STS-102 Status Report #19 – 17 Mar 2001 – 8 AM CST

The crews of Discovery
and the International Space Station spent their day carefully packing
the Leonardo cargo transfer module and reboosting the station’s
orbit.

Mission Specialist
Andy Thomas coordinated the loading of about a ton of materials and
equipment into the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module with
help from Pilot Jim Kelly and Mission Specialist Paul Richards. The
astronauts are to exit the module at 8:42 p.m. CST, deactivate it at
9:02 p.m. and uncouple it from the station at 11:52 p.m. Using the shuttle’s
robotic arm, they are to latch it in the payload bay at 12:57 a.m. Sunday.

Commander Jim Wetherbee
set in motion the third and final reboost of the station’s altitude
by executing a programmed series of gentle steering jet firings. The
third reboost raised the shuttle altitude two statute miles, making
the total reboost imparted during the STS-102 mission a little more
than seven statute miles.

Departing Expedition
One Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer
Sergei Krikalev concentrated on sharing their handover notes with Expedition
Two Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim
Voss.

Kelly, Richards
and Thomas took time to answer questions from NBC News’ Weekend
Today Show and ABC News. About an hour later, Usachev, Gidzenko and
Krikalev talked with reporters gathered in the Russian Mission Control
Center in Korolev, outside Moscow.

Discovery is scheduled
to undock from the station at 10:32 p.m. Sunday. When Discovery undocks
from the station, it will mark the end of the Expedition One crew’s
136-day stay onboard the outpost, beginning with their Nov. 2 arrival
onboard a Soyuz spacecraft.

The shuttle and
station remain in excellent health orbiting Earth at an altitude of
approximately 235 statute miles.

The next Mission
Control Center status report will be issued Saturday evening.