Status Report

STS-98 Status Report #09 11 Feb 2001 7:00 PM CST

By SpaceRef Editor
February 11, 2001
Filed under ,

The crews of Atlantis

and the International Space Station today opened the newly attached

Destiny laboratory and spent the first full day of what are planned

to be years of work ahead inside the orbiting science and command center.

Station Commander

Bill Shepherd opened the Destiny hatch, and he and Shuttle Commander

Ken Cockrell ventured inside at 8:38 a.m. Central. Members of both crews

went to work quickly inside the new module, activating air systems,

fire extinguishers, alarm systems, computers and internal communications.

The crew also continued equipment transfers from the shuttle to the

station and filmed several scenes onboard the station using an IMAX

camera. Cockrell also set Atlantis steering jets to fire periodically

over the course of several hours to gradually boost the station and

shuttle’s altitude by almost five miles. The reboost was the first of

three such maneuvers that will be performed while Atlantis is docked.

When complete, the reboosts will increase the station’s altitude by

more than 18 miles.

After a full day

working side by side, the station and shuttle crews parted company at

4:40 p.m., closing the hatches in preparation for a second spacewalk

by Astronauts Tom Jones and Bob Curbeam on Monday. After the hatches

closed, Shuttle Pilot Mark Polansky reduced Atlantis’ cabin pressure

slightly while Jones and Curbeam wore oxygen masks, part of a protocol

to purge nitrogen from the bodies of spacewalkers. The protocol prevents

the spacewalkers from suffering decompression sickness when they go

to the extremely low-pressure environment of spacesuits. Monday’s space

walk will be highlighted by the movement of a station docking port,

called Pressurized Mating Adapter 2, from a temporary storage location

to a permanent position at the end of the Destiny lab, where it will

serve as the primary shuttle docking port for future missions. During

their space walk, Jones and Curbeam also will install several handrails

and slidewires on Destiny’s hull for use by future space walkers.

Jones and Curbeam

will begin donning their spacesuits at about 6:43 a.m. Central on Monday.

Just before 9 a.m., Astronaut Marsha Ivins will power up Atlantis’ robotic

arm. She will latch onto the mating adapter about 20 minutes later.

Jones and Curbeam are to exit Atlantis’ cabin and begin their work outside

at 9:43 a.m., providing visual cues as Ivins in maneuvers the adapter

into place. The spacewalk is planned to conclude at 4:13 p.m. Central.

As the spacewalk winds down, other work inside the station and shuttle

will command large gyroscopes to begin spinning, a key space station

system that will control the complex’s stability without consuming propellant.

The spin-up of the station’s four Control Moment Gyroscopes is planned

to start at 3:43 p.m.

The station and

shuttle crews will go to sleep at 8:13 p.m. Central today. The shuttle

crew is to awaken at 4:13 a.m. Monday and the station crew is to awaken

half an hour later. The Johnson Space Center newsroom will close at

8 p.m. and reopen at 4 a.m. Monday. The next mission status report will

be issued at 5 a.m. Monday.

SpaceRef staff editor.