There are 2 messages totalling 63 lines in this issue

Topics of the day:

1. STS-126 MCC Status Report #04
2. STS-126 MCC Status Report #05

Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 09:44:14 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: STS-126 MCC Status Report #04

STS-126 Report #04 9 a m Sunday, Nov 16, 2008 Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – It’s arrival day The space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station a little after 4 p m CST

The seven members of shuttle Endeavour’s crew, Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Don Pettit, Steve Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Shane Kimbrough and Sandra Magnus, were awakened at 8:25 a m CST for rendezvous and docking day The wakeup music was “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones It was played for Magnus

Endeavour’s approach to the station includes a photo session When the spacecraft is about 600 feet below the station, Ferguson will fly the spacecraft through the rendezvous pitch maneuver That nine-minute backflip lets the station crew take high resolution photos of the shuttle’s thermal protection system

Station Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke will use a digital camera with an 800 mm lens and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff will have a camera with a 400 mm lens From windows of the station’s Zvezda service module they will take as many as 300 photos, which will be analyzed by engineers to make sure the thermal protection system is safe for re-entry

Ferguson, with help from the rest of the crew, will then fly Endeavour to a point about 400 feet in front of the station There he will begin the final approach, at about a tenth of a foot per second He will keep the docking mechanisms aligned to a three-inch tolerance as Endeavour moves to a docking with Pressurized Mating Adaptor 2 at the forward end of the station’s Harmony node

Shortly after docking, hatch opening and a safety briefing, Magnus will become a member of the Expedition 18 crew She and station Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov will install her custom seat liner in the Soyuz TMA spacecraft docked to the station At that time, Chamitoff will become a member of the Endeavour crew

Transfer of equipment and supplies between Endeavour and the station is scheduled to begin about three hours after docking The crew is scheduled to go to bed at 12:25 a m Monday and be awakened at 8:25 a m The next shuttle status report will be issued at the end of the crew day, or earlier if events warrant

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NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Status Reports and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to listserv@listserver jsc nasa gov In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes) This will add the e-mail address that sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail

Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:20:32 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: STS-126 MCC Status Report #05

STS-126 Report #05 7:30 p m CST Sunday, Nov 16, 2008 Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – The space shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station at 4:01 p m CST, carrying the Leonardo logistics module with over 14,000 pounds of cargo for the complex

Endeavour Commander Chris Ferguson guided the shuttle to a docking with the station as the two spacecraft flew 212 miles above the northern border of India, near China Before closing the final 600 feet to the station, Ferguson flew the shuttle through a slow backflip, allowing the station’s Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff to take photos that ground experts will review to assess the health of Endeavour’s heat shield

The shuttle and station crews opened hatches and greeted one another at 6:16 p m , beginning more than a week of joint operations between the two crews The crews will collaborate on the delivery of the key life support and habitability systems that will enable long-term, self-sustaining station operations for a six-person resident crew The crews also will conduct four spacewalks to service and lubricate the station’s two Solar Alpha Rotary Joints that allow its solar arrays to track the sun

Transfer of equipment and supplies between Endeavour’s middeck and the station began and the Leonardo cargo module will be installed on the station Monday so that its contents can be unloaded

Endeavour also brought astronaut Sandra Magnus to the station, who will officially take over for Chamitoff as a member of the station crew tonight when her custom Soyuz seatliner is installed Chamitoff – who will then formally be a mission specialist aboard the shuttle – will return home after 167 days as a station crew member

The crews used the station robotic arm to hand off the Orbiter Boom Sensor System to the shuttle robotic arm in case it is needed for further orbiter heat shield inspections

The crew is scheduled to go to bed at 12:25 a m Monday and be awakened at 8:25 a m The next shuttle status report will be issued after crew wake, or earlier if events warrant

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NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Status Reports and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to listserv@listserver jsc nasa gov In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes) This will add the e-mail address that sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail

End of HSFNEWS Digest - 16 Nov 2008 to 17 Nov 2008 (#2008-120)

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