NASA STS-134 Report #27 6:30 a.m. CDT Sunday, May 29, 2011
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
HOUSTON – Farewells and the closure of hatches between Endeavour and the International Space Station wound up 11 days of joint operations between crews of the two spacecraft.
Much of the day was devoted to preparations for Endeavour’s departure. They included a joint crew photo, goodbyes and the closing of the hatches at 6:23 a.m. CDT Sunday.
Endeavour Commander Mark Kelly said it was a successful mission. Station Flight Engineer Ron Garan said he was ,in awe 0/00 of what a finely honed machine STS-134 had been. He thanked the Endeavour crew for ,leaving station ready for continued utilization. 0/00
During its visit to the station, Endeavour and its crew delivered the 15,000-pound, $2-billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and a spare parts carrier. Endeavour crew members did four successful spacewalks, accomplishing a number of maintenance and installation tasks.
Final transfers of equipment and supplies between the shuttle and station, stowage of spacewalk tools and completion of a major maintenance task were the focus of the day in space.
Mission Specialist Mike Fincke wrapped up a difficult replacement of the carbon dioxide removal assembly’s desiccant/sorbent bed he and Mission Specialist Greg Chamitoff had begun the day before. Fincke finished the installation of the CDRA in its Tranquility node slot during his morning.
Chamitoff and Mission Specialist Andrew Feustel completed the stowage of spacewalk tools. Feustel and other crew members worked to finish final movement of equipment, experiments and supplies, most now moving from the station to Endeavour.
Early in their day Pilot Greg Johnson and Feustel talked with representatives of WJRT-TV in Flint, Mich., WJBK-TV in Detroit, WKYC-TV in Cleveland and WXMI-TV in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Early Sunday, just after midnight, Endeavour used its small vernier jets to reboost the station, raising its altitude by about 3,150 feet.
After hatch closure, crew members will prepare for their departure from the station. Mission Specialist Roberto Vittori and Chamitoff checked out rendezvous tools. Feustel did some preparatory work with the tests of the automated rendezvous device called STORRM (for Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation). The test, begun during Endeavour’s rendezvous, will continue during and after undocking with a re-rendezvous after the fly-around of the station.
Endeavour’s undocking is scheduled for about 10:55 p.m. Sunday. The first landing opportunity would see the shuttle touch down at Kennedy Space Center at 1:35 a.m. Wednesday.
