STS-121 MCC Status Report #02

a.m. CDT, Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

07.05.06
STATUS REPORT: STS-121-02


STS-121 MCC Status Report #02

Discovery's astronauts are awake and ready to begin their first full day in
space. Today the crew will focus on thermal protection system inspections,
preparing for docking to the International Space Station and getting
spacesuits ready for two and perhaps three spacewalks.

Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike
Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Thomas Reiter got
their wakeup call at 4:08 a.m. CDT, allowing them an extra 30 minutes of
sleep after their first day in space ran long. The wakeup song was "Lift
Every Voice and Sing" performed by the New Galveston Chorale.

Four crewmembers will spend much of the day looking for damage to
Discovery's thermal protection system. Lindsey, Kelly, Fossum and Nowak will
use the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), a 50-foot boom on the end of the
shuttle's robotic Canadarm, to look at the wings' leading edges and the nose
cap.

The task involves about 6½ hours of intense work for the crew members.
Actual data takes will total about an hour, 20 minutes for each wing and the
nose cap. The rest of that time is devoted to very careful movement of the
Canadarm and the OBSS.

Later, after lunch, Nowak and Wilson will return the OBSS to its berth on
the starboard sill of Discovery's cargo bay. Then they and Fossum will use
cameras on the shuttle arm to photograph the outside of Discovery's cabin.
That activity should take about an hour.

Wilson also will take digital hand-held camera photos of the orbital
maneuvering system pods at the base of the shuttle's vertical tail fin.

Photos and sensor readings from the shuttle, as well as photos of launch and
ascent from more than 100 ground-based and airborne cameras and radar and
instrument data, will be reviewed by experts on the ground. The data, photos
by the station crew and information from subsequent arm surveys at the
station and after undocking, will be used to determine if Discovery
sustained damage during launch and ascent or in space, to ensure that it is
safe for the shuttle to re-enter the atmosphere to land.

In other activities today, Wilson and Reiter will get items on the middeck
ready for transfer to the station. Spacewalkers Fossum and Sellers, helped
by Kelly, the intravehicular officer who will coach the spacewalkers, will
check out spacesuits.

Nowak and Sellers will extend the shuttle docking ring which will help
secure Discovery to the station. Just before the shuttle crew goes to bed,
Kelly and Sellers will check out and prepare docking tools, including laptop
computers.

At 3:30 a.m., Discovery was trailing the station by 9,573 statute miles and
closing at a rate of 870 statute miles per orbit. Docking is scheduled for
9:52 a.m. Thursday.

Today the space station crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Science
Officer Jeff Williams, will continue to prepare the orbiting laboratory for
Discovery's arrival. They will ready the digital cameras with 400mm and
800mm lenses they will use during Discovery's approach to take
high-resolution photos of the shuttle's heat shield. They also will
pressurize the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 at the end of the U.S.
laboratory Destiny, where Discovery is scheduled to dock.

The next STS-121 mission status report will be issued Wednesday evening, or
earlier if events warrant.


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.nl