Lindsey

Kelly Mark

Fossum

Nowak

Wilson

Sellers

---

STS-121 Credit - NASA

4 July 2006 18:38 GMT. Landing Date: 2006-07-17 13:14:00. Flight Time: 12.78 days. Other Name: ISS-ULF1.1. Flight Up: STS-121. Flight Back: STS-121. Call Sign: Discovery. Crew: Lindsey, Kelly Mark, Fossum, Nowak, Wilson, Sellers. Program: ISS. The shuttle was launched using external tank ET-119 and solid motors RSRM-93. Cameras revealed that large chunks of foam were still shed from the external tank during the ascent to orbit. However examination of the heat shield using a new extension and sensors attached to the shuttle's robot arm revealed no significant damage. Discovery docked with the PMA-2 adapter on the Destiny module of the ISS at 14:52 GMT on 6 July. On July 7 the Leonardo cargo module was moved from the shuttle payload bay by the robot arm and docked to the Unity Module of the ISS between 09:42 and 11:50 GMT. The crew then began unloading the spare parts and supplies in the module to the station. A series of three EVAs conducted on 8 to 12 July tested the new equipment and techniques for repairing the shuttle heat shield in case of damage, and did some preliminary installations on the exterior of the ISS to pave the way for continued station assembly missions. On 14 July, the station's SSRMS robot moved the Leonardo module from the station back to the shuttle cargo bay between 13:08 and 14:50 GMT. The shuttle separated from the ISS, and fired its engines at 12:07 GMT on 17 July to make a 92 m/s deorbit maneuver. Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center at 13:14 GMT. European astronaut Reiter was left behind to make up part of the EO-13 resident crew on the station.

STS-121 Credit- NASA

Crew Members: Commander Steven W. Lindsey, Pilot Mark E. Kelly, Mission Specialists Stephanie D. Wilson, Michael E. Fossum, Piers J. Sellers, Thomas Reiter and Lisa M. Nowak.

Launch: July 4, 2006, at 2:38 p.m. EDT. Launch of Discovery was scrubbed twice, July 1 and 2, due to weather concerns. After a day's standdown, the launch attempt resumed on July 4 and Discovery lifted off on time.

Landing: July 17, 2006, at 9:15 a.m. EDT. Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center. Main gear touchdown: 9:14:43 a.m. Nose gear touchdown: 9:14:53 a.m. Wheel stop: 9:15:49 a.m. Rollout distance: 4.2 miles. Mission duration: 12 days, 18 hours, 37 minutes and 54 seconds. Logged 5.3 million miles. Landed on first opportunity at Kennedy, marking the 62nd landing at the center.

Mission Highlights:

STS-121 was the second return-to-flight mission, demonstrating techniques for inspecting and protecting the shuttle's thermal protection system and replacing critical hardware needed for future station assembly. The mission also restored the station to a three-person crew for the first time since May 2003, leaving ESA astronaut Reiter aboard to join Expedition 13.

This was the most photographed shuttle mission in history, with more than 100 high-definition, digital, video and film cameras documenting the launch and climb to orbit. The images helped assess any damage sustained and potential risk for landing. In addition, the crew used the orbiter boom sensor system with a laser dynamic range imager, laser camera system and intensified television camera on the end, to examine the shuttle's nose cap, port wing, leading edge of the starboard wing, and outside of the crew cabin. No risk was found.

After docking to the station, the crew transferred the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo to the Unity module from which they moved 7,400 pounds of supplies and equipment during their stay. The cargo included a new heat exchange for the common cabin air assembly that collects condensation out of the air on the station, a new window and window seals for the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox, and a spare U.S. extravehicular activity suit and emergency jet pack.

STS-121 Credit- www.spacefacts.de

Astronauts performed three spacewalks:

EVA No. 1 -- 7 hours, 31 minutes. Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum installed a blade blocker on the S0 truss in the zenith interface umbilical assembly to protect the undamaged power, data and video cable. They rerouted the cable through the IUA in order to move the mobile transporter rail car and replace the trailing umbilical system with the severed power and data cable. After that task, they tested the combination of the shuttle robotic arm and OBSS as a platform for spacewalking astronauts to repair a damaged orbiter if ever needed. The EVA was the fourth for Sellers and first for Fossum.

EVA. No. 2 -- 6 hours, 47 minutes. Sellers and Fossum restored the station's mobile transporter car to full operation, replacing the nadir-side trailing umbilical system, including a new interface umbilical assembly without a blade (the previous IUA had a blade, which inadvertently cut the cable that required the replacement). During the spacewalk, Fossum's emergency jet thruster backpack came loose on one side, requiring Sellers to secure it.

EVA No. 3 -- 7 hours, 11 minutes. The third and final spacewalk focused on testing repairs on thermal protection system reinforced carbon-carbon panels. Under evaluation was a pre-ceramic polymer sealant containing carbon-silicon carbide powder known as NOAX for use on damaged panels. Sellers and Fossum made three gouge repairs and two crack repairs. They also photographed the samples, as well as an area of Discovery's port wing. An added task during the EVA was removing the fixed grapple bar on the integrated cargo carrier in Discovery's payload bay and installing it on an ammonia tank inside the station's S1 truss to facilitate moving the tank on a later mission.

