Jett Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Married. Born in Pontiac, Michigan, USA. US Navy US Navy

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 14 - 1992. Active Entered space service: 31 March 1992. Number of Flights: 4.00. Total Time: 41.75 days.

NAME: Brent W. Jett, Jr. (Commander, USN)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born October 5, 1958, in Pontiac, Michigan, but considers Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to be his hometown. Married to Janet Leigh Lyon of Patuxent River, Maryland. . He enjoys water and snow skiing, board sailing, boating, running, basketball, squash. His parents, Mr. & Mrs. Brent W. Jett, Sr., reside in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Her mother, Mrs. Mary Patricia Lyon, resides in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Her father, Mr. James Richard Lyon, Sr., is deceased.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Northeast High School, Oakland Park, Florida, in 1976; received a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1981; a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1989.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Association of Naval Aviation, U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association, Association of Space Explorers.

SPECIAL HONORS:

Graduated first of 976 in the Class of 1981 at U.S. Naval Academy; Distinguished Graduate U.S. Naval Test Pilot School Class 95. Awarded the Navy Commendation Medal, 2 Navy Unit Commendations, Navy Expeditionary Medal, National Defense Medal, NASA Space Flight Medal, and various other service awards.

EXPERIENCE:

Jett received his commission from the U.S. Naval Academy in May 1981 and was designated a Naval Aviator in March 1983. He then reported to Fighter Squadron 101 at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, for initial F-14 Tomcat training. Upon completion of this training, he was assigned to Fighter Squadron 74 and made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean aboard the USS Saratoga (CV-60). While assigned to Fighter Squadron 74, he was designated as an airwing qualified landing signal officer (LSO) and also attended the Navy Fighter Weapons School (Topgun). Jett was selected for the Naval Postgraduate School - Test Pilot School Cooperative Education Program in July 1986, and completed 15 months of graduate work at Monterey, California, before attending the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in June 1989. After graduation in June 1990, he worked as a project test pilot at the Carrier Stability Department of the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate, Naval Air Test Center, flying the F-14A/B/D, T-45A, and A-7E. Jett returned to the operational Navy in September 1991 and was again assigned to Fighter Squadron 74, flying the F-14B aboard the USS Saratoga (CV-60). Jett was deployed with VF-74 to the Mediterranean Sea when selected for the astronaut program.

He has logged over 2,500 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft and has over 450 carrier landings.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in March 1992, Jett reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. After 2-years of various technical assignments in the Astronaut Office, Jett was assigned to his first mission as the pilot of STS-72. During the 9-day flight (January 11-20, 1996) aboard Endeavour, the crew retrieved the Space Flyer Unit (launched from Japan 10-months earlier), deployed and retrieved the OAST-Flyer, and conducted two spacewalks to demonstrate and evaluate techniques to be used in the assembly of the International Space Station. More recently, he was the pilot on STS-81 (January 12-22, 1997). STS-81 was the fifth in a series of joint missions between the U.S. Space Shuttle and the Russian Space Station Mir and the second one involving an exchange of U.S. astronauts. In five days of docked operations more than three tons of food, water, experiment equipment and samples were moved back and forth between the two spacecraft. In completing his second space flight, Jett has orbited the Earth 302 times, traveled 7.6 million miles, and logged a total of 458 hours and 56 minutes in space

• 11 January 1996 Flight: STS-72. Flight Up: STS-72. Flight Back: STS-72. Flight Time: 8.92 days.

• 12 January 1997 Flight: STS-81. Flight Up: STS-81. Flight Back: STS-81. Flight Time: 10.21 days.

• 1 December 2000 Flight: STS-97. Flight Up: STS-97. Flight Back: STS-97. Flight Time: 10.83 days.

• 9 September 2006 Flight: STS-115. Flight Up: STS-115. Flight Back: STS-115. Flight Time: 11.80 days.

5 December 1992 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 14 selected.. The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.

Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Four pilots and 15 mission specialists, nine civilians and ten military. Chosen from 2054 applicants, 87 of which screened in December 1991/January 1992. Five additional international astronauts.

After two previous postponements, Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini lit up the skies at Kennedy Space Center at 11:31 p.m. Central time Thursday (12:31 a.m. Eastern time Friday), to kick off the 95th mission in shuttle program history. It was the 20th nighttime launch. About 5 seconds after liftoff, flight controllers noted a voltage drop on one of the shuttle's electrical buses. Because of this voltage drop, one of two redundant main engine controllers on two of the three engines shut down. The redundant controllers on those two engines -- the center and right main engines -- functioned normally, allowing the engines to fully support Columbia's climb to orbit. The left engine was unaffected. Main engine controllers receive commands from the shuttle's general purpose computers, and send commands to main engine components. Flight controllers and the crew continue to work to identify more precisely the cause of the voltage drop. Less than nine minutes after liftoff, the first female shuttle commander and her crew were in orbit, ready to begin a full night of work to prepare Chandra for its deployment as the third of NASA's Great Observatories. It will study the invisible, and often violent mysteries of x-ray astronomy. After the astronauts open their cargo bay doors, they will conduct health checks on the Chandra telescope and its two-stage solid-fuel Inertial Upper Stage booster. If all goes as planned, the astronauts will send commands later this morning to elevate the 56-foot long spacecraft to its deployment position behind Columbia's crew cabin. After a critical "go-no go" decision by flight controllers in Houston and at the Chandra Operations Control Center in Cambridge, Mass., cables routing electrical power to Chandra from Columbia will be disconnected; Chandra will be on internal battery power until its solar arrays are deployed. The schedule calls for Coleman and Tognini to command Chandra to be spring-ejected from its cradle at 6:48 a.m. Central time. Collins and Ashby then will maneuver Columbia to a "window protection" orientation with the belly of the shuttle pointed toward the Inertial Upper Stage booster nozzle. One hour after deployment, with Columbia about 30 nautical miles behind Chandra, the telescope's booster is scheduled to ignite in two stages, sending Chandra to its preliminary elliptical orbit. The telescope eventually will reach an oval orbit one-third of the distance to the Moon to conduct its astronomical observations. Chandra's solar arrays are to unfurl just prior to the separation of the Inertial Upper Stage's second stage, at which point telescope controllers in Massachusetts will begin several weeks of activation procedures before Chandra officially begins its astronomical investigations. Columbia's astronauts are in excellent shape, with the shuttle currently orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 178 by 175 miles.

Each astronaut performed one gentle 50-foot flight with the nitrogen powered SAFER (for Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue). Each remained attached to the shuttle with a long tether during the test, and was accompanied by the other astronaut, moving with him on the end of Discovery's robotic arm.

This was the last of four successful spacewalks over four days that prepared the International Space Station for the arrival of its first crew next month. It also paved the way for future station expansion. The Wednesday spacewalk began at 10 a.m. CDT and ended at 4:56 p.m., lasting 6 hours and 56 minutes. It brings the total spacewalk time for the STS-92 mission to 27 hours and 19 minutes, and for all 10 space station assembly spacewalks on five shuttle missions to 69 hours and 34 minutes.

Lopez-Alegria and Wisoff, with Koichi Wakata operating the arm, completed a series of wrap-up tasks during the EVA. They removed a grapple fixture from the Z1 truss, opened and closed a latch assembly that will hold the solar array truss when it arrives in December, deployed a tray that will be used to provide power to the U.S. Laboratory Destiny, scheduled to be attached to the station early next year, and tested the manual berthing mechanism latches that will support Destiny.

Wisoff opened and closed the latches on the capture assembly for the P6 solar arrays using a pistol grip tool. With it he made more than 125 turns to open the latches, then closed and reopened them. He left the capture latch, called "the claw," ready to receive the solar arrays, to be installed by the STS-97 crew in December.

An exercise to test techniques for returning an incapacitated astronaut to the air lock was cancelled because of time constraints.

After the space walk, Commander Brian Duffy and Pilot Pam Melroy completed their third and final reboost of the space station, firing Discovery's reaction control system jets in a series of 18 pulses over a 30-minute period to gently raise the station's orbit to prepare it for the arrival of the first resident crew in early November. This reboost added another 1.7 statute miles to the station's average altitude, making the total for the mission just over 5 miles.

Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev reported the installation of the final cables to the Russian Elektron system, which produces oxygen by breaking down water through the process of electrolysis. The Elektron is expected to be activated on Thursday and become the primary source of oxygen generation onboard. Up to now, per the preflight plan, Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev have been burning one oxygen producing canister each day per crew member to maintain the proper level of oxygen in the ISS modules.

Meanwhile, Gidzenko and Krikalev completed the installation of a television monitor for a manual backup rendezvous system in the Zvezda module called TORU. The system would be used to guide an unmanned Progress resupply ship in for docking to the ISS in the event the Progress' automated navigation system failed. The next Progress will be launched to the ISS November 16 with a docking planned two days later. The expedition crew will unload the Progress so it can be jettisoned one day after the launch of the Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-97 mission, providing the proper clearance for Endeavour's linkup to a newly installed docking port on the ISS.

The crew for that flight - Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Marc Garneau and Carlos Noriega - is at the Kennedy Space Center this week to simulate the final hours of the countdown. It is the final trip to Florida before the scheduled launch November 30 on the next ISS assembly flight to install the large U.S. photovoltaic solar arrays on the station. The arrays will make the ISS the most powerful vehicle ever to fly in space.

Before the crew began its sleep period today, Shepherd reminded flight controllers in Houston that he and his crewmates had completed their first week in space and would hold a "small celebration" to mark the milestone. The trio will be awakened around 10 p.m. beginning another night of work to setup their home in space.

The ISS continues to operate in excellent shape at an altitude of 237 statute miles.

ISS Commander Bill Shepherd, Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev reported that all of the gear associated with the Russian Elektron system has now been hooked up with the activation of the unit planned for Thursday. The Elektron uses the process of electrolysis to produce oxygen for the crew, while venting hydrogen overboard. Up to now, per the preflight plan, Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev have been burning one oxygen-producing canister each day per crew member to maintain the proper level of oxygen in the ISS modules.

Krikalev successfully reactivated the ISS air conditioner after it shut itself down due to an excess amount of water in the condensate collection system. The condensate unit absorbs moisture from the air and needs to be emptied periodically. The unit was turned back on after a short outage and is operating normally.

Russian flight controllers continue to prepare for the next Progress resupply vehicle's launch next week from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Progress is loaded with supplies and spare parts for the crew. Launch is set for the night of November 15, U.S. time, at 7:32 p.m. CST (1:32 GMT November 16). Docking to the Zarya module's nadir port is scheduled for the night of November 17, U.S. time, at 9:07 p.m. CST (3:07 GMT November 18). The Progress will be unloaded by the crew prior to the launch of Endeavour November 30 on the STS-97 mission to deliver the first huge U.S. solar arrays to the ISS.

The crew for that flight - Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Marc Garneau and Carlos Noriega - spent several hours aboard Endeavour today conducting a simulated countdown for their planned liftoff in three weeks.

Before beginning his sleep period, Shepherd told flight controllers that the ISS was "beginning to feel like home". Tomorrow, the crew will mark the completion of its first week on board the expanding facility.

The ISS continues to operate in excellent shape at an altitude of 237 statute miles.

The Progress supply ship linked up to the orbiting outpost at 9:48 p.m. Central time (3:48 GMT Nov. 18), bringing Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev two tons of food, clothing, hardware and holiday gifts from their families. They will spend the next two weeks unloading the capsule, before it is jettisoned to burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

The second Progress to arrive at the ISS was manually guided in for its docking to the nadir, or downward facing docking port of the Station's Zarya module by Gidzenko after the automatic docking system on the Progress failed to lock on to a comparable system on Zarya.

Operating from a control panel in the Station's Zvezda living quarters, Gidzenko used a hand controller to slowly bring Progress to its linkup to the Zarya docking mechanism. A short time later, the crew began leak checks at the docking interface between the two craft before opening the hatch to the Progress cargo ship.

The docking occurred just hours after NASA managers selected November 30th as the launch date for the Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-97 mission to deliver the large U.S. solar arrays to the ISS. Plans call for the Progress to undock from the Station December 1st, clearing the way for Endeavour's arrival at a new docking port attached to the Unity module the following day.

The Expedition crew aboard the ISS will spend the next few hours deactivating Progress systems before beginning a lengthy sleep period early Saturday. They have no formal work schedule planned this weekend before a busy week next week dominated by the unloading of the Progress and the stowage of its cargo.

The International Space Station continues to orbit the Earth in excellent shape at an altitude of 240 statute miles, with its resident crew now well into its third week of work on board.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Marc Garneau and Carlos Noriega rocketed away from Launch Pad 39-B at 9:06 p.m. Central time, lighting up the central Florida skies as they began their pursuit of the international complex.

At the time of launch, the three Expedition One crew members aboard the ISS were asleep with the facility passing over the southeast portion of the Indian Ocean, 7,500 nautical miles ahead of Endeavour. They are scheduled to be awakened at 12:06 a.m. on Friday with the main focus of their workday being the undocking of the Progress supply vehicle at 10:20 a.m. CST. The Progress will be placed in a parking orbit some 2500 kilometers from the ISS during the STS-97 mission. Mission managers will be discussing whether or not to redock the Progress to the ISS late in December over the next several weeks.

Less than nine minutes after liftoff, Endeavour's astronauts went to work to prepare the shuttle's systems for their planned 11-day mission. The first major task on the flight plan was to open Endeavour's cargo bay doors prior to receiving a "go" for orbital operations from Ascent Flight Director Wayne Hale. The astronauts are expected to set up computers and flight deck gear before beginning an eight-hour sleep period at 2:06 a.m. Central time. The crew will be awakened at 10:06 a.m. Friday morning to begin its first full day in space.

With this evening's successful launch behind them, Endeavour's astronauts will turn their attention to their chase of the International Space Station, performing several firings of the ship's jet thrusters over the next two days to set up a docking with the outpost on Saturday just before 2 p.m. Central time. Over the ensuing week, the crew will perform three space walks as they install the 90-foot high, 240-foot wide solar array structure.

