Status Report

ISS Status Report 12 July 2000

By SpaceRef Editor
July 12, 2000
Filed under

INTERNATIONAL
SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT #00-27
2 a.m. CDT, Wednesday, July 12, 2000
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

Destined to soon
transform the International Space Station into a new home in orbit,
the Russian-built Zvezda living quarters module lifted off flawlessly
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 11:56 p.m. CDT Tuesday.

Only 15 minutes
after its launch aboard a Russian Proton booster, the new module was
safely in orbit, with its antennas, solar arrays and other exterior
equipment perfectly extended. The module is now operating well in an
orbit with a high point of about 221 statute miles and a low point of
115 statute miles. During the next two weeks, flight controllers at
the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, Russia, will continue
to activate and check out the module’s systems, fire its engines periodically
to adjust its orbit, and prepare for a docking with the International
Space Station.

On July 25, the
International Space Station will begin a final rendezvous with Zvezda,
culminating in a docking planned at about 7:45 p.m. CDT. The launch
of Zvezda begins a rapid series of flights to the station, and a rapid
expansion of the orbital outpost. A Russian Progress cargo spacecraft
is next targeted for a launch to the station on Aug. 6 with a docking
on Aug. 8; the Shuttle Atlantis is targeted for launch on Sept. 8 to
open the doors to the new living quarters for the first time; and the
Shuttle Discovery is targeted for a launch Oct. 5 on a mission that
will begin the heart of station construction, carrying aloft an exterior
framework and third mating adapter. The first three-person resident
crew is targeted to begin a four-month stay aboard the station a month
later, bringing the new outpost to life.

Those flights,
among the most complex and difficult missions NASA has ever attempted,
and the ones that will quickly follow in 2001 — U.S. solar arrays,
the first U.S. laboratory, a new generation of space robotics built
by Canada, logistical modules built by Italy, and a station airlock
from the U.S. — will turn the station into the largest, most powerful
and most sophisticated spacecraft ever built by the end of next year.

NOTE: The next
Mission Control Center ISS Status Report will be issued as needed according
to ongoing mission activities. For further information, please contact
the NASA Public Affairs Office at the Johnson Space Center, Houston,
Texas, 281-483-5111.

-END-

SpaceRef staff editor.