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02/09/10: STS-130: Space Shuttle Endeavour to perform Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver.
Mission: STS-130
Orbiter: Endeavour
Launch Pad: 39A
Launch Date: Feb 8, 2010, 04:14 EST (09:14 UT)
Landing: Shuttle Landing Facility, Kennedy Space Center; Feb 21, 22:20 EST/03:20 UT Feb 22 (deorbit burn: 21:15 EST)
Main gear touchdown: 22:20:31 EST
Nose gear touchdown: 21:20:39 EST
Wheels stop: 22:22:10 EST
Orbital Altitude: 122 nautical miles (140 miles)
Orbital Insertion: 191 nautical miles (220 miles)
Orbital Inclination: 51.6 degrees
Distance traveled: ~5.7 million miles
Crew:- Commander: George D. "Zambo" Zamka; Pilot: Terry Virts; Mission Specialists:- MS1 Kathryn P. "Kay" Hire, MS2 Stephen Robinson, MS3 Nicholas Patrick, MS4 Robert L. Behnken.
6 p.m. CST Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
The astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station are just hours from a meeting in space as they work toward tonight’s docking of the shuttle to the orbiting outpost.
The shuttle crew’s wakeup song at 4:14 p.m., “Katmandu” by Bob Seger, was played for Commander George Zamka, who will have his hands on the stick tonight as Endeavour docks to the station’s Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 at 11:06 p.m.
Starting early this evening Zamka and Pilot Terry Virts will fire shuttle jets to refine the orbiter’s approach to the station, with Mission Specialists Kay Hire, Steve Robinson, Nicholas Patrick and Bob Behnken supporting them on the shuttle flight deck. At 10:05 p.m., after Endeavour arrives at a point 600 feet directly below the station, Zamka will command the shuttle to slowly rotate so that its underside is facing the station, and Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov will photo-document the shuttle’s heat shield tiles. That imagery will be sent to the ground for study by specialists looking for any damaged tiles.
After the rendezvous pitch maneuver Zamka will move his ship directly in front of the station before slowly backing in to a docking. Once leak checks are completed, the hatches between the vehicles are scheduled to open at 1:04 a.m. Wednesday to begin the joint operations.
Among the first items to be transferred to the station are the spacesuits that Behnken and Patrick will wear during their three spacewalks and hardware for the replacement and checkout of the new Distillation Assembly that Williams will install in the station’s Water Recovery System Wednesday evening.
The next shuttle status report will be issued at the end of the crew work day, or earlier if events warrant.
Feb 8: George Zamka (left background), STS-130 commander; Terry Virts (right), pilot; and Stephen Robinson, mission specialist, are pictured on the flight deck of space shuttle Endeavour during flight day one activities. Image credit: NASA
Timezones: EST = (UT - 5 hours)
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)
CEST = (UT + 2 hours) = (BST + 1 hour)
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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