The payload bay of Endeavour for STS-97 contained a total cargo of 18740 kg:

• Bay 1-2:
  • Orbiter Docking System 1800 kg
  • 3 EMU spacesuits (S/N unknown) 360 kg
  • FPPU experiment (in airlock) 23 kg. The FPPU (Floating Potential Probe Experiment) was installed on P6 to measure charge build-up as the arrays pass through the ionosphere plasma. P6 had devices to bleed off excess charge, and FPPU would monitor their effectiveness.
  • APCU Assembly Power Converter Unit 35 kg
  • APCU Assembly Power Converter Unit 35 kg
• Bay 3-6:
  • ITS P6 Long Spacer 4000 kg
  • TCS radiator (aft) 500 kg
  • TCS radiator (starboard) 500 kg
• Bay 8-11:
  • ITS P6 Integrated Equipment Assembly 7200 kg
  • PV radiator P6 500 kg
• Bay 12-13:
  • ITS P6 Photovoltaic Array/Beta Gimbal Assembly. 1000 kg
  • Solar array wing 2B 1070 kg
  • Solar array wing 4B 1070 kg
• Bay 13S: IMAX Cargo Bay Camera 238 kg
• Sill: Canadarm RMS 303 410 kg

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Marc Garneau and Carlos Noriega checked out systems they will use to deliver the station's first set of U.S. solar arrays. They tested the power supply to the huge solar array structure. Tanner and Noriega also checked the spacesuits they will use during three space walks, on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Garneau and Bloomfield tested the shuttle's robotic arm, performing a survey of the payload bay using cameras attached to the arm, and checked out the Space Vision System, a computerized visual system that helps the arm operator determine distance and relative orientation of space station elements during assembly activities.

Jett and Bloomfield fired Endeavour's orbital maneuvering systems twice Friday, at about 12:41 p.m. and 9:24 p.m., to bring the orbiter into the proper alignment with the space station and close the gap between the two spacecraft. Endeavour is about 2,515 miles from the space station and now closing at a rate of almost 400 miles every orbit.

No problems were reported aboard Endeavour as the shuttle sails toward a docking with the ISS at 1:59 p.m. Central time Saturday.

On the International Space Station, Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, continued preparations for the arrival of Endeavour. Their unmanned Progress resupply vessel was undocked at 10:23 a.m. Central time Friday to clear a path for Endeavour's arrival. The Progress will be left in a parking orbit well away from the ISS during Endeavour's visit, allowing flight controllers in Moscow and Houston the option of redocking it to the station after Endeavour departs.

The Expedition One crew went to bed about 3:30 p.m. and will be awakened at midnight to continue preparations to welcome the Endeavour astronauts. The space station crew's wake-up call comes at the same time Endeavour's crew begins an abbreviated seven-hour sleep period. Endeavour's astronauts will awaken shortly after 7 a.m. Central time Saturday to begin their rendezvous procedures.

Currently flying approximately 8,000 statute miles (12,875 kilometers) behind and below the ISS, Endeavour's crew will spend much of today preparing for Saturday afternoon's docking with the station.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Marc Garneau and Carlos Noriega will begin checking out the systems they will use to deliver the station's first set of U.S. solar arrays. They will check out the Shuttle's robotic arm and space vision system to ensure they are working properly, and inspect the spacesuits and tools that Tanner and Noriega will use over the course of three scheduled space walks.

Jett and Bloomfield will execute rendezvous burns about 12:41 p.m., and 9:15 p.m. to bring Endeavour into the proper alignment with the ISS and close the gap between the two spacecraft, still half a world away from each other. The first burn went flawlessly a little before 1 a.m. Friday.

Aboard the space station, Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev continued preparations for the arrival of Endeavour's crew, undocking a Progress supply ship from the Zarya module to make room for Endeavour at a nearby Unity module docking port. The supply ship - now full of refuse and packing materials from the crew's first month on orbit - was undocked at 10:20 a.m. CST and moved to a parking orbit some 2,500 kilometers (1,554 miles) away. Over the next several weeks, Mission managers will be discussing whether or not to redock the Progress to the ISS late in December.

Endeavour's docking with the station remains on schedule for 2 p.m. CST Saturday. After Garneau and Bloomfield use the Shuttle's robot arm to attach the new solar arrays to the connecting framework delivered on STS-92, Noriega and Tanner will conduct three space walks making connections and helping activate the new sun-tracking, power generating panels of the 90-foot tall, 240-foot wide solar array structure.

The crew's first full day in orbit began with a wake-up call from Mission Control at 10:06 a.m. Friday to the sounds of "Stardust" by Willie Nelson, played for Canadian Space Agency astronaut Garneau.

Commander Brent Jett and Pilot Mike Bloomfield will begin the final stage of rendezvous activities about 8:30 a.m., when they start setting up the aft flight deck controls. Endeavour will approach the station from below to line up with the Earth-facing docking port of the Unity module and avoid disturbing the station and its solar arrays with thruster jet debris. A maneuvering jet firing is scheduled for 10 a.m., with the Shuttle's rendezvous radar system beginning to provide supplemental navigation information about 10:50 a.m. The final burn, called the terminal initiation or Ti burn, will occur at 11:33 a.m.

On the International Space Station, Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, will monitor Endeavour's approach and docking, communicating with the shuttle using air-to-air radio signals.

When Endeavour is about 2,000 feet away, almost directly below and behind the International Space Station, Jett will take manual control of the approach, and with the help of crew members operating computer tracking programs and hand-held laser distance measuring devices, guide the Shuttle to a point about 500 feet below the station. At this point, he will rotate Endeavour 180 degrees into a "tail forward" attitude for the final approach and docking. Jett will pause Endeavour's approach at a distance of 30 feet before moving in for docking just before 2 p.m. CST.

Solar arrays on the Zarya and Zvezda modules will be repositioned by flight controllers in Moscow to minimize structural loads as the two spacecraft come together at the newly installed Unity docking port called Pressurized Mating Adapter-3. Both the station and Endeavour will turn off their attitude control systems and drift freely as the Shuttle docking system pulls the two space vehicles together and forms a rigid bond, or "hard dock." Then, the solar arrays will begin tracking the sun again and Endeavour's steering jets will take over attitude control of the station.

About 3 p.m. today, Mission Specialist Marc Garneau will use the Shuttle's robot arm to lift the P-6 solar array out of its payload bay moorings and park it above the bay so that its temperature can begin equalizing with that of the station. Meanwhile, Mission Specialists Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega will open the hatches and enter the Unity module's docking vestibule, where they will install electrical grounding straps and leave supplies for the station crew to retrieve later.

The Expedition 1 crew will go to bed about 3:30 p.m., and the Endeavour crew will follow suit at 11:36 p.m.

With Expedition One crew members Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev looking on, Commander Brent Jett guided the shuttle to a smooth linkup with the ISS as the two craft sailed 230 statute miles above northeast Kazakhstan. Endeavour is attached to a new station docking port installed last month by the STS-92 astronauts.

The ISS residents went to sleep a short time after docking, to be awakened just after midnight for their 32nd day aboard the station. The station and shuttle crews are maintaining separate sleep cycles to match the work they need to accomplish during their week of joint activities.

A little over two hours after docking, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Marc Garneau maneuvered Endeavour's Canadian-built robot arm and grappled the 45-foot-long, 17 ½ ton P6 solar array truss structure at 4:17 p.m., lifting it out of its berthing latches in the shuttle's cargo bay a few minutes later. Garneau tilted the truss structure 30-degrees to the cargo bay, where it will remain overnight attached to the arm to properly warm its components. The P6 will be mated to the Z1 external truss atop the Unity module Sunday by Garneau with the assistance of space walkers Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega during their 6½-hour excursion outside Endeavour.

After leak checks were completed between the two vehicles, and with Pilot Mike Bloomfield looking on, Tanner and Noriega made their way through Endeavour's docking tunnel and opened the hatch to the ISS docking port to leave supplies and computer hardware on the doorstep of the station. The hatch refused to open at first because of a slight pressure differential between Endeavour and the ISS, but Tanner used a little muscle to finally push it free. Shepherd and his crewmates are scheduled to enter the Unity module for the first time Sunday morning and will open their hatch to the docking adapter to retrieve the items left behind by their shuttle counterparts. The two crews will not greet each other face-to-face until Friday morning when the hatches are open between the two spacecraft following completion of the space walks.

Once the P6 is mated to the Z1 truss, the solar arrays tower will be commanded to unfurl, increasing the power supply to the ISS by five times its current output. The space walk by Tanner and Noriega is scheduled to begin at about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, but could start as much as 45 minutes earlier if they complete preparations ahead of schedule.

Endeavour's astronauts were set to begin an eight-hour sleep period at about 11:30 tonight and will be awakened at 7:36 a.m. Sunday.

The Endeavour-ISS complex is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 235 statute miles with all systems operating in excellent fashion.

Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev entered the Unity module for the first time since their arrival aboard the station 33 days ago at 3:38 a.m. CST Sunday, and retrieved items that were left in the docking compartment by Endeavour's crew after their 2 p.m. Saturday docking. The items included a new laptop computer and headsets for the station's two-way videoteleconferencing system, a new hard drive for a Russian laptop, large bags full of water, packaged Russian and fresh American food items -- plus a special care package.

Shepherd voiced special pleasure at receiving some fresh coffee and a large pair of vice grip pliers. He announced that the Expedition 1 crew would be taking a coffee break as soon as it completed the transfer of the items into the Russian living quarters and resealing the hatch into the Unity module, and added that the new pliers should come in handy for assembly and maintenance work.

Although the Expedition 1 crew came within one hatch of its colleagues - Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Carlos Noriega and Joe Tanner -- the two crews will not greet each other face-to-face until Friday morning following completion of three planned space walks to install and activate the new 17-ton solar array tower.

The first space walk by Tanner and Noriega is scheduled to begin about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, but could start 45 minutes earlier if they complete preparations ahead of schedule. Using the shuttle's robot arm, Garneau is scheduled to move the new solar array into position above the Z1 truss structure of the Unity module about 10:21 a.m. CST, and drive it home to its installation point about 1:06 p.m. Tanner and Noriega will secure bolts on each of the four corners of the array assembly before Garneau releases the arm's grip. Bloomfield will take over arm operations and maneuver Noriega around the array so he can connect nine power, command and data cables. At the same time, Tanner will release the two Solar Array Blanket Boxes, and then he and Noriega will release the two Solar Array Wing launch restraints. The two space walkers will put the blanket boxes into the ready to deploy position, and free the folding mast before cleaning up and moving back into the shuttle about 7:16 p.m. CST. Jett will send the command to deploy the ISS Solar Arrays at 5:11 p.m. CST. The Solar Array Photovoltaic Radiator is scheduled for its deployment a little over 3 hours later at 8:36 p.m.

With the International Space Station complex orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 235 statute miles in fine fashion, the Endeavour crew received a wake-up call at 7:36 a.m. CST. The Expedition 1 crew goes to bed at 3:36 p.m.

The structure housing the arrays and associated electronics was mated to the station's Z1 truss structure at 1:32 p.m. - about an hour into the first of three planned space walks during the mission by Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega. The space walk began at 12:35 p.m. Sunday and ended at 8:08 p.m., lasting 7 hours, 33 minutes. Thus far, astronauts and cosmonauts have spent 77 hours, 7 minutes on 11 space walks for space station assembly.

Using the shuttle's robot arm, Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau moved the P6 solar array structure into position above the Z1 truss structure of the Unity module and drove it home to its installation point about 1:32 p.m. Tanner and Noriega secured bolts on each of the four corners of the array assembly before Garneau released it from the arm.

Pilot Mike Bloomfield took over arm operations and moved Noriega around the array as he connected nine power, command and data cables. At the same time, Tanner released the two solar array blanket boxes. They put the blanket boxes into the ready to deploy position. But computer commands to release the pins holding the blanket boxes closed initially were not successful. Tanner and Noriega stood by in case they were needed to release the pins manually.

Soon afterward, the commands were repeated, the pins on the starboard blanket boxes released and that solar wing was deployed. However, one pin on the portside blanket box remained in the closed position. After the space walk, Commander Brent Jett again sent computer commands for the blanket box pins to close and then reopen, and this time, a little after 8:20 p.m., indicators showed all the pins had disengaged. Flight controllers will not deploy the port wing tonight to allow time to understand whether the solar wing that has deployed is properly tensioned. That wing was functioning well and sending electrical power to the P6 structure's systems.

There is no rush to deploy the port wing and flight controllers want to fully understand the situation with the starboard wing before they attempt to do so.

"We did accomplish our No. 1 mission objective, which was to deliver P6 to the International Space Station," said Bill Reeves, lead shuttle flight director. And "We accomplished all the EVA objectives." One of three Photovoltaic Radiator was deployed at 10:20 Sunday night before the crew began its planned sleep period at about 11:30. The radiator will dissipate heat generated by on-board electronics.

Endeavour and the space station are orbiting at an altitude of about 235 statute miles with systems aboard both spacecraft functioning well. The Endeavour crew will have a day off Monday, while the space station crew will be awakened about midnight to begin its workday. Hatches allowing the two crews to meet face to face will not be opened until Friday, the day after the last scheduled space walk of the STS-97 mission.

Endeavour's astronauts and flight controllers on the ground are working towards deployment of the second solar panel on the newly installed U.S. solar array structure later today. The current plan calls for the second array to be extended starting about 3:51 p.m. CST.

Today's deployment sequence will be a modified version from the one used yesterday. The port array will be deployed this afternoon using a multi-step process. The movement of the array will be stopped several times during deployment to allow motion in the solar blankets to dampen out before continuing with the extension. Sunday's deployment of the starboard array was done in one continuous motion, lasting about 13 minutes while today's stop and start procedure is expected to take at least one hour to complete.

Flight controllers are also looking at any procedures that may be undertaken to increase the tension in the already deployed array. Imagery taken of the starboard solar pannel shows a little bit of slack in some of the support wires. The array itself is working well and generating power to the array's batteries. The main concern with the tension level on the deployed array is making sure that it is stable enough to support dynamic activities such as Shuttle dockings and undockings as well as when the station is maneuvered to a new attitude position on-orbit.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Carlos Noriega and Marc Garneau of the Canadian Space Agency, were awakened just after 8:30 a.m. today to begin their day. This morning's wake up song was "Lovin' You Lots & Lots" from the movie "That Thing You Do" and was sent up to Bloomfield from his wife.

