STS-105 Status Report #12 – 16 Aug 2001 – 6:00 AM CDT

On the 1000th day

since the launch of the first module of the International Space Station,

Discovery’s astronauts were awakened shortly after 4 a.m. Central time

to the sounds of “The Marvelous Toy” by Tom Paxton for Mission

Specialist Dan Barry from his wife.

Barry and crewmate

Pat Forrester will conduct the first space walk of Discovery’s flight

to the International Space Station at around 9:30 this morning to install

the Early Ammonia Servicer on he station’s P6 truss structure. The servicing

unit contains spare ammonia that could be used in the station’s cooling

system, if needed.

They also will

attach an experiment to the station to expose samples of materials to

the space environment. Carrying the acronym MISSE, for Materials International

Space Station Experiment, it contains about 1,500 samples of materials

in two suitcase-like containers. The samples will remain outside the

station for about a year, then will be returned to Earth for analysis.

Discovery Commander

Scott Horowitz will operate the shuttle’s robotic arm during the space

walk. Pilot Rick Sturckow will serve as the space walk choreographer

from inside the shuttle’s cabin during the 6*-hour space walk, which

will be staged from Discovery’s airlock.

A second space

walk is planned for Saturday. Barry and Forrester will hook up heater

cables for another truss structure to be delivered to the station next

year.

Aboard the ISS,

the computers of the Zvezda Service Module once again commanded the

station’s gyroscopes to assume control of the orientation of the complex

at around 5 a.m. after Russian flight controllers completed their loading

of upgraded software commands to those computers. In the meantime, Discovery

maintained control of the complex until the computer upgrades were completed

with no impact to station operations.

While Barry and

Forrester conduct their space walk, the Expedition Three crew, Commander

Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail

Tyurin, will continue stowage of equipment and supplies inside the Leonardo

Multi-Purpose Logistics Module for return to Earth. The Italian-built

pressurized module brought almost 7,000 pounds of equipment, supplies

and two scientific experiment racks to the station.

At 7:10 this morning,

Culbertson and his crewmates plan to offer a few commemorative words

to mark the 1000th day in space for the International Space Station

since the Zarya module was launched on November 20, 1998 from the Baikonur

Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Discovery and

the station are orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an average altitude

of 244 statute miles with all systems functioning normally. The next

status report will be issued about 6 p.m. Thursday, or earlier, if events

warrant.