STS-114 MCC Status Report #18

STS-114 MCC Status Report #18

Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2005 - 11 p.m. CDT
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

After an eventful day supporting the third spacewalk of the mission, a light
duty day of transfer activities, special events and time off lies ahead for
the Space Shuttle Discovery crew as they begin their tenth day in space.

The seven-member Shuttle crew awoke to the well-known country song "Amarillo
by Morning," performed by George Strait, at 10:09 p.m. CDT. Their Station
counterparts, the Expedition 11 crew of Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight
Engineer and NASA ISS Science Officer John Phillips, woke up 30 minutes
later.

The morning includes an in-flight media interview for Commander Eileen
Collins, and Mission Specialists Steve Robinson and Charlie Camarda.
Elsewhere on the complex, Pilot Jim Kelly and Mission Specialist Wendy
Lawrence will be performing a few robotic arm operations, as they release
the Station's Canadarm2 from the Mobile Base System and attach it to the
Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM). That task is being done in
preparation for return of the MPLM to Discovery's payload bay.

Midway through the crew day, at about 4:19 a.m. CDT, Japanese Aerospace and
Exploration Agency Astronaut Soichi Noguchi and Collins will participate in
a special video conference with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi;
and Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Nariaki
Nakayama. JAXA Astronaut Dr. Mamoru Mohri and several Japanese students and
citizens will also participate in the call.

Later, Robinson, Camarda and Noguchi will continue stowage of equipment and
supplies in the MPLM on the Shuttle and Space Station. Phillips and Krikalev
will help with that activity as well before all of the crewmembers stop to
share a special evening meal together.

About an hour later, at 7:04 a.m. CDT, the joint crews have planned a
commemorative in-flight event paying tribute to the STS-107 Columbia crew.
That event will air on NASA TV. The remainder of the day will be off-duty
time for the Shuttle crew as they prepare for the final days of their
mission.

Phillips and Krikalev will spend about two hours configuring the Common
Berthing Mechanism for the MPLM removal before ending their workday with
routine daily planning conference with ground controllers.

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

--
--------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info