Friday, July 17, 2009

Live in Orbit: It's docking day! Crew wakes


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Endeavour will dock with the International Space Station at 1:55 p.m. EDT today, uniting the shuttle crew of seven astronauts with the six crew members aboard the station. Never have so many humans orbited the Earth in one spacecraft.

Wake up of the Endeavour crew took place at 7:03 a.m. EDT.

Before docking, commander Mark Polansky will execute a backflip maneuver, pointing Eneavour's thermal tiles toward the station to allow still and video photography of the underside.

Though NASA is studying several dings, a heat shield inspection Thursday showed no significant damage to Endeavour from about a dozen pieces of foam that broke off the external tank during Wednesday's launch.

"There is nothing that we have seen on the orbiter that causes us any concern," NASA Shuttle Program Manager John Shannon said Thursday.



A terminal iniatiation burn at 11:17 a.m. EDT will bring Endeavour in on its final approach to the International Space Station. Docking is scheduled for 1:55 p.m. EDT

The wake-up song was "Here Comes the Sun," written by George Harrison. It was chosen by commander Mark Polansky's wife and kids

Shannon Lucid, spacecraft communicator, warned the crew that they might face times of uneven communiation today, as the crew prepared to dump wastewater.

Endeavour and seven astronauts will deliver the third and final section of the Japanese Kibo science research facility.

Five spacewalks are scheduled. Only seven shuttle missions remain.

1 comment:

Rocksince72 said...

Anyone at FT see the story on FOX or Reuters web page? http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE56A1MD20090717