Refilled with 4,600 pounds of experiment samples, broken equipment and trash to be returned to Earth, Leonardo was moved back to Discovery's payload bay.

The return flight to Earth was delayed one day in order to add the third spacewalk. The mission management team determined there were enough consumables to extend the mission to test repair techniques and test a thermal imaging camera.

The trip home was one crew member short. Reiter remained behind to join Expedition 13, marking the first time since May 2003 that the station houses three crew members.

After unberthing from the station, the shuttle crew again used the robotic arm and boom sensors to inspect the starboard wing and nose cap heat shield. Still no concerns were noted.

• Bays 1-2: Orbiter Docking System - about 1800 kg
• Bay 4S: APC with SPDU - about 20 kg
• Bays 5-6: Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) - about 1500 kg, with Keel Yoke Device (KYD), Trailing Umbilical System) for an ISS Mobile Transporter repair, EATCS-PM pump module for the ISS truss, and a fixed grapple bar.
• Bay 7S: ROEU - about 20 kg
• Bays 7-12: Leonardo cargo module (MPLM-1) - 9500 kg - with the MELFI freezer rack, the Express Transportation Rack with the European Modular Cultivation System, the Oxygen Generation System rack, three Resupply Stowage Racks and five Resupply Stowage Platforms with consumable supplies. A Remotely Operated Electrical Umbilical mounted on the sidewall routed power to Leonardo.
• Bay 13: Lightweight MPESS Carrier with DTO 848 protection system repair kit demonstator - 954 kg
• Sill-mounted: OBSS 202 robot arm extension, that would allow an astronaut to be carried underneath the shuttle for inspection and repairs - about 450 kg, and RMS 303 robot arm - 390 kg
• Total cargo mass: about 14594 kg

• 2006 Feb 3 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-005 

  Space station crewmembers released a spacesuit-turned-satellite during the second spacewalk of their mission last night.

  Called SuitSat, it faintly transmitted recorded voices of school children to amateur radio operators worldwide for a brief period before it ceased sending signals.

  Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev ventured outside for a five-hour, 43-minute spacewalk to release SuitSat, conduct preventative maintenance to a cable-cutting device, retrieve experiments and photograph the station's exterior. Clad in Russian Orlan spacesuits, McArthur and Tokarev opened the hatch to begin the spacewalk at 5:44 p.m. EST. It was the fourth career spacewalk for McArthur and the second for Tokarev.

  After setting up tools and equipment, they positioned the unneeded Orlan spacesuit on a ladder by the station's Pirs airlock hatch. The suit reached the end of its operational life for spacewalks in August 2004. It was outfitted by the crew with three batteries, internal sensors and a radio transmitter for this experiment.

  The SuitSat provided recorded greetings in six languages to ham radio operators for about two orbits of the Earth before it stopped transmitting, perhaps due to its batteries failing in the cold environment of space, according to amateur radio coordinators affiliated with the station program. The suit will enter the atmosphere and burn up in a few weeks.

  Tokarev pushed the suit away toward the aft end of the station as the complex flew 225 miles above the south central Pacific Ocean. The suit initially drifted away at a rate of about a half meter per second, slowly floating out of view below the Zvezda Service Module and its attached Progress cargo craft. The suit is now separating from the station at a rate of about six kilometers every 90 minutes.

  McArthur and Tokarev then moved from Pirs to the Zarya module where they removed a hubcap-shaped grapple fixture adapter for the Strela crane. They moved the adapter to Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 on the Unity module. The Strela fixture was moved to prepare Zarya for the future temporary stowage of debris shields.

  McArthur and Tokarev made their way to the center truss segment of the station, where they tried and failed to securely install a safety bolt in a contingency cutting device for one of two cables that provide power, data and video to the Mobile Transporter rail car. The transporter moves along the truss to correctly position the Canadarm2 robotic arm for assembly work. The Trailing Umbilical System cable on the nadir, or Earth-facing side of the transporter was inadvertently severed by its cutter on Dec. 16.

  After several attempts to drive the bolt with a high-tech screwdriver, McArthur wire-tied the cable to a handrail instead. That left the cable out of its cutting mechanism, disabling the Transporter from further movement on the station's rail system for the time being. The Transporter is not needed for assembly work until the STS-115 mission to install additional truss segments.

  The severed cable reel mechanism will be replaced during one of the three spacewalks by Discovery crewmembers Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum during the STS-121 space shuttle mission later this year.

  McArthur and Tokarev moved back to Pirs. Once at the Russian airlock, they retrieved an experiment to study the effect of the space environment on microorganisms.