In addition to monitoring the second array deployment, the crew's activities today will include some housekeeping chores and monitoring orbiter systems along with a photo survey of the solar array structure using cameras on the Shuttle's mechanical arm.

The STS-97 crew will take a few minutes this afternoon to talk with reporters from the Cable News Network, CBS News and ABC News about how their mission has been progressing. The trio of interviews is scheduled to begin at 2:31 p.m. CST.

The Endeavour crew will begin a planned 8-hour sleep period at 11:06 p.m. before they are awakened at 7:06 a.m. CST Tuesday to begin preparations for the second of three planned space walks outside the International Space Station. The main objective of the second space walk will be to install data and power cables to allow the space station to utilize electricity generated by the new solar arrays.

Deployment of the port wing was delayed while ground controllers studied an apparent slackness in one of two blankets that make up the starboard structure. They believe that two tensioning cables had jumped off their guides during deployment. Despite that anomaly, the starboard array is functioning well and producing electricity. The slackness should have no effect on its ability to produce power for the space station.

Deployment of the second solar wing brings to 240 feet the span of the station's solar arrays. This array is 38 feet across and can produce as much as 60 kilowatts. It has a 15-year designed lifetime. It is the first of four such arrays that eventually will supply power to the station, enabling it to conduct basic and applied research in its microgravity environment.

The deployment was scheduled to begin with Endeavour and the space station in daylight and with television available so that array experts could watch the deployment from Mission Control. The port wing began to move from the two boxes that housed its two solar blankets and the mast canister between them that housed the lattice structure that pushed their ends outward, after a computer command by Endeavour commander Brent Jett. The deployment was slow, with stops and starts. It was completed, after two rows of solar panels stuck together were shaken lose by slightly retracting, then extending the arrays again, at 8:46 p.m.

Jett and the other four astronauts aboard, pilot Mike Bloomfield and mission specialists Joe Tanner, Carlos Noriega and Canadian Marc Garneau, had a relatively quiet day Monday. They conducted an extensive camera survey of the starboard array before deployment of its twin began. They also did housekeeping chores and monitored Endeavour systems before their scheduled sleep period beginning about 11 p.m.

Aboard the space station, the Expedition One crew, commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, continued their work to outfit the ISS. After a wakeup tone at midnight - about the time the Endeavour crew went to bed -- the station crew installed a dust collector fan, collected condensate water samples, replaced a microprocessor and made observations of Patagonian glaciers. They will meet face-to-face with Endeavour crewmembers on Friday, after all three spacewalks by Tanner and Noriega have been completed.

The second of those spacewalks is scheduled for Tuesday. Its main purpose is to install data and power cables to allow the space station to use electricity generated by the new solar arrays.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Carlos Noriega, Joe Tanner and Marc Garneau were awakened at 7:06 a.m. CST Tuesday. The crew started its day with the University of Southern California's fight song, "Fight On," played for graduate Noriega.

Tanner and Noriega are scheduled to begin their six-hour space walk at 11:56 a.m. CST, or a little earlier if they are ready. The main objective is to reconfigure electrical connections so that power from the newly installed P6 solar arrays can flow to the U.S. elements of the station.

After the second set of solar array blankets was successfully deployed Monday, all of the new power-generating unit's batteries - six on each side for a total of 12 - have been fully charged and are ready to send electricity to the Unity module.

Noriega will work on the port side of the truss structure, moving cables from one connector to another to transfer power, and then removing a thermal shroud from a power conditioner. Tanner will remove a similar shroud from a signal processor and prepare to relocate the S-Band Antenna Subassembly from the Z1 truss, where it was temporarily stowed by the STS-92 crew in October.

The space walkers will be looking down on the space station from high above when they move the dish-shaped, high-data-rate antenna. Inside the shuttle, Bloomfield will maneuver the robot arm as far as it will reach up the truss structure, then Tanner and Noriega will alternate possession in a series of "leap frog" exchanges until the antenna assembly is installed on the Integrated Equipment Assembly. While there, they will take care of an added task - "eye-balling" the take-up reels on the starboard solar array's tension cables. During Sunday's deployment, the cables apparently slipped off the reels. Engineers on the ground are considering whether to attempt to tighten the cables manually on the third planned space walk Thursday.

Inside the station, Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev will enter the Unity module for the second time and in their 35 days aboard the station and reconfigure power cables there to accept the newfound source of electricity. They are expected to be inside Unity for about an hour.

The remaining EVA tasks are designed to pave the way for the arrival of the U.S. Laboratory Destiny early next year. Tanner and Noriega will remove umbilicals from Pressurized Mating Adapter-2, connecting them to a dummy panel on that docking port and preparing it for relocation to the end of the Destiny module, which will be connected to Unity on the STS-98/5A mission.

Carlos Noriega and Joe Tanner began their space walk at 11:21 a.m. Before moving on to the cable connections, they surveyed the starboard solar wing to better understand the condition of the tensioning system that extends one of its two solar array blankets. Engineers, flight controllers and managers continue to develop possible plans for Noriega and Tanner to further tension that blanket on the third space walk, scheduled for Thursday.

During their 6 hour, 37 minute space walk, Noriega and Tanner moved the S-band antenna assembly to the top of the solar array tower. They also released restraints holding a radiator to the tower's side. It is designed to help cool Destiny. That radiator was deployed after the space walk.

Destiny is scheduled to be launched to the space station Jan. 18. The docking port, Pressurized Mating Adapter 2, will be moved temporarily from its spot at the forward end of the Unity module, where the laboratory will be attached. The docking port then will be placed on the forward end of Destiny.

Endeavour Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialist Mark Garneau supported the space walk. Inside the space station, the Expedition One crew, Commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, went into Unity for the second time in their 35 days aboard the station. There they reconfigured cables to route electricity from the new solar arrays to the rest of the space station.

The work kept the station crew members up past their scheduled 3:36 p.m. bedtime. Endeavour's crew was scheduled to begin its sleep period about 10:30 p.m., and are scheduled to be awakened at 6:36 a.m. on Wednesday.

The second space walk brings this crew's total to 14 hours and 10 minutes outside the space station, and total space walk time outside the station for all flights to 83 hours and 44 minutes.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega were roused at 6:36 a.m. by a Puccini opera aria, " O Mio Babbino Caro," intended especially for Garneau.

Soon after this morning's wake-up call, Noriega and Tanner received word they will have an additional task on their Thursday space walk. Station and shuttle engineers and managers sent up plans for adjusting the tension levels of the solar blankets on the starboard solar array. The plan calls for the shuttle crew to retract the array's mast two to three feet to generate some slack in the tension cables. Noriega will pull the slack through each spring-loaded take-up reel, then Tanner will manually "wind" the tension reels. When each has reached its limit, Tanner will let it unwind by spring force while Noriega guides the cable on to the reel grooves. The outboard reel will be first, followed by the inboard reel.

The new solar arrays and electrical system continue to work well, generating power that has now been routed all the way to the Russian space station modules. Tuesday's space walk and associated internal work by Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd, Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko enabled all of the interfaces needed to send power to the Zarya and Zvezda modules. By about 9 a.m. CST today, flight controllers had configured the American-to-Russian Converter Units so that an additional 3 kilowatts of electricity is available to the Russian modules. This brought the total power available to Zvezda up to about 6 to 7 kilowatts; once enabled, the Zarya module will have up to 5.5 to 7 kilowatts available.

Wednesday, Shepherd went back inside the Unity module about 4:30 a.m. CST to install electrical outlets inside Unity and separate the power feeds going to the early communication and S-band communication systems, providing additional redundancy.

Although Shepherd was scheduled to leave the hatch between the Russian elements and the Unity module open today, it may be closed about 10:30 a.m. to manage rising humidity levels caused by a failure in Zvezda's air conditioning system. Krikalev and Gidzenko are working a maintenance and repair procedure on both the air conditioning system and Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal system.

Space walk preparations focused on techniques to tighten one of two solar blankets on the starboard wing. They got the word that task had been added to the space walk schedule shortly after they were awakened about 6:30 a.m. They reviewed the procedures during a conference with flight controllers later in the day.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau will support Tanner and Noriega from the Endeavor's crew compartment, retracting by two or three feet the mast extending the two blankets of the starboard wing.

Once the mast is shortened, Noriega will pull the slack in the tensioning cables through each spring-loaded take-up reel. Tanner will manually "wind" the spring-loaded tension reels. When each has reached its limit, Tanner will let it unwind by spring force while Noriega guides the cable on to the reel grooves. The outboard reel will be done first, followed by the inboard reel. The cables apparently came out of the grooves when the wing was extended on Sunday. Both wings of the 240-foot-long, 38-foot-wide array continue to function well, producing power to the space station.

After the solar wing repair, Tanner and Noriega will install the Floating Potential Probe atop the P6 structure. It measures the electrical potential of plasma around the station.

Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko had a busy day aboard the space station. They installed a new air conditioning unit brought up by the Progress supply vessel which docked with the station Nov. 17 to replace one that had failed earlier in the week. The new unit is functioning well. The crew also replaced a malfunctioning fan in the Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal unit, bringing that life-support unit back on line.

Shepherd went back inside the Unity module about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday to install electrical outlets and air ducts and separate the power feeds going to the early communication and S-band communication systems, providing additional redundancy.

Endeavour's crew was scheduled to go to bed a little after 10 p.m., about two hours before the space station crew was to be awakened at 12:06 a.m. Thursday. The wake-up call for the STS-97 crew will sound at 6:06 a.m.

"We had a great day," Glenda Laws, lead EVA officer, said at an evening briefing.

Space walkers Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega also installed a centerline camera cable outside the Unity module. It will transmit television images to help a shuttle crew attach the U.S. laboratory Destiny next month. The last of their scheduled tasks was installation of the Floating Potential Probe. The FPP, atop the P6, measures the electrical potential of plasma around the station. The evergreen tree image was on a transfer bag they attached to the FPP symbolizing "topping out" of the space station - a tradition followed by Earth-based construction workers when a building reaches its final height.

The blanket tensioning task had been quickly and carefully planned. On Wednesday Mission Control sent up to Endeavour descriptions of the task and video of fellow Astronaut David Wolf performing the solar blanket work on the ground.

The space walk began at 10:13 a.m., more than 35 minutes earlier than planned. After the space walkers moved to the top of the P6, crew members inside Endeavour, Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialist Marc Garneau retracted the mast extending the starboard wing, which had been deployed Sunday, by two or three feet. Noriega pulled the slack tensioning cables through each take-up reel. Tanner turned the spring-loaded tension reels, then let them unwind while Noriega guided the cable onto the reel grooves, tensioning the slack blanket. The 240-foot-long, 38-foot-wide solar array continues to function well.

The scheduled activities went so smoothly that Tanner and Noriega were able to complete some "get-ahead" tasks for the next scheduled space walks outside the space station in January. These included installing a sensor on a radiator, installing small antennas and doing a photo survey. Even so, they were able to conclude their space walk at 3:23 p.m., after 5 hours and 10 minutes outside. This brings total space walk time during STS-97 to 19 hours and 20 minutes, and total space walk time outside the station to 88 hours and 54 minutes.

The space station's crew, Commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, packaged items for transfer to Endeavour and return to Earth. Their scheduled sleep period began a little after 3:30 p.m. They were to be awakened at 12:06 a.m. Friday. Endeavour's crew was scheduled to go to bed a little after 10 p.m. and be awakened at 6:06 a.m. Friday.

The two crews will meet face to face, for the first time since Endeavour docked to the space station last Saturday, a little after 8:30 a.m. Friday.

After carefully going through the plan with Mission Control on Wednesday and receiving descriptions and videotapes of fellow Astronaut David Wolf performing the additional task on the ground, Commander Brent Jett and his crew voiced optimism they could accomplish the new task.

Mission Specialists Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega will float out the shuttle's hatch at 10:51 a.m. CST and move up to the top of the new solar array truss structure. Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialist Marc Garneau will retract the mast extending the two blankets of the starboard solar array wing approximately two or three feet. Once the mast is shortened, Noriega will pull the slack in the tensioning cables through each take-up reel. Tanner will manually turn the spring-loaded tension reel until it reaches its limit and then will let the reel unwind by spring force while Noriega guides the cable onto the reel grooves. The outboard reel will be done first, followed by the inboard reel.

The 240-foot-long, 38-foot-wide solar array continues to function well, sending power to the International Space Station. The starboard array's cables apparently came out of the reel grooves when the wing was extended on Sunday. The port solar array wings were deployed to their full tension Monday using a modified deployment technique.

After the solar wing repair, Tanner and Noriega will install the Floating Potential Probe atop the P6 structure. The probe will measure the electrical potential of plasma around the station. Plasma Contactor Units already are at work on the solar array truss, emitting electrons that complete an electrical circuit and avoid the potential for arcing.

Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko awoke just after midnight CST and continued packing up items that will be returned to Earth aboard Endeavour. They also set up, but did not activate, a wireless instrumentation system that will attempt to measure and further model the structural integrity of the station as shuttle steering jets fire.

Humidity levels are coming down in the station after Wednesday's successful installation by the crew of a new air conditioning unit. The crew also replaced a malfunctioning fan in the Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal unit, bringing that life-support unit back on line. The hatch between the Zarya and Unity modules remains open indefinitely. The two crews are scheduled to meet inside Unity about 8:30 a.m. Friday.

Endeavour's crew was awakened at 6:06 a.m. CST to the sounds of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun," sent up for Joe Tanner. The station crew is scheduled to go to bed at 3:36 p.m. CST, and the shuttle crew will begin its sleep shift at 10:06 p.m.

The crews of the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavour opened the last hatch separating them at 8:36 a.m. Space station commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev greeted the Endeavour astronauts, Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Carlos Noriega and Joe Tanner, with handshakes.

The two crews had remained separated because the pressure aboard Endeavour had been reduced to help prepare Tanner and Noriega for their space walks.

The solar arrays they helped get ready for deployment and later repaired are functioning well. Systems aboard the space station are working well and Endeavour is performing almost perfectly.

"It has been a great mission," lead shuttle flight director Bill Reeves said at a Friday briefing. All objectives already have been accomplished, he said, except for the fly around of the space station by Endeavour after the Saturday undocking.

