[sarex] STS-114 MCC Status Report #04

["ARTHUR Z. ROWE" <N1ORC@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468


STS-114 MCC Status Report #04
Wednesday, July 27, 2005 – 11:45 p.m. CDT
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

Visitors on a Space Shuttle will arrive at the International Space 
Station for the first time in over two years today. The Space Shuttle 
Discovery is scheduled to catch up and dock to the Station at 6:18 a.m. 
CDT Thursday.

During Discovery’s approach to the Station, Commander Eileen Collins 
will pause with the orbiter 600 feet below the Station and perform the 
first Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver. The motion will flip the Shuttle end 
over end at three quarters of a degree per second as the Station 
residents look on with digital cameras at the ready. The flip will 
provide Expedition 11 crewmembers, Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips, 
about 93 seconds to photograph the underside of Discovery and its 
heat-resistant tiles in detail.

The images from Station will be downlinked and added to the host of 
imagery and data obtained during Discovery’s launch and Wednesday’s 
robotic surveys that engineers are analyzing. Imagery released Wednesday 
showed a piece of foam being shed from the external tank during 
Discovery’s ascent. Other photos showed a variety of smaller tile and 
foam dings that will be reviewed over the next several days. The crew 
will also downlink the video taken of the External Tank as it fell away 
from Discovery on Tuesday and video of the clearance between the Orbiter 
Boom Sensor System and the Ku-band antenna for review.

Once Discovery’s crew has had a safety briefing from the Space Station 
crew, both crews get to work with more robotic operations to prepare for 
additional surveys. Discovery Pilot Jim Kelly, Mission Specialist Wendy 
Lawrence, with assistance from Phillips, will operate the Space Station 
robotic arm, Canadarm2, from inside the Destiny Lab. They will use the 
arm to lift the Orbiter Boom Sensor System from the payload bay sill and 
hand it over to the Shuttle arm. Mission Specialists Charlie Camarda and 
Andy Thomas will operate the Shuttle arm. Clearance restraints around 
the Shuttle’s docking mechanism do not allow the Shuttle arm to grapple 
the boom on its own.

Spacewalkers Steve Robinson and Soichi Noguchi have two hours to prepare 
their tools and equipment for their three spacewalks. Among other 
things, the first spacewalk Saturday will test thermal protection system 
repair techniques. Two other spacewalks will repair and install critical 
hardware outside the Station.

Discovery’s crew was awakened at 10:39 p.m. CDT by “It’s a Wonderful 
World“ by Louis Armstrong for Camarda. The Station crew was awakened at 
the same time by a tone onboard.

The next STS-114 mission status report will be issued Thursday 
afternoon, or earlier, if events warrant.
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