  As their final spacewalk task, the crew photographed the exterior of Zvezda, including Russian sensors that measure micrometeoroid impacts, handrails, propulsion systems and a ham radio antenna. McArthur and Tokarev then returned to the Pirs airlock and closed the hatch at 11:27 p.m. EST. It was the 64th spacewalk in support of station assembly and maintenance, the 36th staged from the station, and the 17th conducted from Pirs. In all, station spacewalkers have accumulated 384 hours and 23 minutes outside the facility since December 1998.

  Meanwhile in Russia, final preparations were made this week to ship the next Soyuz spacecraft from Moscow to the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft is scheduled to depart Monday and will launch the 13th station crew in late March.

  During the week, the station was maneuvered through a new procedure using guidance and navigation computers in the Destiny laboratory to request firings of the thrusters on the Zvezda module while maintaining overall attitude control through the Control Moment Gyroscopes.

• 2006 Feb 24 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-007 

  Aboard the International Space Station this week, Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev have been preparing for upcoming spacecraft arrivals and departures.

  Managers decided to postpone the planned station "campout" this week until next month. It will test procedures to shorten the preparation required for spacewalks. It was delayed after a device called the Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) could not be activated following maintenance work by the crew. The device measures the composition of the station's air.

  McArthur replaced a major component of the MCA last week, the mass spectrometer, but attempts to activate the unit were unsuccessful. McArthur continued troubleshooting the device Saturday. Engineers suspect the problem may be damaged electrical connectors and are evaluating ways to fix them.

  The crew began preparations for the next shuttle mission, STS-121, targeted for launch to the station no earlier than May. McArthur made room in the storage racks inside the Destiny lab for new equipment scheduled to arrive on Space Shuttle Discovery.

  He cleared space in EXPRESS Rack 3 for a European Space Agency experiment facility called the European Modular Cultivation System. The facility will house biological experiments dealing with the effects of gravity on plant cells, roots and physiology.

  Tokarev and McArthur also continued packing the station's Progress 19 cargo spacecraft with trash, readying it to undock March 3. The supply craft's thrusters were used a final time to reboost the station Wednesday, increasing the altitude by eight miles.

  McArthur continued science work, performing his third session with an experiment called Foot/Ground Reaction Forces During Spaceflight. The experiment investigates how muscles and joints of the legs and feet are used differently in space than on Earth. To gather data, McArthur wore the instrumented Lower Extremity Monitoring Suit, which measures joint angles, muscle activity and forces on the feet as he exercised. The experiment measures the musculoskeletal system and may lead to a better understanding of bone loss during long-duration missions.

  The SuitSat experiment, an unneeded Russian Orlan spacesuit-turned-satellite, has stopped sending signals. SuitSat was released by Tokarev during a spacewalk Feb. 3. It transmitted recorded voices of school children to amateur radio operators as it orbited the Earth. Hundreds of reports from individuals receiving the faint signal from all over the world were logged at the project's Web site.

• 2006 Mar 3 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-008 

  Entering the homestretch of a half-year mission, International Space Station Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev monitored the departure of one of two Russian cargo ships today.

  Filled with trash and items no longer needed, the Progress 19 vehicle undocked from the Zvezda living quarters module at 5:06 a.m. EST. Three hours later, Russian flight controllers commanded its engines to fire to put it on course to plunge into the atmosphere and burn up over the Pacific Ocean. The cargo ship was docked to the station since September 2005.

  The station's Progress 20 cargo vessel, which arrived in December 2005, remains attached to the Pirs Docking Compartment.

  Also this week, McArthur replaced the trace contaminant control system in the Destiny Laboratory. The system removes impurities from the cabin air. It experienced a slightly degraded performance over the past few months, but is operating normally.

  On Monday, McArthur will attempt to reconnect and activate the major constituent analyzer in Destiny. It is a mass spectrometer that measures compounds in the station's atmosphere. Efforts to activate the system two weeks ago were unsuccessful due to what is believed to be damaged or bent electrical connectors.

  Once the device is activated, plans can resume for a crew "campout" in the Quest Airlock to test streamlined spacewalk preparation procedures. The new procedures will shorten the time needed to cleanse nitrogen from spacewalkers' bodies to prevent decompression sickness. For the test, the crew will spend the night in Quest at a reduced pressure, lessening the time needed to breathe pure oxygen in advance of a spacewalk.

  The "campout" technique will be used for the first time for spacewalks on the STS-115 shuttle mission later this year. If the major constituent analyzer is successfully activated, the campout test will be scheduled around March 23.

  McArthur continued preparations for the arrival of the next shuttle mission. Discovery is targeted for launch no earlier than May on that flight, designated STS-121. This week, McArthur put unneeded items in racks earmarked for return to Earth aboard Discovery.

  McArthur and Tokarev will soon begin preparations for a short trip from the station. Managers have agreed on a tentative schedule on March 20 for the crew to relocate their Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft from the Earth-facing docking port of the Zarya module to the aft docking port of Zvezda. McArthur and Tokarev will undock from Zarya and conduct a 37-minute flight to re-dock at Zvezda. The move will clear the Zarya port for the April 1 arrival of the Soyuz carrying the next station crew, Expedition 13.

