STS-106 Status Report # 20 September 17, 2000 – 7:00 p.m. CDT
Following a successful
week of docked operations, the seven astronauts aboard Shuttle Atlantis
will depart the International Space Station later this evening, leaving
behind the more than three tons (6,600 pounds) of supplies and equipment
that was transferred to the orbiting facility.
Commander Terry
Wilcutt, Pilot Scott Altman along with Mission Specialists Ed Lu, Rick
Mastracchio, Dan Burbank, Yuri Malenchenko and Boris Morukov received
their wake up call from Mission Control at 6:46 p.m. Central. The wake
up song, "YMCA" was played for Scott Altman at the request
of his wife.
The seven STS-106
astronauts will shortly begin the final preparations for undocking.
Atlantis is scheduled to separate from the station at 10:44 p.m. while
the two spacecraft are flying over the northeastern portion of the Ukraine.
The initial separation
will be performed by springs in the docking mechanism that will gently
push the shuttle away from the station. Both Atlantis and the station’s
steering jets will be shut off to avoid any inadvertent firings during
this initial separation.
Once the docking
mechanism’s springs have pushed Atlantis away to a distance of about
two feet, when the docking devices will be clear of one another, Altman
will turn the shuttle’s steering jets back on and fire them to begin
very slowly moving away from the station. From the aft flight deck,
Altman will manually control Atlantis within a tight corridor as he
separates from the station, essentially reversing the task performed
by Wilcutt when Atlantis docked.
Atlantis will continue
away to a distance of about 450 feet, where Altman will begin the close
fly-around of the station, first crossing a point directly behind, then
directly underneath and then again above the station. Altman will circle
the station twice in 90 minutes as the crew records views of the exterior
with still photography and video. As Atlantis crosses directly above
the station for the second time, Altman will fire Atlantis’ jets to
perform a final separation.
Early on Monday,
all seven astronauts will conduct an in-flight press conference during
which they will answer questions from reporters at various NASA centers
and the Russian mission control center outside of Moscow. The press
conference is scheduled to begin at 2:11 a.m. CDT.
Atlantis’ astronauts
will get some off duty time just after 3 a.m. Central before they turn
in for an eight hour sleep period at 9:46 a.m. When they wake up early
Monday evening, the crew will checkout the orbiter systems used for
reentry and landing and secure equipment and transfer items in preparation
for landing at Kennedy Space Center at 2:56 a.m. Central on Wednesday.
