fell away from the shuttle's external tank about two minutes after liftoff. Based on imagery from a camera mounted on the side of the tank, engineers do not believe the debris hit the shuttle's belly tiles. The upcoming rendezvous pitch maneuver should resolve the issue. LeRoy Cain, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team, said engineers are still assessing ascent imagery and will be working through the next few days to analyze laser scans of the shuttle's nose cap and wing leading edge panels collected overnight Monday as well as photos from the rendezvous pitch maneuver just before docking. But so far, no signs of any significant heat shield damage have been seen. "The crew completed the wing surveys, the inspection we do of the reinforced carbon carbon on the wing leading edge, both wings, and the nose cap and all of that data has been downlinked to the ground, as well as all of the data from the external tank hand-held camera, the external tank umbilical camera and the wing leading edge sensor data," he said. "All that data is on the ground and in hand and we're well on track in terms of processing that data as we normally do." The only technical issues of any note are a very small leak in an accumulator in the shuttle's left side orbital maneuvering system rocket pod and a protruding "flipper door" seal on the upper surface of the left wing over one of the ship's elevons. Cain said both issues were minor and would have no impact on the mission. "This seal is not going to pose any issue for us, either structurally for the wing or from a thermal standpoint," he said. In a note to the astronauts, the MMT said "Endeavour performed flawlessly during yesterday's launch and continues to do so. The TPS (thermal protection system) and structures community have reviewed the photos you took of the port elevon sliding seal. Although the sliding seal is protruding (about) 3.8 inches there have been no concerns identified so far supporting entry. As usual, the teams will continue to review data to determine the possible cause, and verify no related concerns.
"The ISS crew and team are anxiously awaiting your arrival." Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EST and mission elapsed time; includes revision C of the NASA television schedule): EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT Tue 05:14 PM...01...13...00...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup Tue 06:29 PM...01...14...15...00...Group B computer powerup Tue 06:44 PM...01...14...30...00...Rendezvous timeline begins Tue 06:54 PM...01...14...40...00...ISS daily planning conference Tue 08:03 PM...01...15...49...08...NC-4 rendezvous rocket firing Tue 09:28 PM...01...17...14...14...TI burn Tue 10:02 PM...01...17...48...13...Range: 33,000 feet Tue 10:04 PM...01...17...50...11...Sunset Tue 10:19 PM...01...18...05...00...Spacesuits removed from airlock Tue 10:26 PM...01...18...12...50...Range: 10,000 feet Tue 10:35 PM...01...18...21...29...Range: 5,000 feet Tue 10:39 PM...01...18...25...29...Sunrise Tue 10:41 PM...01...18...26...58...Range: 3,000 feet Tue 10:45 PM...01...18...31...08...MC-4 rendezvous burn Tue 10:49 PM...01...18...35...08...Range: 1,500 feet Tue 10:51 PM...01...18...37...33...RPM start window open Tue 10:54 PM...01...18...40...08...Range: 1,000 feet Tue 10:57 PM...01...18...43...08...KU antenna to low power Tue 10:58 PM...01...18...44...08...+R bar arrival directly below ISS Tue 11:03 PM...01...18...49...20...Range: 600 feet Tue 11:05 PM...01...18...51...14...Start pitch maneuver Tue 11:07 PM...01...18...53...31...Noon Tue 11:13 PM...01...18...59...14...End pitch maneuver Tue 11:15 PM...01...19...01...28...RPM full photo window close Tue 11:15 PM...01...19...01...50...Initiate pitch up maneuver (575 ft) Tue 11:23 PM...01...19...09...52...RPM start window close Tue 11:27 PM...01...19...13...20...+V bar arrival; range: 310 feet Tue 11:28 PM...01...19...14...10...Range: 300 feet Tue 11:32 PM...01...19...18...20...Range: 250 feet Tue 11:35 PM...01...19...21...32...Sunset Tue 11:36 PM...01...19...22...30...Range: 200 feet Tue 11:39 PM...01...19...25...00...Range: 170 feet Tue 11:40 PM...01...19...26...40...Range: 150 feet Tue 11:44 PM...01...19...30...50...Range: 100 feet Tue 11:47 PM...01...19...33...50...Range: 75 feet Tue 11:52 PM...01...19...38...00...Range: 50 feet Tue 11:55 PM...01...19...41...20...Range: 30 feet; start stationkeeping 02/10 Wed 12:00 AM...01...19...46...20...End stationkeeping; push to dock Wed 12:04 AM...01...19...50...40...Range: 10 feet Wed 12:06 AM...01...19...52...21...DOCKING Wed 12:10 AM...01...19...56...51...Sunrise Wed 12:29 AM...01...20...15...00...Leak checks Wed 12:59 AM...01...20...45...00...Post docking laptop reconfig Wed 12:59 AM...01...20...45...00...Orbiter docking system preps Wed 12:59 AM...01...20...45...00...Group B computer powerdown Wed 01:19 AM...01...21...05...00...Hatch open Wed 02:04 AM...01...21...50...00...Welcome aboard! Wed 02:14 AM...01...22...00...00...Safety briefing Wed 02:39 AM...01...22...25...00...Spacesuits moved to ISS Wed 02:54 AM...01...22...40...00...Station arm (SSRMS) grapples OBSS Wed 03:29 AM...01...23...15...00...SSRMS unberths OBSS Wed 03:30 AM...01...23...16...00...Mission status briefing on NTV Wed 03:59 AM...01...23...45...00...Shuttle arm (SRMS) grapples OBSS Wed 04:14 AM...02...00...00...00...SSRMS ungrapples OBSS Wed 04:19 AM...02...00...05...00...Video playback Wed 04:54 AM...02...00...40...00...EVA-1: Equipment lock preps Wed 04:54 AM...02...00...40...00...ISS evening planning conference Wed 05:44 AM...02...01...30...00...REBA checkout Wed 07:15 AM...02...03...01...00...Atlas 5/SDO launch coverage Wed 07:44 AM...02...03...30...00...ISS crew sleep begins Wed 08:14 AM...02...04...00...00...STS crew sleep begins Wed 09:00 AM...02...04...46...00...Daily highlights Wed 01:30 PM...02...09...16...00...Flight director update Wed 04:14 AM...02...12...00...00...Crew wakeup
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MISSION INDEX |
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VIDEO:
PREVIEW OF FLIGHT DAY 3 ACTIVITIES 