  Expedition 13 is commanded by Pavel Vinogradov. Jeff Williams is NASA Flight Engineer. Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes will fly with them to the station for a short stay, returning to Earth a week later with McArthur and Tokarev.

  Next week, McArthur will brush up on his robotics skills, operating the Canadarm2 for engineering tests. The arm also will be remotely commanded by flight controllers in Houston. They will operate the arm to survey one of two integrated umbilical assembly mechanisms on the mobile transporter rail car. The assembly's cutting blade system malfunctioned Dec. 16, severing one of two umbilicals on the transporter. The assembly will be replaced on the second of the three spacewalks planned for Discovery's mission. Controllers also will use the arm to survey a vent port for the carbon dioxide removal assembly on the Destiny Laboratory.

• 2006 Apr 7 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-016 

  After orbiting Earth more than 3,000 times during six months on the International Space Station, Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev returned to the planet Sunday morning in Kazakhstan.

  With them was Marcos Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut.

  The Soyuz spacecraft with McArthur, Tokarev and Pontes landed in central Kazakhstan, about 30 miles northeast of Arkalyk, at 7:48 p.m. EDT, Saturday. The crew's families will greet them at Star City, Russia, near Moscow, early Monday. McArthur and Tokarev will remain in Star City for post-flight debriefings before returning to Houston later this month. McArthur and Tokarev launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Sept. 30, 2005.

  They spent 189 days, 18 hours and 51 minutes in space. During their mission, they conducted two spacewalks and relocated their Soyuz spacecraft twice, becoming the first ISS crew to dock to every Russian docking port on the complex. They also became the first two-person station crew to conduct a spacewalk in both Russian and U.S. spacesuits. Pontes flew to the station with the Expedition 13 crew last week as part of a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos. He spent eight days on the station conducting experiments.

  The new station crew, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, will have light duty for the next few days as they rest from a busy handover. They will remain in orbit for six months. The crew plans to perform two spacewalks and greet two space shuttle crews during their expedition.

  Joining them during their stay on the station will be Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut from Germany, also flying under a commercial agreement with Roscosmos. Reiter is scheduled to come to the station on the Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission, targeted for a July launch.

  Reiter will be the first non-Russian, non-U.S. long-duration crew member on the station. His arrival will bring the station crew size to three for the first time since May 2003, when the crew size was reduced to conserve supplies in the wake of the Columbia accident.

  Shuttle Atlantis' STS-115 mission is also scheduled during Expedition 13 and will resume major assembly of the station. The shuttle and station crews will work together to add another set of batteries and solar arrays to the complex.

• 2006 Apr 14 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-017 

  The 13th crew of the International Space Station is wrapping up its first week flying solo in its new orbiting home.

  The crew's work has included station maintenance, medical and other experiments and standard daily exercise.

  Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams said farewell to their predecessors last Saturday. The Expedition 12 crew and a visiting Brazilian astronaut undocked that afternoon and landed in Kazakhstan at 7:48 p.m. EDT.

  Vinogradov and Williams had light duty Sunday and Monday, a break after completing eight days of extensive handover activities with their counterparts.

  Maintenance work included a three-and-one-half hour scheduled replacement of station toilet components on Tuesday. Both crew members also took time to talk with two Russian news organizations and participants at a Russian school children's aerospace festival.

  On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the crew from the Kremlin. Putin's call came on the 45th anniversary of the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin, a landmark event commemorated by the Russian holiday Cosmonautics Day. That date, April 12, was also the 25th anniversary of the first NASA space shuttle launch in 1981.

  Putin told the crew it was a pleasure to see representatives of the United States and Russia working together on the same spacecraft. During the light-hearted exchange, Vinogradov invited Putin to visit the space station.

  The crew continued loading the station's Progress cargo craft with trash and conducted physical evaluations and experiments Thursday. Vinogradov and Williams practiced an emergency evacuation drill Friday. Throughout the week, they had time to familiarize themselves with their new home.

  Vinogradov and Williams will remain in orbit for six months. During that time, they plan to welcome two space shuttles and perform two spacewalks. Shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission, targeting a launch no earlier than July 1, will bring European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter aboard the station.

  Reiter will increase the station crew size to three for the first time since May 2003 when the crew size was reduced to conserve station supplies following the Columbia accident.

  Back on Earth for almost a week, Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev remain in Star City, Russia, near Moscow. They continue to undergo debriefing and rehabilitation after 190 days in space. With them is Marcos Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut, who launched with Expedition 13. He returned to Earth with the Expedition 12 crew after spending about eight days on the station conducting experiments.

  Tentative plans call for McArthur to return to Houston later this month.

• 2006 Apr 21 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-018 

  The Expedition 13 crew this week focused on experiments, maintenance and preparations for the arrival of two and a half tons of food, supplies and equipment.

  Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams also had time set aside each day to continue to become familiar with their orbiting home.