The eight crew members worked together to transfer equipment and supplies between the two spacecraft, and take refuse from the station aboard Endeavour for return to Earth. They did structural tests of the station and its solar arrays. They also finished setting up and checking out a TV system. Tanner and Noriega installed a cable for that system Thursday during their third space walk. The system will help a shuttle crew attach the U.S. laboratory Destiny to the station during a January mission.

Both crews held a news conference beginning at 3:57 p.m. Friday. They spoke live with reporters at Johnson Space Center in Houston, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and at Canadian Space Agency headquarters near Montreal. Immediately afterwards they talked with the Discovery Channel.

The space station crew was scheduled to go to bed about 6 p.m. and wake up at 2:36 a.m. on Saturday. The shuttle crew will begin its sleep period about 10 p.m. and be awakened at 6:06 a.m. Saturday. Endeavour is scheduled to undock from the space station at 1:13 p.m. Saturday and, after the flyaround of the ISS, begin final separation at 2:17 p.m.

The crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the station's Expedition 1 crew opened the hatches of their respective spacecraft at 8:36 a.m. CST Friday. Station Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev shook hands with their first station guests in 38 days -- STS-97 Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Carlos Noriega and Joe Tanner.

The meeting was the first face-to-face contact between the crews, even though their spacecraft have been docked together since last Saturday, orbiting the planet at an altitude of 230 statute miles. At least one hatch remained closed at all times to maintain different atmospheric pressures so that the shuttle crew could conduct three spacewalks and succeed in its primary mission objectives, the delivery, installation and activation of the first U.S. solar power system for the International Space Station.

The new solar arrays are working well, converting the Sun's rays into electricity and providing an average of 13 kilowatts of additional energy for use by the space station, supplementing the power supplied by solar arrays on the Russian Zarya and Zvezda modules. Other station systems, including a carbon-dioxide removal system and an air conditioner that failed earlier in the week but were repaired by the station crew, are working well.

After a short welcoming ceremony and safety briefing, the eight spacefarers got right to work conducting joint activities including structural tests of the station and its solar arrays, transfer of equipment, supplies and refuse back and forth between their two spacecraft and checking out a television camera cable that will help the next shuttle crew deliver and install the station's first laboratory module, Destiny.

A joint crew news conference is scheduled for 3:57 p.m. CST today.

The space station crew is scheduled to go to bed about 6 p.m. CST, and the shuttle crew a little later about 10 p.m.

Bob Cabana, ISS manager for International Operations, said at a Saturday afternoon briefing after Endeavour's undocking that the ISS is "a fully functional space station that is growing by leaps and bounds." Endeavour left the P6 solar array structure on the station, with wings stretching 240 feet from tip to tip. It can provide as much as 60 kilowatts of power under ideal conditions.

The shuttle and the space station closed the last hatch linking them at 9:51 a.m. Undocking took place as scheduled, at 1:13 p.m. The shuttle and space station had been docked to one another for 6 days, 23 hours and 13 minutes. Endeavour moved downward from the space station, then began a tail-first circle at a distance of about 500 feet. The maneuver, with pilot Mike Bloomfield at the controls, took about an hour.

While Endeavour flew that circle, the two spacecraft, moving at five miles a second, flew about two-thirds of the way around the Earth. Undocking took place 235 statute miles above the border of Kazakhstan and China. When Endeavour made its final separation burn, the orbiter and the space station were near the northeastern coast of South America.

Shortly after undocking, Expedition One commander Bill Shepherd radioed a "well done Endeavour" to commander Brent Jett, Bloomfield and mission specialists Marc Garneau, Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega. Jett radioed the station crew best wishes for the rest of its mission. Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev will spend about three more months aboard the space station.

Late in the day, Canadian astronaut Garneau talked with John Manley, Canadian minister of foreign affairs and international trade, Mac Evans, Canadian Space Agency president, and elementary school children at the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa.

Before going to bed at 10:06 p.m. the STS-97 crew got some off-duty time and adjusted the shuttle's orbit to give it an additional landing opportunity in Florida. Endeavour is to touch down at 5:04 p.m. CST Monday at Kennedy Space Center.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega left behind Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, who still have three more months of space station living ahead of them.

Before closing the hatches over the northern portion of the Persian Gulf, the two crews completed final transfers of supplies being delivered to the station and used equipment along with other items that were removed from the station for return to Earth.

Endeavour and the STS-97 crew will perform a full fly-around of the station before firing the shuttle's thrusters to leave the vicinity of the station 240 statute miles above the Earth and begin heading for home.

The crew's wake-up call today was "Back in the Saddle Again," by Gene Autry in honor of Bloomfield, who is making his second space flight and his second fly-around of a space station. The first was STS-86, on which he steered Atlantis around the Russian Space Station Mir.

Canadian astronaut Garneau is scheduled to talk with John Manley, Canadian minister of foreign affairs and international trade, Mac Evans, Canadian Space Agency president, and elementary school children at the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa at 5:26 p.m. CST.

Before going to bed at 10:06 p.m. CST, the STS-97 crew will enjoy some off-duty time and adjust the shuttle's orbit to enable additional landing opportunities in Florida. Landing is scheduled for 5:04 p.m. CST Monday at Kennedy Space Center.

The weather forecast for the anticipated landing time at Kennedy Space Center calls for a slight chance of showers in the area, and flight controllers will continue to monitor the weather conditions in Florida tomorrow. Landing opportunities are available at Edwards Air Force Base in California as well on Monday, and flight controllers could opt to send Endeavour there if conditions warrant. The weather at Edwards is predicted to be favorable.

There are two landing opportunities on Monday at Kennedy Space Center. The second is at 6:41 p.m. Edwards has three opportunities. The first is at 6:35 p.m. CST, the second at 8:09 p.m. and the third at 9:46 p.m.

Endeavour's five crew members, Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Carlos Noriega and Joe Tanner, were awakened at 6:06 a.m. They checked out the flight control surfaces - the rudder and flaps that will control Endeavour after it enters the atmosphere. They also checked out the reaction control system thrusters that will keep the orbiter in the proper attitude as it begins its fiery re-entry.

Jett, Tanner and Noriega talked with reporters from the Associated Press and the Telemundo and Univision networks a little before 3 p.m. Sunday, before focusing on their stowage tasks. Endeavour's crew was scheduled to begin its sleep period just after 10 p.m. and to be awakened at 6:06 a.m. Monday to begin landing-day activities.

Aboard the station, now about 1,250 miles behind Endeavour, Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev were awakened at midnight. They had a light day, doing housekeeping tasks and speaking with family and friends via radio. Their scheduled sleep period began about 3:30 p.m.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Carlos Noriega and Joe Tanner were awakened at 6:06 a.m. CST, as Endeavour led the station on orbit by about 530 nautical miles.

Aboard the station, Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev had been awake since midnight, enjoying a light-duty day of housekeeping and communications passes with friends and family members.

Endeavour's morning wake-up music was "Beyond the Sea," sung by Bobby Darin -- a reference to the traditions observed on the station by Navy Commander Jett and Navy Captain Shepherd, including the ringing of the station's ship's bell when the shuttle crew departed Saturday.

Today, Jett and Bloomfield will check out the systems that will be used for landing. A test of the aerodynamic control surfaces they will use to steer Endeavour like a glider through the atmosphere is set for 10:06 a.m. CST. A hot-firing of the reaction control system jets they will use to guide the shuttle out of orbit is set for 11:16 a.m.

After lunch, Jett, Tanner and Noriega will talk with reporters at the Associated Press, and the Telemundo and Univision Networks at 2:51 p.m. CST. The entire crew then will stow away the gear that was used on the space station assembly mission.

Endeavour is scheduled to touch down at 5:04 p.m. CST Monday at Kennedy Space Center.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Carlos Noriega, Marc Garneau and Joe Tanner will move into their formal de-orbit preparation timeline about noon. For the first landing opportunity of the day, Entry Flight Director LeRoy Cain would give the crew a "go / no go" call on closing Endeavour's payload bay doors about 1 p.m.

There are two landing opportunities in Florida today, the first beginning with an orbital maneuvering system engine firing at 3:57 p.m. CST, and culminating in a landing on Shuttle Landing Facility runway 15 at 5:04 p.m. CST (6:04 p.m. EST). In the event weather precludes a landing on that first opportunity, a second landing opportunity exists one orbit later with a de-orbit burn at 5:35 p.m. CST, resulting in a 6:40 p.m. (7:40 p.m. EST) landing at the Kennedy Space Center. If that second opportunity is selected, residents along the Gulf of Mexico may have a good view of Endeavour's plasma trail as it blazes through the atmosphere on its way home to Florida.

Preliminary weather forecasts, while basically favorable for landing, call for a slight chance of showers in the vicinity of the Shuttle Landing Facility today. Landing opportunities also are available at Edwards Air Force Base in California, and flight controllers could decide to send Endeavour there if conditions warrant. Edwards has three landing opportunities at 6:35 p.m., 8:09 p.m. and 9:46 p.m. CST.

Aboard the International Space Station, now about 1,500 miles behind Endeavour, Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev are taking advantage of the additional space offered by the Unity module.

With additional power provided by the station's new solar arrays -- delivered and installed by Endeavour's crew - the station crew now has continuous access to that module. Early this morning, Shepherd provided flight controllers with views of a cluttered module, and asked for the crew to have time for some housekeeping on Tuesday. Shepherd indicated he had elected to spend much of Monday setting up a new resistance exercise device in Unity, and looked forward to opening the hatch in the docking port vacated by Endeavour so that it can be used as closet space.

Commander Brent Jett guided Endeavour to a landing at 5:03 p.m. Central time, 36 minutes after sunset, wrapping up a 4,476,164 million mile (7,203,687 kilometers) mission that saw three space walks conducted to install, checkout and activate the first of four planned sets of solar arrays that will operate on the facility. Jett and his crewmates, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega touched down on Runway 15 at the Florida spaceport to wrap up the fifth and final shuttle flight of the year, heralding their arrival with an early evening twin sonic boom as the shuttle went subsonic just minutes before reaching its landing strip.

It was the 16th night landing in shuttle program history.

Four minutes before landing, the International Space station flew almost directly over Kennedy Space Center, with the Expedition One crew of Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev asleep, having completed their 41st day in space and their 39th day aboard the international outpost. They are due to be awakened just after midnight Central time to begin a day highlighted by the reconfiguration of systems to accept the new supply of power from the huge solar wings on the station.

The five crew members are scheduled to be reunited with their families within a few hours of landing and will spend the night near the Kennedy Space Center to relax. The crew is scheduled to return to Houston and a welcoming ceremony at Ellington Field about 4 p.m. Central time Tuesday.

With Endeavour's landing, the stage is set for the next shuttle flight of Atlantis in about five and a half weeks to deliver the U.S. Laboratory "Destiny" to the International Space Station, the cornerstone of scientific research on the growing complex.

Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, John Phillips, Scott Parazynski, Umberto Guidoni of the European Space Agency and Yuri Lonchakov of Rosaviakosmos blasted off on time from Launch Pad 39-A at 1:41 p.m. Central time as the ISS sailed over the Indian Ocean south of India. Aboard the station, Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms were told of Endeavour's launch as it lifted off from the pad. Approximately 20 minutes later, the three crew members took a few minutes out from routine maintenance work and preparations for Endeavour's arrival to watch a video feed of the launch uplinked to them by ISS flight controllers in Houston through the station's KU-band communications system.

Less than nine minutes after launch, Endeavour had reached its preliminary orbit and began its pursuit of the station for a docking Saturday morning. The seven astronauts began to configure systems for on-orbit operations and opened the shuttle's cargo bay doors before the start of an eight-hour sleep period tonight at 6:41 p.m. Central time.

Aboard the ISS, all systems continue to function normally as Usachev, Voss and Helms ready the complex for their first visitors since beginning their expedition one month ago. On Monday, a Russian Progress resupply vehicle was jettisoned from the aft docking port of the Zvezda module, enabling the station crew to undock its Soyuz return capsule from the nadir port of the Zarya module yesterday and fly it to a redocking with Zvezda in a 21-minute maneuver. That cleared the Zarya docking port for the arrival of the Soyuz rotation "taxi" crew at the ISS later this month. The taxi crew will deliver a fresh Soyuz capsule for the Expedition crew members' use as an emergency return vehicle. The Soyuz vehicles need to be rotated approximately every six months.

Hadfield and Parazynski are scheduled to venture outside Endeavour Sunday for the first of two scheduled space walks to unfold the huge booms of the 57-foot-long Canadarm2 and to route power to the device, which will be mounted on the Destiny Laboratory for future station assembly work. Canadarm2 is scheduled to "walk off" its pallet and attach itself to a grapple fixture on Destiny Monday, where it will receive power, data and commanding from the Expedition crew operating at robotic workstations inside Destiny.

Housed in Endeavour's cargo bay is the Italian Space Agency-provided Raffaello cargo module, which is carrying several tons of equipment for the Expedition Two crew and racks of hardware for installation in Destiny which will be used for scientific research in the future. Raffaello, which is the second of three such logistics modules, will be berthed to the ISS Monday so its contents can be transferred to the station throughout the course of docked operations.

Endeavour is circling the Earth in excellent shape as it flies in an orbit inclined 51.6 degrees to either side of the Equator.

The STS-105 mission to deliver the third resident crew to the ISS is scheduled to launch tomorrow at 4:38 p.m. Central time as the ISS sails over the Southern Ocean south of Adelaide, Australia at an altitude of around 240 statute miles.

Discovery's Commander, Scott Horowitz, Pilot Rick Sturckow, and Mission Specialists Pat Forrester and Dan Barry are ready to ferry Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin to the Station for a four-month mission, succeeding Usachev, Voss and Helms, who have been aloft since March 8.

Discovery was cleared for launch earlier this week by Shuttle managers after reviewing the status of fuel injector units used in the hydraulic power units that steer the Shuttle's solid rocket booster nozzles during the first two minutes of powered flight.

Last night aboard the ISS, one of three command and control computers (C & C 1) which is used as a backup for the operation of some Station systems experienced a problem reading its hard drive, or Mass Storage Device. The hard drive stores commands for a variety of vehicle activities on the U.S. segment of the complex. Flight controllers attempted to reboot the computer with no success and are continuing efforts to bring it back into operation. This computer has lost only some of its functional capability. The Station's primary computer (C & C 3) is operating normally, however, and a third computer (C & C 2) is being transitioned from standby status to act as the backup for C & C 3.

