STS-105 Status Report – 16 Aug 2001 – 6:00PM CDT

Astronauts Dan

Barry and Pat Forrester completed the first of two planned space walks

during Discoveryís voyage to the International Space Station. The excursion

lasted 6 hours, 16 minutes and involved installing the Early Ammonia

Servicer and the first external experiment on the stationís hull. The

servicer contains spare ammonia that can be used in the space station’s

cooling systems if needed. The Materials ISS Experiment (pronounced

ëmissyí by its acronym) will expose 750 material samples to the space

environment for about 18 months before being returned home late next

year. During the space walk, Discoveryís Commander Scott Horowitz operated

the shuttle robot arm, and Pilot Rick Sturckow choreographed the space

walk from the orbiterís flight deck. This was the 25th space walk devoted

to the construction of the space station and the 12th this year. Barry

and Forrester will perform the missionís second space walk on Saturday

to hook up heater cables for another truss structure to be delivered

to the station next year. Mission managers Friday will evaluate the

consumables onboard Discovery and assess the progress made by the crews

in transferring items into the Leonardo logistics module from the station

before making a determination as to whether the docked phase of the

flight should be extended by one day.

Earlier today,

the computers inside the Zvezda module once again assumed control of

the stationís attitude ñ or position in space — after Russian flight

controllers completed the 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.

The Expedition

Three crew –Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and

Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin — earlier today offered commemorative

remarks on the occasion of the 1000th day in space for the International

Space Station since the Zarya module was launched on Nov. 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 a.m. Friday, or earlier, if events

warrant.