  In scientific work, Williams operated the Capillary Flow Experiment, which uses liquid silicone to study how fluids move in a microgravity environment. This portion of the experiment examined the interface between the liquid and the solid surface of the container. The results could be used by designers of systems for future spacecraft.

  Williams also set up and activated cameras that will be remotely operated by middle school students to take photos of Earth through the station window. Called the Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM) experiment, it allows students to study the Earth and then control a special digital camera mounted on the station. They photograph coastlines, mountain ranges and other geographic items of interest from the unique vantage point of space. More than 112 schools from eight countries have signed up for this session of the experiment. This is the 22nd time the experiment has been performed aboard the station.

  Williams and Vinogradov completed the first of three sessions with the Renal Stone experiment, a study of whether potassium citrate can be used to reduce the risk of kidney stone formation. Astronauts have an increased risk of developing kidney stones because urine calcium levels are typically much higher in space. The crew recorded all consumed food and drinks and collected urine samples for later return to Earth. An understanding of the crew's diet during the urine collection timeframes will help researchers determine if the excess calcium in the urine is due to diet or a response to the microgravity environment.

  The Expedition 13 crew also spent several hours practicing the use of a manual docking system for next week's arrival of the ISS Progress 21 cargo vehicle. The computer-based training will ensure they're ready to take control of the Progress if the automated system does not work properly. The 21st Progress to visit the station is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:03 p.m. EDT Monday, and dock with the space station at 1:40 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

  A planned reboost of the station was aborted before any engines were fired this week when downlink telemetry showed one of two sunshade covers on the Zvezda Service Module thrusters was not fully open. The station's onboard software detected that the cover was not properly opened and did not ignite the thrusters. The firing was designed to test two thrusters that have not been used since Zvezda docked to the station in July 2000. Zvezda has several other thrusters that could be used if needed. Engineers at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev are reviewing data and considering whether additional tests are required.

  Friday the crew talked with experts in Mission Control, Houston, about an electrical repair procedure planned for Monday. The pair will replace a failed type of circuit breaker called a Remote Power Control Module (RPCM) in the Destiny Laboratory. The RPCM failed during the last crew's stay aboard the station, and power for several systems has been routed by an alternate path until it is replaced.

  Vinogradov and Williams will remain in orbit for six months. During that time, they expect to welcome two space shuttles and perform two spacewalks. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter will join the Expedition 13 crew when the Space Shuttle Discovery arrives on the STS-121 mission, targeted for launch no earlier than July 1. Reiter will increase the station crew size to three for the first time since May 2003 when it was reduced to conserve supplies following the Columbia accident. The payload operations team at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., coordinates U.S. science activities on the station.

• 2006 Jun 23 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-030 

  New supplies arrived at the International Space Station Monday as an unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft linked up to the station's Pirs Docking Compartment.

  Filled with 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station's Expedition 13 crew, the ISS Progress 22 automatically docked at 12:25 p.m. EDT as the spacecraft and the station sailed 220 miles above northern Africa. The 22nd Progress to visit the station was launched Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

  Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams will open the hatch to the supply ship once leak checks are completed later Monday. The crew will begin unloading items Tuesday.

  The supplies include oxygen and air, clothing, experiment hardware and spare parts, as well as personal items from the crew's families. The new Progress joins an older Progress supply ship that arrived at the station's Zvezda Service Module in April. Progress 21 will remain docked until mid-September. It will be used to stow trash, and its supply of oxygen will help replenish the station's atmosphere when required.

  ISS Progress 22 holds 1,918 pounds of propellant for the Russian thrusters, 108 pounds of oxygen and air as a backup supply for the oxygen generated by the Russian Elektron system and 264 pounds of water to augment onboard supplies. The new cargo also includes 2,800 pounds of spare parts, experiment hardware and life support components.

  The experiment hardware includes items that will be used by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter once he arrives via the Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission. This flight will return the station to three crew members for the first time since 2003.

• 2006 Jun 26 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-032 

  New supplies arrived at the International Space Station Monday as an unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft linked up to the Pirs Docking Compartment.

  Filled with 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station's Expedition 13 crew, the ISS Progress 22 automatically docked to the Pirs airlock at 11:25 a.m. CDT as the spacecraft and the station sailed 220 miles above northern Africa. The 22nd Progress to visit the station was launched Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

  Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams will open the hatch to the supply ship once leak checks are completed later Monday. The crew will begin unloading items Tuesday.

  The supplies include food, fuel, oxygen and air, clothing, experiment hardware and spare parts, as well as personal items from the crew's families. The new Progress joins an older Progress supply ship that arrived at the station’s Zvezda Service Module in April. Progress 21 will remain docked until mid-September. It will be used to stow trash, and its supply of oxygen will help replenish the station’s atmosphere when required.

  ISS Progress 22 holds 1,918 pounds of propellant for the Russian thrusters, 108 pounds of oxygen and air as a backup supply for the oxygen generated by the Russian Elektron system and 264 pounds of water to augment onboard supplies. The new cargo also includes 2,800 pounds of spare parts, experiment hardware and life support components.

