NASA STS-117 Status Report #24 6 a.m. CDT Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

Seven astronauts on space shuttle Atlantis are preparing themselves and their orbiter for a planned Thursday landing to wrap up the year’s first International Space Station assembly mission.

The astronauts’ wakeup call came at 5:08 a.m. with “If I Had $1000000” by Barenaked Ladies, played for Mission Specialist Suni Williams, who’s in the 193rd day of her spaceflight.

The entire crew will be involved in routine deorbit preparations by 8:10 a.m., starting by stowing items in the crew cabin.

At 8:58 a.m. Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault, and Mission Specialist and Flight Engineer Steven Swanson will power up one of the auxiliary power units and conduct a checkout of the orbiter’s flight control surfaces, and at 10:08 a.m. begin a test firing of each of Atlantis’ reaction control system jets to ensure that both systems are ready for deorbit and landing. All seven crew members gather for a deorbit briefing at 11:28 a.m.

The shuttle astronauts take a break from packing at 2:03 p.m. to talk about the flight in interviews with NBC News, ABC News and CNN Live, then return to packing up for landing. The schedule calls for stowage of the Ku-band communications antenna at 5:58 p.m., just before Mission Specialist Jim Reilly and Williams set up a recumbent seat on the middeck for Williams to use during entry and landing.

The International Space Station’s crew is enjoying a day off duty as they shift their sleep cycle. Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson are scheduled to go to sleep at 4:30 p.m. and get up at 1 a.m. tomorrow, returning to the normal station wakeup time.

The next STS-117 status report will be issued Wednesday evening or earlier if events warrant.