A newly refurbished command and control computer had already been manifested to be launched on Discovery to the ISS as a spare, and would be installed for operation, if required. The backup computer glitch has had no impact on Station operations and will not affect the joint mission to deliver the new Expedition crew to the orbital outpost.

As Usachev, Voss and Helms prepared to handover command of the Station to a new crew, Russian engineers prepared two vehicles for launch right after the STS-105 mission. At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a Progress resupply ship is being readied for launch on August 21 to deliver food, fuel and supplies for the new Expedition Three crew. It is scheduled to dock to the aft docking port of the Zvezda Service Module on August 23, one day after the current Progress attached to the ISS is jettisoned. And the newest ISS module, a Russian Docking Compartment named Pirs, the Russian word for pier, is in the final stages of preparation for launch on September 15 to link up to the earthward facing docking port of Zvezda. It will provide a new docking port for future visiting Russian vehicles.

In addition to packing to come home, the Expedition Two crew continues to oversee a variety of science investigations.

The International Space Station (ISS) is orbiting at an altitude averaging 240 miles (385 km).

The arrival of the Progress vehicle at the Station sets the stage for the launch of the next module for the outpost next month --- the Russian Docking Compartment named Pirs, the Russian word for pier. The Docking Compartment will automatically link up to the nadir, or earthward facing docking port of Zvezda two days after launch, providing an additional docking port for future Russian vehicles arriving at the ISS. A Progress-style instrumentation and propulsion stage attached to Pirs, which will provide the new module with its thruster capability to reach the ISS, will be jettisoned shortly after the new component docks to Zvezda.

The crew members are also working on unpacking equipment recently delivered on the STS-105 shuttle mission. They installed the Volatile Organic Analyzer (VOA) this week and will activate it later this week. The VOA is designed to sample the air inside the ISS, detecting and identifying any possible contaminants. Flight controllers at Mission Control, Houston will command the VOA to take daily local samples of the air. The Expedition Three Crew can also take remote air samples from anywhere in the ISS.

One of the voltage converter units in the Zvezda associated with one of eight power-producing batteries for the Service Module was successfully replaced this week after it recently experienced a problem. All of Zvezda's systems are functioning normally.

In addition to attending to the new supplies, the Expedition Three crew continues to oversee a variety of science investigations.

The International Space Station (ISS) is orbiting at an altitude averaging 240 miles (385 km).

Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin are in the fourth week of a four-month stay aboard the station. Much of their time was devoted to experiment work this week, uninterrupted by any station system problems. Some minor repairs were accomplished by the crew and included a check of wiring that proved a treadmill is usable for exercise sessions onboard; tightening of a connection in a station air conditioning system that stopped a minute freon leak; and the installation of a new videotape recorder in the Destiny Laboratory, replacing a recorder that had failed.

Early this morning, flight controllers assisted the crew as the station's orientiation was changed slightly to allow the Sun to continue to fully shine on the complex's solar arrays. As the seasons change, the angle of the sun relative to the station also changes. The sun had previously been fairly low to the southern horizon relative to the station, and the complex was oriented so as to point the arrays south toward the sun. The sun has grown higher in the sky relative to the station now and the complex today was moved back to an orientation that has the arrays perpendicular to the station's direction of travel, a more naturally stable orientation that is preferred for the complex when possible. Such orientation adjustments are performed regularly to optimize power generation. Later today, Culbertson maneuvered the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm into position to allow its television cameras to focus on a dump of waste water from vents on the Destiny Lab that is planned to be performed on Friday. About five gallons of water will be dumped overboard in 10 minutes, and the behavior of the expelled water crystals will be recorded. The crew also will document station surfaces with both television and still photography both before and after the water dump. Water has been dumped from the Destiny vents before, but Friday's activities will allow engineers to better characterize how well the jettisoned water clears the vicinity of the station.

Scientific work on the station this week has been highlighted by the completion of a human cell culture experiment that has grown colon, kidney and ovarian cancer cells in space to be used in medical research when returned to Earth late this year. The crew also installed equipment in preparation for a series of tests to characterize a vibration isolation system that will dampen disturbances to very sensitive experiments aboard the station. In addition, the crew continued to gather data from a host of investigations of the radiation environment in orbit and monitored the status of other studies.

Flight controllers and the crew are preparing for the continued assembly of the station next week with the planned launch of a new Russian station component from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff of a Soyuz rocket carrying the Pirs Docking Compartment, a Russian airlock and docking port, is planned for about 6:35 p.m. CDT Sept. 14. The Pirs compartment, which is the Russian word for pier, is planned to dock with the station at about 8:08 p.m. CDT Sept. 16, attaching to an Earth-facing port on the station's Zvezda living quarters module.

The International Space Station (ISS) is orbiting at an average altitude of 240 statute miles (385 km).

As Pirs linked up to the Zvezda module, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson said, "We really felt that", describing the new component settling into its new home.

The docking went according to plan, with the automated docking system controlling a Progress-style instrumentation and propulsion system attached to the rear of the Pirs compartment itself. The 16-foot-long, 8,000-pound module approached the station from below and behind, beginning its automated docking sequence shortly after 5:30 p.m. About 20 minutes later, the station's thrusters moved it to the proper orientation for docking. The station's large solar array wings were positioned to eliminate contamination from the jets on Pirs as it made it final approach.

After the probe-and-drogue docking system completed capture of the incoming module and pulled the two spacecraft together, 12 active latching hooks were driven to their closed position, locking the module securely in place.

After docking, the Expedition Three crew checked to make sure there was a good seal between the station and its new module, then began to equalize pressure between the two craft prior to the first opening of the hatch to Pirs, which was scheduled later this evening. The aft instrumentation and propulsion system locked onto the docking compartment itself will be jettisoned next month to set the stage for spacewalks by the crew to install and activate key systems for the compartment's future operation. Pirs, which is the Russian word for pier, was launched on a Soyuz rocket at 6:35 p.m. CDT Friday. The new Russian component is an additional docking port for future Russian vehicles arriving at the station, an added stowage area and an airlock for the Russian segment. Three space walks are to be conducted in October and November from Pirs by the Expedition Three crew - two by Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and one by Culbertson and Dezhurov - to electrically mate the Docking Compartment to Zvezda and install more equipment on the outside of the module.

The International Space Station (ISS) is orbiting at an average altitude of 240 statute miles (385 km).

The 16-foot long Pirs, with a 20-foot instrumentation and propulsion segment still attached, is now docked to the Earth-facing port of the station's Zvezda service module. Pirs provides the station with an airlock for use with Russian Orlan space suits and a new docking port. The crew opened the hatch to Pirs on Sunday evening a few hours after it arrived and spent Monday and Tuesday unloading cargo and supporting equipment from the new module. On Wednesday, they removed automated rendezvous equipment, which will be returned to Earth for reuse on later missions.

So far this week, the crew has upgraded the station's Russian software to allow control computers aboard Zvezda to work with the Pirs' systems; installed and activated Pirs' caution and warning system; set up ventilation equipment and lighting in Pirs; and tested the new computer software. All of the activities have gone smoothly, and Pirs is in excellent condition. Later this week, the crew is planned to activate Pirs' communications equipment and conduct further systems tests on the new addition.

As well as working in Pirs, the crew has continued scientific investigations with experiments that study spinal cord reflexes during long-duration spaceflight; gauge the interactions between crewmembers and ground personnel; and characterize a system that isolates sensitive experiments from vibrations on the station. The crew also conducted physical examinations that are done periodically during the flight to gauge the effects of weightlessness.

Oversight of science investigations on the station from the ground is handled by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. the Human Research Facility is managed by the Johnson Space Center.

A highlight of the work with Pirs will be the jettison of the compartment's instrumentation and propulsion segment. The segment is scheduled to be pyrotechnically detached from Pirs on Oct. 1, backed away from the station, and moved to an orbit that will have it reenter the atmosphere and burn up. That operation will set the stage for a space walk by Dezhurov and Tyurin planned for Oct. 8, the first of three space walks to be performed from Pirs using Russian space suits to continue hooking up and activating the module during Expedition Three.

Just a few days later, on Oct. 19, the crew will relocate its Soyuz spacecraft from its present location at an Earth-facing port on the Zarya module to the new docking port on Pirs. That clears the way for the arrival of a fresh Soyuz return craft with a taxi crew of Commander Victor Afanasyev, Flight Engineer Konstantin Kozeev and Flight Engineer Claudie Haignere. The new Soyuz will be launched Oct. 21 and will dock to the station Oct. 23 for an eight-day stay.

The International Space Station (ISS) is orbiting at an average altitude of 240 statute miles (385 km).

Mission controllers in Moscow fired pyrotechnic devices that activated spring pushrods to eject the 20-foot-long instrumentation and propulsion segment of the Pirs Docking Compartment at 10:36 a.m. Central time today. The segment moved away from the station at a rate of about 4 meters per second until it reached a point far enough away to fire its control system jets without contaminating the station. It then moved ahead and above the station to a distance of 24 kilometers when its thrusters were commanded to fire in a deorbit maneuver sending it into the atmosphere to burn up upon reentry. Left behind is the 16-foot long, 4-ton Pirs, which will serve as a new port for future Russian vehicles arriving at the station and as an airlock from which spacewalks will be conducted from the Russian segment of the outpost.

Today's activity sets the stage for the first space walk from Pirs by Dezhurov and Tyurin on Oct. 8. On that space walk, the pair will use Russian Orlan space suits to connect power and data cables between the Docking Compartment and the Zvezda Service Module. A second space walk is planned Oct. 14, and a third in early November.

Flight control teams in Houston and Moscow are working on a plan to address this week's shutdown of the Russian segment oxygen generation unit called Elektron, and an air-conditioning unit in Zvezda. Russian flight controllers are reviewing data in an attempt to determine the causes of the shutdowns and are working with their American counterparts to provide backup oxygen generation capability until the two Russian components can be repaired or replaced. The crew has about a week's worth of oxygen already in the station atmosphere, and has ample stores of oxygen from the gas tanks on the Quest Airlock as well as solid fuel oxygen candles to last for months. Other maintenance work completed by the crew this week included the replacement of 10 smoke detectors in the Zvezda module. The Elektron shutdown will have no impact on station operations.

Meanwhile, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a replacement Soyuz return spacecraft is being readied for launch to the station on Oct. 21. The station crew will relocate its current Soyuz spacecraft on Oct. 19 from its present location at an Earth-facing port on the Zarya module to the new docking port on Pirs to clear the way for arrival of the fresh Soyuz and a taxi crew. Commander Victor Afanasyev, Flight Engineer Konstantin Kozeev and Flight Engineer Claudie Haignere will arrive at the station Oct. 23 for an eight-day stay.

The orbiting trio has expanded its scientific investigations into new areas, including a study of the ability of certain chemical compounds to impede the formation of kidney stones. Culbertson set up and served as the first test subject for the experiment this week, which involves ingesting pills that contain either the active compound or a placebo in an effort to determine the value of the countermeasure on a small population. Urine samples are collected, as are detailed information about the crewmember's fluid and food intake. The other two crewmembers also will participate in the experiment. The crew also continued testing the Active Rack Isolation System through a series of "shaker" tests of its ability to protect sensitive experiments from vibrations caused by everyday crew activity. Oversight of science investigations on the station from the ground is handled by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. the Human Research Facility is managed by the Johnson Space Center.

The station is orbiting at an average altitude of 240 statute miles (385 km).

With Commander Frank Culbertson watching from inside, Dezhurov and Tyurin worked swiftly to clear the debris during a 2-hour, 46-minute spacewalk, the fourth of the expedition and the 30th devoted to ISS assembly and maintenance. With the seal removed, Russian flight controllers commanded the Progress' docking probe to retract fully, and a hard mate between the two craft was completed at 8:54 a.m. CST. Progress had initially docked with Zvezda last Wednesday, but hooks and latches between the craft failed to fully engage because of the debris, apparently left on the docking interface when an old Progress resupply vehicle was jettisoned on Nov. 22.

Dezhurov, who was making the 9th spacewalk of his career, and Tyurin, who was conducting the 3rd spacewalk in his first flight into space, exited the Pirs Docking Compartment at 7:20 a.m. CST with one goal in mind --- clearing the obstruction which prevented the Progress from completing a hard docking and a tight seal with Zvezda last Wednesday at the completion of a two-day free flight following its launch. The docking problem postponed last week's launch of Endeavour to bring the new residents --- the Expedition Four crew --- to the ISS.

Once they made their way to the aft end of Zvezda, Dezhurov used a tool to cut the seal, which then was easily stripped away from the circumference of the aft docking port of the Service Module. With the debris removed, Russian flight controllers initiated the mating of Progress and Zvezda, completing the repair effort. With their work completed, Dezhurov and Tyurin took a number of pictures of the debris and the docking interface between Progress and Zvezda, and returned to Pirs, closing the hatch at 10:06 a.m. CST.

The spacewalk now sets the stage for Endeavour's launch at 4:45 p.m. CST Tuesday on an 11-day mission to deliver the next trio of residents to the ISS as well as several tons of equipment and food. The launch was delayed from last Thursday to enable Russian flight controllers to plan for the contingency spacewalk. Endeavour's launch is scheduled on the third anniversary of its launch in 1998 on the first ISS assembly flight which mated the Unity connecting node to the Zarya Control Module.

The International Space Station is orbiting at an average altitude of 247 statute miles (397 km).

Human physiology experiments continue to be a focus of crew science activities as the crew prepares for its return home. Autonomous microgravity materials research continued to accumulate scientific experiment run time hours in a variety of disciplines.

The first plant tissue samples were taken from the Advanced Astroculture experiment inside the U.S. laboratory Destiny. Air, water, soil and plant samples will be brought back to Earth for scientists to study and will be compared to crops grown on Earth. The EarthKAM experiment completed its observations for this expedition and was deactivated Saturday after the digital camera took 425 pictures last week. The experiment has allowed middle school students on the ground to remotely take about 2,271 pictures of the Earth's geographical features from a vantage point 240 statute miles high. The last reading for the Hoffmann Reflex experiment was taken this week. This experiment measures the ability of the spinal cord to respond to a stimulus after being exposed to microgravity and may provide input to improve exercise during long spaceflight missions. Eight crewmembers from expedition crews have participated in this experiment. Only post-flight observations remain for the current station crew.