  The experiment hardware includes items that will be used by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter once he arrives via the Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission. This flight will return the station to three crew members for the first time since 2003.

• 2006 Jun 30 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-033 

  The Expedition 13 crew welcomed a Russian resupply ship this week and prepared for the arrival of Space Shuttle Discovery.

  Discovery’s launch is scheduled for 3:49 p.m. EDT Saturday. Discovery's STS-121 mission will return the station to three crew members for the first time since 2003, when European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter joins crew members Jeff Williams, flight engineer and Pavel Vinogradov, commander. To get ready for upcoming STS-121 spacewalks, the crew flushed cooling loops in the Quest airlock and U.S. spacesuits, configured airlock systems and tools, and reviewed robotic arm procedures. They checked out a ship-to-ship communications system that will be used for conversations with Discovery's crew during rendezvous and disconnected the station’s Common Cabin Air Assembly heat exchanger. That device will be returned to Earth aboard Discovery along with other equipment in the Italian-built Leonardo Multipurpose Logistics Module. Discovery will bring about 5,000 pounds of supplies to the station carried aboard the logistics module.

  The crew also completed a mid-mission session of the renal stone experiment by collecting urine samples and logging all of the food and drinks consumed over a three-day period. Each crewmember is taking either potassium citrate, a drug found to be useful in preventing kidney stone formation on Earth, or a placebo. Crews in space are at risk for kidney stones linked to their loss of bone density.

  ISS Progress 22, the unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft, brought 2.5 tons of fresh produce, other foodstuffs, food, fuel and supplies to the station June 26. After the cargo ship was fully connected with station systems, flight controllers in Moscow completed a routine thruster test and Vinogradov removed its Kurs automated rendezvous hardware.

• 2006 Jul 4 - STS-121  Crew: Lindsey, Kelly Mark, Fossum, Nowak, Wilson, Sellers, Reiter. Spacecraft: Discovery. Payload: Discovery F32 / Leonardo. Mass: 121,094 kg (266,966 lb). Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Shuttle. Duration: 12.78 days. Perigee: 332 km (206 mi). Apogee: 351 km (218 mi). Inclination: 51.60 deg. Period: 91.40 min.

  The shuttle was launched using external tank ET-119 and solid motors RSRM-93. Cameras revealed that large chunks of foam were still shed from the external tank during the ascent to orbit. However examination of the heat shield using a new extension and sensors attached to the shuttle's robot arm revealed no significant damage. Discovery docked with the PMA-2 adapter on the Destiny module of the ISS at 14:52 GMT on 6 July. On July 7 the Leonardo cargo module was moved from the shuttle payload bay by the robot arm and docked to the Unity Module of the ISS between 09:42 and 11:50 GMT. The crew then began unloading the spare parts and supplies in the module to the station. A series of three EVAs conducted on 8 to 12 July tested the new equipment and techniques for repairing the shuttle heat shield in case of damage, and did some preliminary installations on the exterior of the ISS to pave the way for continued station assembly missions. On 14 July, the station's SSRMS robot moved the Leonardo module from the station back to the shuttle cargo bay between 13:08 and 14:50 GMT. The shuttle separated from the ISS, and fired its engines at 12:07 GMT on 17 July to make a 92 m/s deorbit maneuver. Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center at 13:14 GMT. European astronaut Reiter was left behind to make up part of the EO-13 resident crew on the station.

• 2006 Jul 4 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #01 

  On the nation’s 230th birthday, Discovery rocketed into the Florida sky this afternoon, returning the shuttle fleet to space after almost a year.

  The first human spacecraft to launch on an Independence Day holiday, Discovery has begun a journey to resupply and service the International Space Station. Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut, lifted off at 1:38 p.m. CDT. The launch followed a flawless countdown.

  During the next 12 days, Discovery’s crew will demonstrate techniques for inspecting and protecting the shuttle’s thermal protection system, restore the station to a three-person crew for the first time since May 2003, and replace critical hardware needed for future station assembly. The crew is planned to conduct two spacewalks during the mission. If supplies allow, managers may extend Discovery's flight by an additional day, a day that will be used by the crew to conduct a third spacewalk.

  A system of new and upgraded ground-based cameras, radar and airborne cameras aboard high altitude aircraft documented Discovery's launch. That imagery, along with data to be gathered from in-flight inspections, will be used to ensure Discovery's heat shield is in good condition. The in-flight inspections will be performed by the crew using the shuttle's robotic arm, an extension boom and laser system as well as photography to be taken from the station of a back flip the shuttle will perform as it approaches for docking.

  Moments after main engine cutoff, less than nine minutes after liftoff, Fossum and Wilson 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 Discovery lifted off, the International Space Station was 220 miles above the southern Pacific Ocean, south of Tasmania. Aboard the outpost, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams watched the launch via a television transmission from Mission Control. Discovery is set to dock to the complex at about 9:51 a.m. CDT July 6.

