STS-106 Status Report # 15 Sept. 15, 2000 – 7 a.m. CDT

The International
Space Station got another boost overnight, as STS-106 Commander Terry
Wilcutt and Pilot Scott Altman executed another hour-long series of
thruster firings designed to raise the station’s orbit by several
more miles.

Thirty-six pulses
of Atlantis’ reaction control system thrusters boosted the station
another 3 ½ miles (5.6 km). The third reboost of the mission
placed the ISS in a 237 by 229 statute mile orbit (381 x 368 km). One
more reboost maneuver is scheduled Sunday before the shuttle undocks
from the station.

Mission Specialists
Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko spent much of their day installing power
converters in the Zvezda module. These will allow current from U.S.
solar arrays to be used in the Russian modules. The first set of these
large arrays is scheduled to be installed on the station in early December.

The crew took a
closer look at the connections on one of Zvezda’s eight batteries
that is not working properly. Mission managers have elected to disconnect
cables from the battery and do no further work since seven of the eight
batteries are working fine. As few as five can supply enough electrical
capability when a crew is stationed on the ISS.

Lu and Malenchenko
also installed components of the Elektron system in Zvezda. That equipment,
sent into orbit aboard the Progress, separates water into oxygen and
hydrogen and will be used to replenish the air in the station. The system
will be activated after arrival of the first station crew.

Mission Specialists
Rick Mastracchio, Dan Burbank and Boris Morukov concentrated their efforts
on transferring, organizing and stowing equipment and supplies from
Atlantis to the station. The 1,300 pounds of gear aboard the Progress
cargo spacecraft that is docked to the aft end of the Zvezda module
already has been unloaded, and that vehicle is now being utilized as
a trash container that eventually will be remotely undocked to burn
up harmlessly in the Earth’s atmosphere.

So far, 3,700 pounds
of hardware and supplies has been moved into the ISS, including six,
100 pound bags of water, all the food for the first resident crew, office
supplies, onboard environmental supplies, a vacuum cleaner and a computer
and monitor.

Atlantis’
astronauts will go to bed mid-morning today and will be awakened from
Mission Control at 6:46 this evening. Their next workday will focus
on the assembly of the station’s treadmill exercise equipment.

The next STS-106
status report will be issued at 7 p.m. today or sooner if events warrant.

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