The crew began packing used and unneeded equipment into the Progress resupply vehicle docked to the aft end of the Zvezda service module. The Progress spacecraft will be jettisoned from the station Tuesday and will burn up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. A new Progress resupply vehicle will launch from the Baikanour Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan March 21 and will arrive at the station three days later.

An audit is taking place on board the station in preparation for the next space shuttle visit in April. Using an electronic inventory management system, station crewmembers are organizing equipment to enhance efficiency. When the space shuttle Atlantis docks to the space station next month, there will be a total of 10 crewmembers working throughout the spacecraft, now the size of a three-bedroom house, for almost a week.

Walz and Bursch also operated the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2, to observe the exterior of the station via cameras located on the arm. The cameras focused on the claw-like latch cradle assembly mounted on the Destiny module. The crew also used the cameras to inspect the station's radiators and solar arrays. During STS-110 next month, Canadarm2 will be used to move the S-zero truss segment from the shuttle's payload bay to the latch assembly on Destiny to be installed during four planned spacewalks. Flight controllers on the ground continue to monitor the arm's operation after it experienced difficulties with the primary avionics system last week. The arm functioned successfully on the secondary system this week.

Foale and Kaleri spent much of this week packing up trash to be jettisoned from the International Space Station in an old supply ship to make room for a new Progress cargo craft. They packed the unneeded equipment aboard the ISS Progress 12 resupply vehicle and prepared it for undocking from the Station at 2:36 a.m. CST Wednesday. The next resupply vehicle, ISS Progress 13, is planned to launch at 5:58 a.m. Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Progress 13 is scheduled to dock with the Station at 7:18 a.m. Jan. 31. The cargo includes fresh food, clothes, spare parts and other equipment

Following the discovery and removal of a leaky vent hose two weeks ago that was part of a window system in the U.S. Destiny Lab, the Station's air pressure has been steady. A replacement for the hose will be launched aboard Progress 13.

Also this week, Kaleri followed up his replacement last week of a liquid separation unit for the Russian Elektron oxygen generation system by replacing the electronics package associated with the system. The crew noted a rattling noise in an air filter component on the Elektron, and an additional pressure regulator for the Elektron will be added to the Progress 13 cargo to address that noise.

The pair also conducted several Russian routine medical evaluations this week and continued their regimen of exercise on a variety of pieces of training equipment.

Last weekend, Foale and Kaleri spent two days in the Russian living quarters of the Station in a test to gather data on pressures in sections of the complex. Foale and Kaleri floated into the Zvezda living quarters module shortly after 2 p.m. CST Jan. 16, closing several hatches behind them that divided the station into four sections. They reopened the hatches about 11 a.m. Sunday. Flight controllers in Houston and Russia monitored air pressure in the sections of the Station during the weekend.

Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev will get a special musical wakeup call this weekend as Paul McCartney connects with them live from a concert in Anaheim, Calif. The call will take place at 11:55 p.m. CST Saturday and will be broadcast live on NASA Television.

The McCartney wakeup music for McArthur and Tokarev is a follow-up to a tribute he paid to the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery during the STS-114 mission in August, when the Beatles’ classic "Good Day Sunshine" was played as a wakeup call for Discovery’s crew on the day weather conditions became favorable for landing.

McArthur and Tokarev spent the week servicing the spacesuits they wore Monday for a 5 hour, 22 minute excursion outside the station. During the spacewalk, they installed a television camera, jettisoned an inactive science experiment and removed and replaced other equipment on the truss system of the complex.

The crew's second spacewalk is planned for Dec. 7. McArthur and Tokarev will don Russian Orlan spacesuits and exit the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock for that excursion. During the spacewalk, they will move a cargo crane adapter, collect science experiments from the hull of the Zvezda Service Module and manually launch an expired Russian spacesuit equipped with amateur radio equipment. Called SuitSat, the experiment is designed to see if ham radio contacts can be made with a free-flying transmitter.

To prepare for that spacewalk, McArthur and Tokarev will relocate their Soyuz spacecraft from the Pirs docking port to the nadir docking port of the Zarya module on Nov. 18, briefly leaving the station unoccupied.

Earlier today, four thruster engines on the ISS Progress 19 resupply craft were fired for more than 33 minutes in two separate reboost maneuvers to raise the altitude of the outpost. The station is now in a near circular orbit of 219 statute miles to accommodate the launch and docking of the next Progress cargo ship in December. The reboost was the longest ever completed using Progress engines.

On Wednesday, Tokarev replaced a control panel for the station’s toilet in Zvezda that had malfunctioned earlier in the week. The temporary loss of the use of the device's liquid disposal component had no impact on station operations. Following the troubleshooting, the toilet is now operating normally.

The ISS Progress 21 cargo spacecraft, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, docked at the station Wednesday. The ship was the first supply shipment for Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams, who have been in space for almost a month.

The spacecraft brought fresh fruit and other foods, gifts from home, fuel, water, oxygen, spare parts and science gear. Two Progress cargo craft are now docked at the complex. Oxygen supplies from ISS Progress 20, which arrived in December, continue to be used to replenish the cabin air when required. The crew is loading that Progress with trash and unneeded equipment. The spacecraft will be jettisoned from the complex in mid-June.

Early in the week, Williams replaced a Remote Power Control Module, a type of circuit breaker, in the station's Destiny laboratory. The power control module had not been functioning for some time, and electricity for many lab systems had been delivered via an alternate path. To gain access to the worksite for replacement of the component, Williams had to disassemble and remove his sleeping compartment. Mission Control sequentially powered off many lab systems and lights to facilitate the replacement. Williams accomplished all the work ahead of schedule, and the new power control module has been functioning well.

Science activities aboard the station during the past week included work by Williams with the Capillary Flow Experiment, which is an investigation of fluid behavior in weightlessness that may assist in the design of future spacecraft. The crew members also completed urine collection and notes about their food consumption for an experiment studying the formation of kidney stones in weightlessness.

Vinogradov completed routine maintenance of the station's Elektron system. It was powered off much of the week and reactivated today. The Elektron provides oxygen for the cabin air from water.

Plans for next week include an engine firing to boost the station's altitude on Thursday, May 4; continued unloading of the newly arrived Progress vehicle; and periodic crew health checks.

Most of the week was focused around routine maintenance and inspections. Williams completed checks of the refrigerated centrifuge, updated the inventory system and took samples of potable water for routine testing. He also changed the cooling water used in the U.S. spacesuits to ensure that the pumps work and to prevent microbial growth in the water tanks.

Vinogradov did similar jobs in the station's Russian segment – completing an inspection of the pressure hull in the Zvezda living quarters, performing maintenance of the ventilation system in Zvezda and testing emergency vacuum valves in the Atmosphere Purification System.

On Wednesday, the crew updated onboard laptop computers. Williams began to install new software on the Medical Equipment Computer, but stopped to allow ground specialists to troubleshoot some difficulties he encountered. The problem was resolved and the task will be rescheduled for Williams. Vinogradov installed and tested new software on a Russian laptop.

Both crew members spent time packing unneeded gear inside the ISS Progress 20. The 20th Progress to visit the station is docked to the Pirs compartment and will be jettisoned from the complex in mid-June to burn up in the atmosphere. Russian flight controllers also fired the newer ISS Progress 21 cargo craft's engines for about six and a half minutes on Thursday to boost the station’s altitude by about 1.7 miles. The Progress 21 is docked at the aft docking port of the Zvezda module.

Williams kicked off the first Expedition 13 session of the Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation this week. It is an experiment that studies bubbling that occurs in weightlessness as liquids cool and turn into solids. It provides insight into how materials solidify in space and may benefit similar processes used in industry on Earth. The experiment is performed in the Microgravity Science Glovebox in the Destiny Lab.

The crew took time this week to reach out to more than 1,500 students, teachers and NASA personnel participating in a Space Day educational event at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The event was part of a larger program highlighting NASA Explorer Schools as well as a collaboration between NASA and America Online (AOL).

Williams also spoke to students in the Inuit community of Kuujjuaq, Canada, via HAM radio. More than 340 students attend the school, which is located 900 miles north of Montreal at the base of Ungava Bay.

Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams had a busy weekend with closeout tasks and station configurations after the spacewalk last week. They finished the cleanup and stowage of the Orlan spacesuits and related tools.

The crew members enjoyed light duty days on Monday and Tuesday, resting up after the extended spacewalk and its follow up activities. They resumed a normal work and sleep schedule Wednesday. Another off-duty day for the crew is scheduled for Monday.

The crew attempted to reactivate the Russian Elektron oxygen-generating system this week following the replacement of its external hydrogen vent valve during the June 1 spacewalk. After several attempts, the Elektron began operating but failed about seven hours later. Vinogradov checked the vent lines associated with the refurbishment effort during the spacewalk and they appeared to be clear and operating normally.

Another attempt to restart Elektron earlier today proved unsuccessful, leading Russian specialists to believe that the problem is due to a failed power unit. A spare unit was located by Vinogradov and will be installed on Sunday. The crew members have at least a week of oxygen available in the cabin atmosphere before they would need to use supplies out of the ISS Progress 21 cargo ship tanks. The Elektron problem has had no impact on station operations and ample alternate supplies of oxygen are available.

This afternoon, the ISS Progress 21 thrusters were used to boost the station by a little less than one mile, placing the complex at the correct altitude for the launch and docking of the next cargo vehicle, ISS Progress 22.

That supply spacecraft is scheduled to launch June 24 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and will dock to the station on June 26 at the Pirs docking compartment port, which currently houses the older ISS Progress 20. It will be jettisoned on June 19 to make way for the new cargo vehicle.

Other work this week included some final spacewalk tool stowage tasks and the reconfiguration of the station's systems, including the communications system in the Russian Zvezda Service Module and the Pirs airlock.

The crew conducted a successful communications test with NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif., and White Sands Test Facility, N.M., ground sites and performed routine emergency fire drill training. They also inspected portable breathing apparatus and fire extinguishers.

Williams participated in two amateur radio sessions, the first with the Salt Brook Elementary School in New Providence, N.J., and a second with the Scarlett Middle School, a 2004 NASA Explorer School in Ann Arbor, Mich. Both crew members participated in an in-flight interview with the Web site team associated with the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Williams, who also serves as the NASA's station science officer, ran a session of two colloid experiments: Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions or InSpace and Binary Colloidal Alloy Test or BCAT. Vinogradov worked with two Russian life science experiments -- URAGAN, which is a ground and space based system for predicting natural and manmade disasters, and DIATOMEA, an ocean observations program.

Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams had a busy weekend with closeout tasks and station configurations after the spacewalk last week. They finished the cleanup and stowage of the Orlan spacesuits and related tools.

The crewmembers enjoyed light duty days on Monday and Tuesday to rest after the extended spacewalk and its follow up activities, but resumed a normal work and sleep schedule Wednesday. Another off-duty day for the crew is scheduled Monday.

The crew attempted to reactivate the Russian Elektron oxygen-generating system this week following the replacement of its external hydrogen vent valve during the June 1 spacewalk. After several attempts, the Elektron began operating but failed about seven hours later. Vinogradov checked the vent lines associated with the refurbishment effort during the spacewalk and they appeared to be clear and operating normally.

But another attempt to restart Elektron earlier today proved unsuccessful, leading Russian specialists to believe that the problem is due to a failed power unit. A spare was located by Vinogradov and will be installed on Sunday for another attempt to bring the system back on line. The crew has at least a week of oxygen available in the cabin atmosphere before it would need to use supplies out of the Progress 21 cargo ship tanks. The Elektron problem has had no impact on station operations and ample alternate supplies of oxygen are available.

This afternoon, the ISS Progress 21 thrusters were used to reboost the station by a little less than one mile, placing the complex at the correct altitude for the launch and docking of the new ISS Progress 22 cargo vehicle. Progress 22 is scheduled to launch June 24 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and will dock to the station on June 26 at the Pirs Docking Compartment port.

That docking port currently houses the older Progress 20 resupply ship, which will be jettisoned on June 19 to make way for the new cargo vehicle.

Other work this week included some final spacewalk tool stowage tasks and the reconfiguration of the station’s systems, including the communications system in the Russian Zvezda Service Module and the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock.

The crew conducted a successful communications test with the Dryden Flight Research Center and White Sands Test Facility ground sites and performed routine emergency fire drill training. They also inspected portable breathing apparatus and fire extinguishers.

Williams participated in two amateur radio sessions, the first with the Salt Brook Elementary School in New Providence, N.J., and a second with the Scarlett Middle School, a 2004 NASA Explorer School in Ann Arbor, Mich. Both crewmembers participated in an in-flight interview with the website team associated with the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Williams who serves as the station’s science officer, ran a session of two colloid experiments – InSpace (Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions) and BCAT (Binary Colloidal Alloy Test). Vinogradov worked with two Russian life science experiments - URAGAN, which is a ground and space based system for predicting natural and manmade disasters, and DIATOMEA, an ocean observations program.

Today marks the first time in almost four years that a major new space station component has been launched. Atlantis' mission begins a series of complex station expansion missions that will be among the most challenging spaceflights in history.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, lifted off at 10:15 a.m. CDT. The launch followed a flawless countdown.

During the climb to orbit, Mission Control asked the crew to reconfigure a cooling system that apparently had ice build up. The reconfiguration cleared the system, called the Flash Evaporator System, and it operated normally. Temporary ice in that cooling unit is not uncommon and has occurred on previous missions.

Moments after main engine cutoff, 8.5 minutes after liftoff, Tanner and MacLean used handheld video and digital still cameras to document the external tank after it separated from the shuttle. That imagery, as well as imagery gathered by cameras in the shuttle’s umbilical well where the tank was connected, will be transmitted to the ground for review.

As Atlantis launched, the space station was 220 miles above the northern Atlantic Ocean, between Greenland and Iceland. Aboard the outpost are Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, a Russian cosmonaut; Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams; and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency. They watched the launch via a live television transmission from Houston. Atlantis is set to dock to the complex at about 5:46 a.m. CDT Sept. 11.