  The shuttle crew will test Discovery’s robot arm tomorrow and then use it to grasp a 50-foot long boom extension, called the Orbiter Boom Sensor System. That boom holds the laser system and TV cameras they will use to inspect the shuttle’s wings and heat shield.

  During the two spacewalks, Sellers and Fossum will test the capability of the boom extension to be used as a work platform from which repairs could be performed to the shuttle heat shield. They also will repair a cable system on the station’s rail car, a system that will be a base for the station's robotic arm for future assembly work. If the mission is extended by a day, the third spacewalk will be used to test techniques under development for repair of the reinforced carbon-carbon that makes up the heat shield on the shuttle wing edges.

  Carried inside the Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module in Discovery’s cargo bay and elsewhere on the shuttle, about 14 tons of hardware and supplies is on its way to the space station. Discovery's crew begins an eight-hour sleep period at 7:38 p.m. CDT. The astronauts will awaken at 3:38 a.m. CDT Wednesday to begin their first full day in orbit.

• 2006 Jul 5 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #02 

  Discovery's astronauts are awake and ready to begin their first full day in space.

  Today the crew will focus on thermal protection system inspections, preparing for docking to the International Space Station and getting spacesuits ready for two and perhaps three spacewalks.

  Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Thomas Reiter got their wakeup call at 4:08 a.m. CDT, allowing them an extra 30 minutes of sleep after their first day in space ran long. The wakeup song was “Lift Every Voice and Sing” performed by the New Galveston Chorale.

  Four crewmembers will spend much of the day looking for damage to Discovery's thermal protection system. Lindsey, Kelly, Fossum and Nowak will use the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), a 50-foot boom on the end of the shuttle's robotic Canadarm, to look at the wings' leading edges and the nose cap.

  The task involves about 6˝ hours of intense work for the crew members. Actual data takes will total about an hour, 20 minutes for each wing and the nose cap. The rest of that time is devoted to very careful movement of the Canadarm and the OBSS.

  Later, after lunch, Nowak and Wilson will return the OBSS to its berth on the starboard sill of Discovery's cargo bay. Then they and Fossum will use cameras on the shuttle arm to photograph the outside of Discovery's cabin. That activity should take about an hour.

  Wilson also will take digital hand-held camera photos of the orbital maneuvering system pods at the base of the shuttle's vertical tail fin.

  Photos and sensor readings from the shuttle, as well as photos of launch and ascent from more than 100 ground-based and airborne cameras and radar and instrument data, will be reviewed by experts on the ground. The data, photos by the station crew and information from subsequent arm surveys at the station and after undocking, will be used to determine if Discovery sustained damage during launch and ascent or in space, to ensure that it is safe for the shuttle to re-enter the atmosphere to land.

  In other activities today, Wilson and Reiter will get items on the middeck ready for transfer to the station. Spacewalkers Fossum and Sellers, helped by Kelly, the intravehicular officer who will coach the spacewalkers, will check out spacesuits.

  Nowak and Sellers will extend the shuttle docking ring which will help secure Discovery to the station. Just before the shuttle crew goes to bed, Kelly and Sellers will check out and prepare docking tools, including laptop computers.

  At 3:30 a.m., Discovery was trailing the station by 9,573 statute miles and closing at a rate of 870 statute miles per orbit. Docking is scheduled for 9:52 a.m. Thursday.

  Today the space station crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, will continue to prepare the orbiting laboratory for Discovery's arrival. They will ready the digital cameras with 400mm and 800mm lenses they will use during Discovery’s approach to take high-resolution photos of the shuttle's heat shield. They also will pressurize the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 at the end of the U.S. laboratory Destiny, where Discovery is scheduled to dock.

• 2006 Jul 5 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #03 

  The Astronauts of Space Shuttle Discovery examined their spaceship with the Orbiter Boom Sensor System today and found no evidence of any damage from debris during yesterday’s ride to orbit.

  The several hours of inspection began just after 6:00 a.m. when Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson verified proper operation of the Space Shuttle’s robotic arm, then maneuvered it to lift the 50-foot-long OBSS from the starboard sill of the payload bay.

  Assisted by Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialist Mike Fossum, Nowak and Wilson began a slow and steady examination of the reinforced carbon-carbon panels along the leading edge of Discovery’s starboard wing just before 8:30 a.m., looking for any evidence of damage.

  The inspection using the Laser Dynamic Range Imager, Laser Camera System, and Intensified Television Camera on the end of the boom continued across the shuttle’s nose cap and port wing. After returning the OBSS to its berth, Nowak, Wilson and Fossum spent an hour using the cameras on the shuttle robot arm to scan the outside of the crew cabin.

  While the survey proceeded, Mission Specialist Piers Sellers completed the setup of on board computers and cameras and Mission Specialist Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency prepared Discovery’s middeck for the planned transfer of supplies onto the International Space Station. The first item to be transferred after docking, scheduled for 9:52 a.m. Thursday, is Reiter’s customized seat liner for the Soyuz vehicle; that will make him an official member of the station’s Expedition 13 crew, and the first ISS crewmember who is neither an American nor a Russian.

