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11/24/09: STS-129: astronauts close hatches between Atlantis and the ISS.
Mission Control Center Status Report #17
3 p.m. CST Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009
, Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
Mission: STS-129
Orbiter: Atlantis
Launch Pad: 39A
Launch Date: NET Nov 16, 2009, 14:28:09 EST (19:28:09 UT)
Landing: Nov 27, 2009
Main gear touchdown: 09:44:23 EST
Nose gear touchdown: 09:44:36 EST
Wheels stop: 09:45:05 EST
Orbital Altitude: 122 nautical miles (140 miles)
Orbital Insertion: 191 nautical miles (220 miles)
Orbital Inclination: 51.6 degrees
Distance traveled: ~4.5 million miles
Crew:- Commander: Charles O. Hobaugh; Pilot: Barry E. Wilmore; Mission Specialists:- MS1 Leland D Melvin, MS2 Randolph Bresnik, MS3 Michael Foreman, MS4 Robert Satcher, MS5 (landing) Nicole Stott.
Primary Payload: ExPRESS (Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station) Logistics Carriers ELC1 and ELC2:-
ExPRESS Logistics Carrier-1 manifest:- Ammonia Tank Assembly; Battery Charge Discharge Unit; Space Station Remote Manipulator System Latching End Effector; Control Moment Gyro; Nitrogen Tank Assembly; Pump Module; Plasma Contactor Unit; two empty Passive Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanisms.
ExPRESS Logistics Carrier-2 manifest:- High Pressure Gas Tank; Cargo Transport Container 1 (CTC-1) mounted to a Small Adapter Plate Assembly; Mobile Transporter/Trailing Umbilical System; Control Moment Gyro; Nitrogen Tank Assembly; Pump Module; Utility Transfer Assembly (UTA) Flight Support Equipment (FSE); one empty Payload Passive Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanism.
Atlantis and International Space Station crew members closed the hatches linking their two spacecraft at 12:12 p.m. CST in preparation for the shuttle’s undocking and return home.
The two have been docked since 10:51 a.m. last Wednesday and hatches opened at 12:28 p.m. that day. The crews were linked through open hatches for 5 days, 23 hours and 44 minutes.
Atlantis brought to the station more than 14 tons of cargo, including two large carriers with heavy spare parts and installed them. The shuttle also carried about a ton of cargo in its crew cabin. It is bringing home about the same weight of cabin cargo from the orbiting laboratory. Atlantis astronauts did three spacewalks at the station.
Commander Charles Hobaugh, Pilot Barry Wilmore and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman, Robert Satcher Jr. and Nicole Stott used their first hour separated from the station crew to get ready for undocking. They checked out rendezvous tools and set up a centerline camera. Undocking is scheduled for 3:53 a.m. Wednesday.
Stott is returning to Earth after more than 90 days in space, including 87 days on the station, 80 of them as a member of the Expedition 20 and 21 crews.
On the station side, Expedition 21 Commander Jeffrey Williams and Flight Engineers Maxim Suraev, Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk and Frank De Winne remain.
Before separating the two crews took questions from reporters at NASA facilities, Mission Control Moscow, and from Canadian and French reporters.
At 9 a.m., shortly after a joint crew photo, De Winne handed over command of the station to Williams. De Winne, Romanenko and Thirsk are scheduled to leave the station for return to Earth in a Soyuz capsule on Nov. 30.
Just after the change of command ceremony, Atlantis crew members began a two-hour, off-duty period. The hatch closure was preceded by a farewell ceremony of the two crews. Atlantis’ first landing opportunity is at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:44 a.m. Friday. The next shuttle status report will be issued after crew wakeup or earlier if events warrant.
Nov 24: Astronaut Nicole Stott, STS-129 mission specialist, takes one of her final "strolls" through the modules and hatchways of the International Space Station on the eve of her departure from the orbital outpost. Credit: NASA
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EDT = (UT - 4 hours) = (CDT + 1 hour)
CST = (UT - 6 hours)
CDT = (EDT - 1 hour) = (UT - 5 hours)
PST = (UT - 8 hours)
PDT = (UT - 7 hours)
MDT = (UT - 6 hours)
UT [GMT] = (EDT + 4 hours)
BST = (EDT + 5 hours) or (CDT + 6 hours) = (UT + 1 hour)
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EDT, CDT, PDT, MDT daylight saving time = EST, CST, PST, MST +1hr. From 2007, this begins on the second Sunday in March, and ends on the first Sunday in November.
[Until 2007, EDT, CDT, PDT, MDT used to start at 02:00 local time on the first Sunday in April. EST, CST, PST started at 02:00 local time on the last Sunday in October.]
UT is also known as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), Z, and UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). It is the time set on the International Space Station.
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