STS-108 Day 5 Highlights
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- On Sunday, December 9, 2001, 7:00 a.m. CST, STS-108 MCC Status Report # 8
reports:
- Waking up to the patriotic tune of "It's A Grand Ole'
Flag" performed by the Fire Department of New York Emerald
Society Pipes & Drums, Endeavour^Òs crew was awakened at 6:14
a.m. CST today. The Expedition Four crew on board the International
Space Station was awakened about a half hour later by a wake-up tone
on board.
- A New York firefighter presented Pilot Scott Kelly with today^Òs
wake-up music when Kelly visited the World Trade Center site with
former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin shortly after the September 11
attacks. All the astronauts and cosmonauts on board Endeavour and the
International Space Station will take time today to remember the
victims, their families and rescue workers in a special message from
space, at 4:24 p.m. CST today.
- Commander Dom Gorie, Kelly, Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan
Tani, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir
Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, Expedition Four Commander
Yury Onufrienko, and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch will
all gather in the Destiny laboratory aboard the station to display a
U.S. flag and take a moment to honor the victim^Òs families and
survivors of the attacks.
- Coordinated through the ^ÓFlags for Heroes and Families^Ô
campaign, which was initiated by Former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin,
several American flags are being flown aboard the space shuttle
Endeavour. Those flags include 6,000 small U.S. flags, one U.S. flag
that was recovered from the debris of the World Trade Center, a Marine
Corps flag that was retrieved from the Pentagon, and an American flag
from the State of Pennsylvania. Also onboard, is a large New York
Fire Department flag, 23 replica New York Police Department shields,
and 91 New York Police Department patches. Those items are stowed away
in the shuttle and will be distributed upon Endeavour^Òs return to
Earth.
- The crew^Òs activities today will focus on continuing transfer of
several hundred pounds of equipment and supplies from the Raffaello
Multi-Purpose Logistics Module that was attached to the station
yesterday. Transfer of equipment, supplies and experiments to and
from the shuttle mid deck is already complete. Today, Godwin and Tani
will also check out and prepare the tools they will use for
Monday^Òs scheduled spacewalk.
- The next STS-108 mission status report will be issued about 6
p.m. today or as events warrant.
- On Sunday, December 9, 2001, 7:00 p.m. CST, STS-108 MCC Status Report # 9
reports:
- The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts in orbit took a break from the
transfer of supplies, experiments and equipment to and from the Space
Shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station today to pay
tribute to the heroes of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the
Pentagon.
- Aboard Endeavour are 6,000 small United States flags that will be
distributed to heroes and families of the victims of the attacks after
the shuttle returns to Earth. Also aboard are a U.S. flag that was
found at the World Trade Center site after the attacks, a U.S. flag
that has flown above the Pennsylvania state capitol, a U.S. Marine
Corps Colors flag from the Pentagon, a New York Fire Department flag,
and a poster that includes photographs of firefighters lost in the
attacks.
- Shuttle Commander Dom Gorie said the flag carried aboard Endeavour
which came from the World Trade Center elicited especially poignant
thoughts among the crew.
- "This was found among the rubble and it has a few tears in
it. You can still smell the ashes. It is a tremendous symbol of our
country," Gorie said. "Just like our country, it was a
little battered and bruised and torn, but with a little bit of repair
it is going to fly as high and as beautiful as it ever did. And that
is just what our country is doing."
- International Space Station Expedition 3 Commander Frank Culbertson
and his crew -- cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin --
were in orbit Sept. 11 and will be on their way home to Earth when
Endeavour departs the station next week. The space station flew above
New York the morning of Sept. 11, and the crew could see evidence of
the attacks out the windows.
- "That was quite a disturbing sight, as you might imagine, to
see my country under attack," Culbertson said. "All of us
were affected by that day greatly.
- "To all of those who lost loved ones, to all of those who
worked so hard to help people survive, and to the people who are
trying so hard to stop this threat, we wish you the best. We have
thought about you often over the last three months that we've been
here ^Å and we will continue to keep you in our thoughts,"
Culbertson added. "We will continue, I hope, to set a good
example of how people can accomplish incredible things when they have
the right goals. We will continue to think of how we can improve peace
around the world and how we can improve knowledge, and hopefully that
will bring people together."
- While the unloading of almost three tons of new food, supplies and
experiments continued today, Culbertson's crew also conducted a
handover of station work to the oncoming Expedition Four crew --
Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl
Walz. Also today, Endeavour fired its steering jets gradually over the
course of an hour to increase the station's altitude by about two
statute miles, the first of three similar reboost maneuvers planned
for this week's mission.
- The hatches were closed between the shuttle and the station, with
only the Expedition Four crew remaining aboard the station, at about
6:43 p.m. CST today in preparation for a space walk planned from the
shuttle on Monday. Closing the hatch allows the cabin pressure on the
shuttle to be lowered slightly, part of a protocol that protects space
walkers from decompression sickness when they go to the low pressure,
pure oxygen space suits.
- Astronauts Linda Godwin and Dan Tani are scheduled to exit the
shuttle airlock at 11:24 a.m. CST Monday to begin four hours of work
outside to add insulation to mechanisms that rotate the station's
solar arrays. After the space walk is completed Monday afternoon, the
hatches between Endeavour and the station will be reopened.
- The crews begin a sleep period at 10:19 p.m. today and awaken at
6:19 a.m. on Monday. The next mission status report will be issued at
about 7 a.m. Monday or as events warrant.
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