STS-100 Status Report #21 – 29 Apr 2001 – 5:00 AM CDT
Endeavour’s crew and the crew of the International Space Station will say
farewell today, ending an eight-day visit by the shuttle that saw deliverey
a new robotic arm and more than six tons of supplies and equipment to the
complex, including two scientific experiment racks for the U.S. laboratory
Destiny.
The crews are plan to close the hatches between the two spacecraft at 9:41
a.m.. Endeaovur is scheduled to undock from the station at 12:34 p.m. With
Pilot Jeff Ashby at the controls, the shuttle will back away to distance of
about 450 feet to perform a three-quarters circle of the station which will
include a special maneuver to allow filming by a payload bay-mounted IMAX
camera. At 1:32 p.m., Ashby will fire Endeavour’s jets to separate the
vicinity of the station and put Endeavour on course for a 7:59 a.m. CDT
Tuesday landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Aboard the station, all three command and control computers – one primary
and two backups — are on line and operating well. One, the primary
computer, has full capabilities. Of the two backups, one is functioning but
has a failed hard drive. The third is working but flight controllers are
still bringing up its hard drive.
After Endeavour undocks today, the station crew will have the afternoon off
duty. A Russian Aviation and Space Agency Soyuz spacecraft with a crew of
three – Commander Talgat Musabaev, Flight Engineer Yuri Baturin and American
businessman Dennis Tito — is planned to dock with the station at 2:52 a.m.
Monday. The Soyuz, which will replace the Soyuz now docked to the station as
a space "lifeboat" for the complex, is trailing the complex by
about 6,000 statute miles.
Endeavour’s crew was awakened this morning by the song "Miles from
Nowhere," performed by Cat Stevens and played for Ashby in anticipation
of today’s undocking. A crew news conference for Endeavour’s crew is
tentatively planned for Monday morning.
The next mission status report will be issued Sunday evening or when events
warrant.
