NASA STS-134 Report #16 8 p.m. CDT Monday, May 23, 2011
HOUSTON – The combined Endeavour and International Space Station crew is now down to nine following the first Soyuz departure in history while a space shuttle was docked to the station.
Following the 4:35 p.m. CDT departure, a similarly unprecedented photo session from the Soyuz documented the 1 million pound complex while shuttle remained docked, and the station was commanded to slowly rotate for the photographer.
With former station commander Dmitry Kondratyev manually controlling the spacecraft, European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli climbed into its
habitation module and documented the view of the station and shuttle from a distance of about 600 feet. NASA astronaut Cady Coleman also is returning home on the Soyuz, which is scheduled to land in Kazakhstan at 9:26 p.m.
The Expedition 27 crew members departed about two hours after the Endeavour astronauts, sleep period had begun. Endeavour’s crew had most of the day off.
The Endeavour crew, and now Expedition 28 flight engineer Ron Garan, were awakened at 7:26 p.m. to the song “Svegliarsi La Mattina (Woke Up This Morning)” by the Italian duo Zero Assoluto, uplinked especially for Mission Specialist Roberto Vittori of Italy.
STS-134 commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Greg Johnson, and Mission Specialists Andrew Feustel and Mike Fincke and Greg Chamitoff will lend their hands to space station tasks, installing a new filter inside the Oxygen Generation System to provide continuous carbon dioxide scrubbing whenever the oxygen system’s recirculation loop is running.
Spacewalkers Fincke and Feustel will review procedures for Wednesday’s third spacewalk of the mission, along with intravehicular choreographer Chamitoff and the rest of the team. Fincke and Feustel will get ready for the first use of the In-Suit Light Exercise
Two interviews also are scheduled, the first with San Francisco and Sacramento reporters, and the second with Pittsburgh and Houston reporters.
The next status report will be issued after crew sleep periods begins around 10:26 a.m. Wednesday, or earlier if warranted.