Atlantis' crew will install the 17.5-ton, bus-sized P3/P4 integrated truss section to the station that includes a second set of solar arrays, batteries and associated electronics. The addition eventually will double the station’s capability to generate power from sunlight. The girder-like P3/P4 truss is 45 feet long.

Three spacewalks are planned to install the truss, deploy the arrays and prepare them for operation. Two teams, Tanner and Piper and Burbank and MacLean, will conduct the spacewalks.

During the mission, a thorough inspection will be performed in orbit of Atlantis' heat shield as has been done on the past two shuttle flights. Atlantis' time at the station could be extended by one or two days if needed to allow more time to complete those inspections or other operations. A second inspection of the heat shield is planned after Atlantis departs the station near the end of the flight to ensure it remains in good condition for landing.

When Atlantis arrives at the station, it will mark only the second time that as many as four of the station's five international partners have been represented onboard.

STS-115 is the 116th space shuttle mission and the 19th to visit the station. Atlantis is making its 27th flight and sixth trip to the station.

Atlantis’ crew begins an eight-hour sleep period at 4:15 p.m. CDT. The astronauts will awaken at 12:15 a.m. CDT Sunday to begin their first full day in orbit.

The crew thoroughly examined Atlantis with the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, the 50-foot-long extension for the shuttle's robotic arm. Pilot Chris Ferguson and mission specialists Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean performed a slow, steady inspection of the reinforced carbon-carbon panels along the leading edge of Atlantis’ starboard and port wings and the nose cap. Imagery analysts at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will review data from the survey to assess Atlantis’ critical surfaces. As yet no decision has been made whether a more focused inspection will be performed later in the flight.

The crew worked ahead of schedule for most of the day readying the ship for docking and preparing for the mission’s three planned spacewalks.

Mission specialists Joe Tanner and Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper checked out the spacesuits and tools that they, Burbank and MacLean will use during spacewalks set for flight days 4, 5 and 7. The spacewalks are planned to install the girder-like P3/P4 truss, deploy new solar arrays and prepare them for operation.

On the space station, Expedition 13 Flight Engineer Jeff Williams prepared the orbiting laboratory for Atlantis’ arrival tomorrow. He readied the digital cameras that will be used to take high-resolution photos of the shuttle's heat shield. With help from Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Williams pressurized the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 at the end of the U.S. laboratory Destiny, where Atlantis will dock. Vinogradov also prepacked equipment that will be returned.

Tomorrow, flight day 3 of the mission, Jett will take over manual control of Atlantis and begin a slow back-flip rotation of the orbiter. This will allow Vinogradov and Williams to photograph the shuttle’s heat shield.

Once the back-flip is complete, Jett will maneuver Atlantis to docking, setting the stage for a week of joint operations between the two crews.

Even before the hatches are opened, Ferguson and Burbank will use the shuttle’s robotic arm to grapple the massive P3/P4 truss. Once the hatches are open, MacLean will join Williams at the robotic work station in the Destiny to maneuver the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm for a handoff of the truss from Ferguson and Burbank. The truss will remain grappled to the Canadarm2 overnight on flight day 3.

The six-person crew of Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Joe Tanner and Steve MacLean awoke at 12:17 a.m. CDT to Audrey Hepburn singing “Moon River,” played for Jett at the request of his wife, Janet.

Today’s busy schedule is typical of the mission ahead. After their initial post-sleep period, the crewmembers will begin preparations for the day’s many tasks.

Jett and Ferguson will start the day with a burn of the orbiter maneuvering system to help position the shuttle on its course to the International Space Station. Jett will then do shuttle system checks and maneuvers, camera setups and water configurations.

For Ferguson, the rest of the workday will be dedicated to shuttle survey activities. Operating the robotics visualization software program, Ferguson will work with Burbank and MacLean to survey Atlantis' thermal protection system. They will grapple and unberth the 50-foot-long orbiter boom sensor system, a crane extension for the shuttle's robotic arm. The extension uses two lasers and a high-resolution television camera to examine the shuttle’s wing leading edges and nose cap for any signs of damage that may have occurred during launch. Imagery analysts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston will examine data from the survey to assess Atlantis’ critical surfaces.

Tanner and Stefanyshyn-Piper will check out the spacesuits and tools that they, Burbank and MacLean will use during the mission’s three scheduled spacewalks. They’ll also make preparations of the items to be transferred to the station as well as perform photo and video setups. At the end of the day, Stefanyshyn-Piper and Ferguson will check out the rendezvous tools.

The crew awoke at 11:15 p.m. to a solo cello performance by Dan Burbank’s children. About an hour later the crew began rendezvous operations. As Atlantis approaches the station, Commander Brent Jett and Pilot Chris Ferguson will do the rendezvous pitch maneuver. The maneuver, essentially a back flip, lets the station crew photograph Atlantis' heat shield.

Throughout the morning, other shuttle crewmembers, mission specialists Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean, will conduct other tasks including filling spacesuit water containers, photo and video setups, and exercise.

Once docked, they’ll do leak checks before opening the hatches to the space station. Meanwhile, Ferguson and Burbank will attach the shuttle's robotic arm to the P3/P4 Truss in the payload bay and prepare for its unberthing and handover to the station's Canadarm2. The two crews are expected to meet personally in space a little before 7 a.m. After their initial greetings, and a standard safety briefing, both teams move into one of the biggest tasks of the mission, moving P3/P4 to its new home in space.

Ferguson and Burbank will unberth the 17.5 ton truss from Atlantis’ cargo hold and maneuver it to the grapple position for the station arm. MacLean will join Expedition 13 NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams at the controls of the Candarm2, becoming the first Canadian to operate it in space.

Other crewmembers will begin transfer activities, check out spacewalk equipment and review procedures for the mission's three spacewalks. The day will end with Stefanyshyn-Piper and Tanner moving into the Quest Airlock, its pressure reduced to 10.2 psi, in the pre-spacewalk “campout” protocol. The station crew is scheduled for sleep at 2:45 p.m. and the shuttle crew 30 minutes later.

"Station, we see you have visitors. Tell them to give us a wave", said astronaut Pam Melroy, serving as CAPCOM for the space station.

The shuttle and space station docked this morning at 5:48 a.m. CDT to begin seven days of joint operations. Hatch opening between the two spacecraft occurred at 7:30 a.m. CDT with a joyful welcome of hugs and smiles.

Prior to docking, Commander Brent Jett flew Atlantis through an orbital back flip while stationed about 600 feet below the space station. The maneuver allowed the Expedition 13 crew to take a series of high-resolution photographs of the orbiter’s heat shield.

Following docking, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialist Dan Burbank attached the shuttle's robotic arm to the 17.5-ton P3/P4 truss, lifted it from its berth in the payload bay, and maneuvered it for handover to the station's Canadarm2.

After hatch opening, Mission Specialist Steve MacLean and Expedition 13 Flight Engineer Jeff Williams then used the Canadarm2 to take the truss from the shuttle’s robotic arm. MacLean is the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm2 in space.

The day ended with a “campout,” but no marshmallows, in the Quest Airlock. Mission specialists Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Joe Tanner are sleeping in the airlock tonight to prepare for Tuesday’s spacewalk. The "campout" protocol will help rid the two of nitrogen in their bloodstreams and will shorten their final spacewalk preparations.

Piper and Tanner will work to connect power cables on the P3/P4 truss, release restraints for the Solar Array Blanket Boxes that hold the solar arrays and the Beta Gimbal Assemblies that serve as the structural link between the truss’ integrated electronics and the Solar Array Wings. Piper and Tanner will also install the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint and complete the connection of electrical cables between the new P3 truss and the P1 truss.

The station crew is scheduled for sleep at 2:45 p.m. and the shuttle crew 30 minutes later.

Atlantis' astronauts were awakened at 11:15 p.m. CDT Monday with "My Friendly Epistle," a Ukrainian song by Taras Shevchenko. It was played for Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper.

She and fellow mission specialist Joe Tanner are scheduled to begin spacewalk 1 just after 4 a.m. They spent the night in the Quest Airlock, its pressure reduced to 10.2 psi. That was done to help purge nitrogen from their systems to avoid the possibility of formation of nitrogen bubbles in their blood during the spacewalk.

They are being helped in spacewalk preparations by Atlantis Commander Brent Jett, Mission Specialist Dan Burbank and station crewman Thomas Reiter.

At about 1 a.m., Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Steve MacLean and Expedition 13 Flight Engineer Jeff Williams used the station's Canadarm2 to begin the process of moving the truss to its new position at the end of the P1 truss segment. There four bolts will attach it.

Shortly after their spacewalk begins, Tanner and Piper will move to P3/P4. Tanner will connect power cables. Piper, working nearby, will release launch restraints on the Solar Array Blanket Box. The two will then work together and release other restraints on the Beta Gimbal Assembly, the structure between the truss electronics and the Solar Array Wings. Next, they will work on configurations of the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, including the installation of drive lock assemblies.

Tanner’s final task will be connecting the electrical cables in the upper utility tray and removing two other circuit interrupt devices, which is necessary for the upcoming STS-116 mission. He and Piper will then return to the airlock.

Throughout the day, other crewmembers will support the spacewalk activities as well as work to transfer equipment and supplies between the two spacecraft and prepare for Wednesday's spacewalk by Burbank and MacLean.

Mission specialists Joe Tanner and Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper focused on bolts, connectors and power tools today as they began the first of three spacewalks to hook-up and activate a 17.5 ton, 45 foot long truss with a set of solar arrays that will increase the station’s power.

The first spacewalk of the mission began when Tanner and Piper switched their spacesuits to battery power and stepped into the void of space. This was Tanner’s sixth spacewalk and Piper’s first. Piper is the eighth woman, the seventh American woman, to walk in space.

The two set to work quickly and efficiently, making the tough tasks look simple and easily getting ahead of the planned timeline. After only three and a half hours, Tanner and Piper were near completion of the day’s tasks and Mission Control Houston began working on "get ahead" tasks. These are tasks that were originally scheduled for the second spacewalk Wednesday.

One of these tasks involved removing the launch locks from the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ). To access the launch locks, spacewalkers must also remove existing covers. As Tanner removed cover 21, a bolt and washer came off and floated into space.

During the early morning hours, Mission Control told Atlantis Commander Brent Jett and his crew that a focused inspection of the shuttle's heat shield is not needed at this time. The decision means an extra mission day is not required, and the crew can continue with its planned 11-day mission.

Throughout the day, other crew members supported the spacewalk activities, transferred equipment and supplies between the two spacecraft and got ready for tomorrow’s walk by mission specialists Dan Burbank and Canadian Steve MacLean.

Tanner and Piper connected power cables on the truss, released the launch restraints on the Solar Array Blanket Box and on the Beta Gimbal Assembly -- the structure between the truss electronics -- and the Solar Array Wings. The astronauts also configured the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, which allows the arrays to track the sun, and removed two other circuit interrupt devices to prepare for the upcoming STS-116 mission.

They will continue preparations for activation of the P3/P4 truss segment attached to the station Tuesday.

Spacewalkers Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean will release and remove launch locks and launch restraints from the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint of the P4 truss. That joint will enable the new solar arrays to track the sun. The arrays are to be unfurled late today and early Thursday.

Burbank and MacLean spent the night in the Quest Airlock, as did Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Joe Tanner before their Tuesday spacewalk, part of the campout pre-breathe protocol. Burbank and MacLean are preparing for their spacewalk, with help from shuttle Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and station Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 4:15 a.m. CDT.

Tanner, now a veteran of six spacewalks, will serve as the intravehicular officer for this spacewalk. Piper will operate the station robotic arm to ensure video viewing during the spacewalk.

Because of the success of the first spacewalk, planners were able to add get-ahead tasks to today’s scheduled activities. Once their original tasks are complete, Burbank and MacLean also will prepare the P3 for the mobile transporter, part of a movable base system for the Canadarm2 to move along rails on the truss structure.

Depending on time available, they will remove a keel pin and drag link and stow them within the truss structure. They’ll also remove a Space Vision System target, rotate P1 and P3 mobile transporter and tether shuttle stops. They'll install a temporary rail stop for the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid cart.

Meanwhile, inside the orbiting laboratory, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams will continue with station operations tasks as well as transfer activities and preparations for their upcoming departure.

The two are scheduled to return to Earth aboard their Soyuz spacecraft Sept. 28. They will be replaced by Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, who are scheduled to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan a little after 11 p.m. CDT Sept. 17. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany will remain on board the station and join the Expedition 14 crew.

The ground teams completed the checkout of the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) early Thursday. The task had been interrupted Wednesday by a software glitch. Engineering teams developed a workaround, and flight controllers are working toward deployment of the 240-feet solar wings brought up with the P3/P4 truss.

The issue did cause replanning of the crews' schedule. As a result, crew activities today are subject to change.

Atlantis crewmembers were awakened at 11:15 p.m. CDT Wednesday by "Wipe Out," performed by the Surfaris. It was played for Pilot Chris Ferguson.

Thursday's agenda for Atlantis crewmembers, Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Ferguson and Mission Specialists Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean, include executing a "double walk off" of the station's Canadarm 2 from the Mobile Base System to the Destiny Lab.

MacLean is scheduled to talk with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at 10:25 a.m. Also, Jett, station Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and E13 European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter were scheduled to talk with National Public Radio and CNN at 10:50 a.m.

While Ferguson does shuttle operations tasks, the rest of the crews, including station NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, will review procedures for Friday's spacewalk, the third and final planned excursion outside during the STS-115 mission. Tanner and Piper will work on station truss segments to release the photovoltaic radiator restraints, deploy SARJ braces and install an external wireless TV transmission antenna.

After about a 45-minute delay in the airlock due to a depressurization pump power problem, Tanner and Piper began the spacewalk at 5 a.m. CDT. They completed the excursion at 11:42 a.m. CDT.

In addition to their work with the radiator, Tanner and Piper also replaced an S-Band radio antenna. The antenna, which provides backup communication between the space station and the ground, will be needed during the next mission. That flight, set for December, will require a complicated power down of the station to bring the new power systems on line.

They finished a couple of tasks that will reduce the workload for future spacewalkers, including installing insulation for another communications antenna. Tanner took photos of the shuttle’s wings using an infrared camera to test the camera's ability to detect damage.

