SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468
6 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2006
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
STS-115 MCC Status Report #21
Space Shuttle managers today decided to extend Atlantis' stay in space
to allow for additional inspections of the spacecraft to be performed.
The decision to pursue additional inspections was made this morning
after video from cameras aboard the shuttle showed a piece of debris in
close proximity to the vehicle.
Also, the weather forecast for a landing on Wednesday had called for
poor conditions, and Atlantis has plentiful supplies aboard to allow
multiple landing attempts as late as Saturday. Atlantis is now aimed
toward a landing on Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Engineers are concerned the debris seen could be something that came
loose from Atlantis. They will use the extra time to verify the shuttle
is in good shape for the trip home.
Atlantis' crew -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and mission
specialists Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Steve MacLean -- will use the shuttle's
robotic arm on Wednesday to inspect the spacecraft. The crew began a
sleep period at 12:45 p.m. CDT today and will awaken at 8:45 p.m. CDT.
Before going to sleep, the crew positioned the arm above the payload
bay, and Mission Control has used its cameras to survey the top side of
the shuttle. The cameras on the robotic arm will later be used by the
crew to inspect areas on the underside of Atlantis.
Atlantis' primary landing opportunity to Kennedy on Thursday begins with
a deorbit engine firing at 4:14 am. CDT and culminates in a touchdown at
5:22 a.m. CDT.
Meanwhile, the International Space Station's next crew, Expedition 14
Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Soyuz Commander and Flight Engineer
Mikhail Tyurin are closing in on the complex. With them is Spaceflight
Participant Anousheh Ansari, a U.S. businesswoman who will spend eight
days on the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian
Federal Space Agency. They will dock their Soyuz spacecraft to the
station at 12:24 a.m. CDT Wednesday.
Aboard the station, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight
Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer
Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut, will open hatches to
greet their new arrivals at 3:10 a.m. CDT Wednesday. The station crew
spent some additional time earlier today gathering data on the Elektron
oxygen generating system's overheating malfunction. Russian engineers
are continuing to evaluate the system's malfunction and future repairs.
Repair work is not planned to be performed while the crew hands over
operations of the complex to Expedition 14. Oxygen supplies on the
station are plentiful, and the cabin air will be refreshed using oxygen
canisters and tanks until the Elektron is repaired.