The STS-115 crew - Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Tanner, Piper and Steve MacLean - is in its fourth day of joint operations with the station crew.

The astronauts will get time off for part of the day tomorrow before transferring the last of the cargo between the shuttle and the space station. Atlantis will undock from the station at 7:50 a.m. CDT Sunday, circling the orbiting complex once as it departs.

The STS-115 crew, Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean, is in its fourth day of joint operations with the station crew. Their Expedition 13 counterparts, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter, will support the spacewalk activities as well as continued space station operations and maintenance.

Both crews awoke at 11:15 p.m. CDT to "Hotel California" performed by the Eagles and played for Tanner.

Tanner and Stefanyshyn-Piper will team up again for the spacewalk. While they were in the Quest airlock preparing for the spacewalk, a circuit-breaker-like remote power controller (RPC) tripped, causing loss of power to the airlock's depressurization pump. While flight controllers and engineers assessed the cause of the problem, the spacewalkers moved to the adjacent Unity module, while continuing to breathe oxygen through masks per their pre-spacewalk protocol.

The trip of the RPC was apparently due to a momentary spike in the electrical current of the depressurization pump. After assessing data to ensure the system had no short circuit, the breaker was reset and pump reactivated. Tanner and Stefanyshyn-Piper are scheduled to leave the Quest airlock at about 4:15 a.m. Once the spacewalk begins, the two will split up to perform the scheduled tasks for the spacewalk.

Tanner will install bolt retainers on the P6 Beta Gimbal Assembly, which helps to orient the pitch of the solar array wings. He’ll also use a new technique to attempt to re-engage a four-bar hinge lock that did not properly engage during STS-97.

Meanwhile, Stefanyshyn-Piper will retrieve the Materials on the International Space Station Experiment 5. The materials science experiment tests the effects of the space environment on prospective spacecraft materials.

The two will then prepare the photovoltaic radiator for deployment by removing launch hardware that was in place to protect it during the shuttle launch. Once that is done, other crewmembers can deploy that heat-dissipating radiator. Next the spacewalkers will replace an S-band antenna support assembly (SASA) on the Starboard 1 (S1) truss. They’ll also install a shroud on the failed SASA, which will be returned to Earth on a later mission.

Dividing again, Stefanyshyn-Piper will replace a baseband signal processor and transponder on S1 and Tanner will install a heat shield onto an antenna group interface tube to help overheating in this area during certain vehicle attitudes.

They’ll wrap up the spacewalk with two new tasks, installing a new external wireless television antenna and performing a Detailed Test Objective to assess infrared video of the wing leading edge. The spacewalk is scheduled to last 6.5 hours.

Once the spacewalk is completed, the mobile transporter, a movable platform that moves along the truss segments, will be relocated to a position on the newly arrived P3 truss to check out that worksite.

After the successful addition of new components to the International Space Station, five days of joint operations with the Expedition 13 crew and three successful spacewalks, they have some off-duty time.

They do have some post-spacewalk and transfer tasks scheduled.

The crew, Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean, got to sleep late. The wakeup music at 12:15 a.m. CDT was "Twelve Volt Man" by Jimmy Buffett. It was for Burbank.

After an off-duty morning, the STS-115 crew will be joined by the Expedition 13 crew of Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter for a crew photo. A joint crew press conference is scheduled for 7:35 a.m.

Jett, Burbank, Tanner, Stefanyshyn-Piper and MacLean will also participate in interviews with CBS News, NBC News and ABC News at 8:35 a.m.

Throughout the afternoon, the crew will work on various tasks including cleaning and configuration of the spacesuits, transfer of remaining cargo and supplies to the station and the removal of the REBA, Rechargeable EVA Battery Assembly.

After seven days in space, the STS-115 crew -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean -- got its first chance to sleep late. The crew then joined ISS Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter for a joint crew press conference.

During the morning, the crew also was interviewed by CBS News, NBC News and ABC News, completed transferring the last of the supplies and equipment to the station, including 90 pounds of oxygen, and removed the REBA, Rechargeable EVA Battery Assembly.

Atlantis will undock from the station at 7:50 a.m. CDT Sunday, circling the orbiting complex once as it departs to perform the first fly-around of the station in four years. The crew of STS-112 performed a partial fly-around to photo-document the station's exterior condition in Oct. 2002.

Tomorrow, all nine crew members will gather for a televised farewell ceremony at 4:43 a.m. CDT. Hatch closure between the station and shuttle will immediately follow.

Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station at 7:50 a.m. CDT, completing six days, two hours and two minutes of joint operations with the station crew. As the shuttle departs, a new station crew is preparing to launch to the complex tonight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

Atlantis left the station with a new, second pair of 240-foot solar wings, attached to a new 17.5-ton section of truss with batteries, electronics and a giant rotating joint. The new solar arrays eventually will double the station's onboard power when their electrical systems are brought online during the next shuttle flight, planned for launch in December.

Atlantis is now aiming for a 4:57 a.m. CDT Wednesday landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Meanwhile, the station's Expedition 14 crew -- Commander and NASA Science Officer Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and spaceflight participant Anoushheh Ansari -- are set to launch in their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from Baikonur at 11:09 p.m. CDT. Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will begin a six-month stay aboard the station when they dock to the complex on Wednesday. Ansari is visiting the station for eight days under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

After undocking, Atlantis' crew -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean -- got a breath-taking view of the station as the shuttle circled the complex. During their stay at the station, the shuttle crew conducted three spacewalks in four days to prepare the new components for operation.

As Atlantis performed a full fly-around of the station, the shuttle crew took photographs and video of the complex's new T-shaped solar array configuration. The station's truss now stretches 179 feet.

In addition to the new truss section and its arrays, the astronauts transferred 800 pounds of hardware and 1,043 pounds of water to the station in exchange for 1,084 pounds of returning hardware. They also placed about 200 pounds of launch locks, restraints and other unneeded hardware on ISS Progress 21 for disposal.

The shuttle astronauts spent five days, 21 hours and 57 minutes with hatches open to the station working with the station's Expedition 13 crew -- Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter. The hatches were shut for Atlantis' undoccking at 5:27 a.m. CDT. Vinogradov, Williams and Ansari will land in a Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan Sept. 29. Vinogradov and Williams have been in orbit since March.

On Monday, the shuttle crew will use the ship’s robotic arm to grapple the boom sensor system once more to conduct a final inspection of the heat shielding on Atlantis’ wings and nose cap. The additional late inspecting ensures the areas still are in good shape for entry into the atmosphere and landing.

Atlantis' crew begins their sleep period at 2:15 p.m. CDT and will awaken at 10:15 p.m. CDT.

Crew members will get a look at the results of their STS-115 mission, which resumed assembly of the station. They'll do a full fly-around, the first in four years, to photograph the station with its new truss segments and solar arrays.

Before undocking, the STS-115 crew -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean -- will say farewell to Expedition 13 -- Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter -- about 5 a.m. before closing the hatches between the two vehicles.

Then, with Ferguson at the controls, Atlantis will slowly move away from the station. The fly-around is scheduled to start at about 8:15 a.m. Atlantis is to leave the area a little after 9:30 a.m.

Meanwhile, on the ground, preparations are under way for the launch of the next inhabitants of the station. The Expedition 14 crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, and spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari, are scheduled to launch in their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:09 p.m. CDT. They are scheduled to dock with the orbital laboratory two days later.

The shuttle and station crews woke at 11:15 p.m. to "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins, played for Ferguson. In his reply, Ferguson thanked soon-to-retire STS-115 lead guidance, navigation and control flight controller Charles Alford for his 40 years of NASA service. The shuttle pilot also thanked all those in Mission Control for helping to make spaceflight possible.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin and spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari lifted off at 11:09 p.m. CDT Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

They are expected to arrive at the station early Wednesday. They will begin nearly nine days of handover activity as Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin prepare for their own six-month stay. Ansari, visiting the station as part of a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will return to Earth with Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams. European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter will remain onboard as part of Expedition 14.

Traveling about 50 miles behind the station, the Atlantis crew -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean -- woke at 10:15 p.m. to “Rocky Mountain High.” It was played for Tanner.

The crew will focus today on the final inspection of the shuttle’s reinforced-carbon-carbon surfaces on the wing leading edges and nose cap. Ferguson, Burbank and MacLean will use the shuttle’s robotic arm to get a final look at those areas, ensuring no critical damage may have occurred since their arrival in space. Aside from a few other minor tasks it will be a light-duty day. Atlantis is prepared for its landing Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The overheating is believed to have melted a rubber seal, causing a small amount of smoke, a strong odor and possibly releasing a small amount of a chemical irritant.

Aboard the station are Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency. At the time of the problem, Vinogradov was working with the Russian Elektron oxygen generator, a device that recycles wastewater on the station into oxygen for the cabin air. The Elektron had been shut off for nine days as planned during the joint operations by the station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

At the request of Russian flight controllers, Vinogradov attempted to restart the unit at about 2 a.m. CDT. The Elektron operated only briefly before shutting down. Several subsequent attempts were made to restart the device in various modes. Just before 6 a.m. CDT, Vinogradov restarted the unit again after it had shut down.

A few minutes later, as the station was out of communications with the ground, Vinogradov noted the Elektron overheating, light smoke and a bad odor. When the station moved into communications, at about 6:16 a.m. CDT, Mission Control asked the crew to manually initiate a fire alarm onboard to allow software to automatically shut down ventilation fans between the station modules. Flight controllers also checked for contaminants in the cabin air and found only low levels that posed no danger to the crew. However, the crew was asked to briefly don surgical masks, goggles and gloves to protect against possible irritation by a chemical used in the Elektron, potassium hydroxide, that may have leaked.

Vinogradov reported that a small amount of clear liquid had leaked from an apparently damaged seal on the Elektron and cleaned it up, sealing it in airtight bags. Within an hour, the crew had powered back on all station ventilation equipment and had returned to working on normal activities.

The incident will not affect plans to undock a Progress cargo craft from the station tonight and the docking of the next station crew with the complex, set for 12:24 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Anousheh Ansari lifted off at 11:09 p.m. CDT Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan bound for the station. Their Soyuz spacecraft is in excellent condition.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean -- are continuing preparations for a return to Earth. The crew completed a late inspection of the heat shielding on the nose and wings of the shuttle today using a laser scanning system. They are scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:59 a.m. CDT Wednesday. They began a sleep period at 1:15 p.m. CDT and awaken at 9:15 p.m. CDT for what is planned to be their final full day in orbit.

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.

Three people aboard the Soyuz TMA 9 talked with the six Atlantis astronauts and the three-man Expedition 13 crew aboard the International Space Station.

The linkup was managed through Houston's Mission Control Center. The 12 people on the three very different space vehicles began their chat about 2 a.m. CDT.

"It's a little crowded in the sky today," said Jeff Williams from the station. "We look forward to having you guys on board," he told the Soyuz crew. "We'll see you back on Earth sometime soon," Atlantis Commander Brent Jett told Expedition 13.

The Expedition 13 crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Williams and Thomas Reiter, is awaiting the arrival of Expedition 14, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin. With them is spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari. They are scheduled to dock with the station at 12:24 a.m. Wednesday.

Atlantis' crew, Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean, is getting ready to come home, with a landing scheduled for Kennedy Space Center at 4:59 a.m. CDT Wednesday.

They were awakened at 9:15 p.m. Monday with “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi” (Don’t Leave Without Me) for MacLean, performed by fellow Canadian Celine Dion. They checked out Atlantis' flight control surfaces and later tested reaction control system thrusters. Today they'll continue stowage activities and other preparations for their landing.

The unpiloted Progress 21 cargo spacecraft with its load of station discards undocked from the orbiting laboratory at about 7:30 p.m. Monday. It re-entered the atmosphere and was incinerated over the Pacific Ocean about 11 p.m.

That decision was made after cameras detected a piece of debris near the shuttle early Tuesday.

The survey is to make sure Atlantis is ready for re-entry and its landing at the Kennedy Space Center. Florida weather also was questionable for a Wednesday landing.

The crew woke up at 8:45 p.m. CDT Tuesday to “Beautiful Day” by U2, played for Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper. After some routine personal time, they began the survey at about 11:30 p.m. Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean are using the shuttle's robotic arm and its cameras to get a full look at Atlantis' thermal protection system. The task could take up to five hours.

Specialists on the ground will review the imagery as it is available and determine if a more detailed survey using the 50-foot orbiter boom sensor system (OBSS) is warranted. The OBSS survey, if needed, would take another three hours.

Atlantis Commander Brent Jett and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner and Piper will help as needed with the survey and continue with other tasks including waste and water dump, exercise, downlink of imagery and stowage of the Payload General Support Computer.

Atlantis' next landing opportunity is Thursday with a deorbit engine firing at 4:14 a.m. CDT and touchdown at 5:22 a.m. Atlantis has enough supplies to stay in orbit until Saturday.

Early Wednesday International Space Station Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, and spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari arrived at the orbiting laboratory. Their Soyuz docked at 12:21 a.m. The hatch opening and welcoming ceremony with the Expedition 13 crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter, is scheduled for 3:30 a.m.

Atlantis touched down on Runway 33 of Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility at 5:21:30 a.m. CDT. Atlantis had spent 11 days, 19 hours and six minutes in flight.

The landing on runway 33 marked the 21st night landing for the shuttle and the 15th night landing in Florida. Atlantis' nose gear touched down at 5:21:36 a.m. CDT and the shuttle's wheels came to a stop at 5:22:16 a.m. CDT.

Atlantis' crew included Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and mission specialists Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean. They will return to Houston on Friday. A welcoming ceremony for the crew's return to Houston is planned at noon CDT Friday at NASA Hangar 990 at Ellington Field.

During Atlantis' STS-115 mission, the first new component was attached to the International Space Station in almost four years. The shuttle crew worked with the station crew to attach a 17.5-ton, bus-sized section to the station's truss structure and unfold its new 240-foot solar wings, the second such set on the complex. The new solar arrays eventually will more than double the amount of power available for the station, setting the stage for additional solar arrays and laboratories to come. The shuttle crew completed three spacewalks to prepare the new arrays and associated electronics for use. The next shuttle mission, targeted for December, will rewire the station to bring the new power supplies online.