  Sellers and Fossum, who also installed the centerline camera in Discovery’s docking mechanism, completed a checkout of the spacesuits they will wear during scheduled spacewalks on Flight Days 5 and 7. The EVAs will evaluate the combination of ISS robot arm and OBSS as a work platform for astronauts repairing a damaged shuttle orbiter and restore the station’s Mobile Transporter to full operation to support continued station assembly.

  On board ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams prepared the digital cameras with 400mm and 800mm lenses they will use to take high-resolution photos of the shuttle's heat shield when it flies a nose over tail somersault at a range of 600 feet below the station. They also prepared Pressurized Mating Adapter 2, at the forward end of the U.S. laboratory Destiny, where Discovery will dock tomorrow morning.

  The astronauts on Discovery were scheduled to be awakened at 2:38 a.m. CDT Thursday to being final preparations for the docking with the ISS.

• 2006 Jul 6 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #04 

  A third crewmember will join the International Space Station today after the docking of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

  It will mark the first time since May 2003 that more than two long-duration crew members have called the orbiting laboratory home.

  Discovery, with Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Thomas Reiter aboard, is scheduled to dock with the station at 9:52 a.m. CDT.

  Shortly after the welcome by station Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams and a mandatory safety briefing, Reiter will transfer his seat liner to the Soyuz spacecraft attached to the station, making him an official station crewmember. Reiter is a European Space Agency astronaut from Germany, flying under a contract between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency.

  During Discovery’s approach to the station, Lindsey will pilot the shuttle on what amounts to a back flip, called the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver. At about 600 feet below the station, the flip will give Vinogradov and Williams a chance to photograph the thermal protection tiles on the bottom of Discovery. Using digital cameras with 400mm and 800mm lenses, they will take a carefully planned series of photos of the shuttle's underside.

  The images will be downlinked for study by experts on the ground, starting with the more detailed images from the 800mm lens. More 800mm photos will be taken than during Discovery's approach during STS-114. One increased photo emphasis will be looking for protruding gap fillers, like those removed by STS-114 spacewalker Steve Robinson last year.

  These photos and other data, including images from more than 100 cameras on the ground, in aircraft and on the shuttle, as well as data from the shuttle arm and the Orbital Boom Sensor System (OBSS) attached to it, will be used, along with data from subsequent surveys, to make sure that Discovery sustained no major damage on launch, ascent and in orbit.

  About three hours after docking, both crews get to work with more robotic operations to prepare for additional surveys. Nowak, Wilson and Williams will operate the space station robotic arm, Canadarm2, from inside the Destiny Lab.

  They will use the arm to lift the OBSS from Discovery's payload bay sill and hand it over to the shuttle arm, operated by Lindsey and Fossum. Clearance restraints around the shuttle’s docking mechanism do not allow the shuttle arm to grapple the boom on its own.

  Transfer of cargo from the shuttle's middeck including spacesuits will begin shortly after docking. At least two spacewalks are scheduled, one on Saturday and another on Monday. A third may be done if the mission is extended a day.

  Discovery’s crew was awakened at 2:38 a.m. Thursday by "Daniel," performed by Elton John and dedicated to Reiter. The station crew was awakened at the same time by its standard wakeup tone.

• 2006 Jul 6 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #05 

  There is a crew of three aboard the International Space Station today for the first time in more than three years, and for the first time ever that crew includes an American, a Russian and a European.

  European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany was delivered as the newest member of ISS Expedition 13 just hours after Space Shuttle Discovery docked at the station’s Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 at 9:52 a.m. CDT, as the two ships flew above the south Pacific Ocean south of Pitcairn Island.

  Commander Steve Lindsey piloted Discovery’s approach to ISS, halting 600 feet directly below the station to perform the rendezvous pitch maneuver: the shuttle was commanded to do a nose-over-tail somersault so ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams could photograph the thermal protection system tiles on the orbiter’s underside. Imagery experts on the ground will study the high-resolution still pictures for evidence of any damage to the insulating tiles.

  Lindsey and his crew—Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Reiter—greeted the station crewmembers when the hatches between the vehicles were opened at 11:30 a.m. CDT.

  After Vinogradov’s safety briefing for the shuttle crew, he helped Reiter install his customized Soyuz seat liner into the Russian rescue vehicle and check his pressurized Sokol suit, finalizing Reiter’s transfer from Discovery to ISS. Other first-day transfers from Discovery included the spacesuits that Sellers and Fossum will wear on their spacewalks out of the Quest airlock on Flight Days 5 and 7.

  In preparation for the first EVA, Nowak, Wilson and Williams lifted the Orbiter Boom Sensor System with the station’s robotic arm and handed it over to the shuttle’s robotic arm. During the first spacewalk Sellers and Fossum will simulate orbiter repair tasks while attached to the OBSS/shuttle arm combination to test that 100-foot-long construction crane as a work platform.

  On the second spacewalk the astronauts will deliver a spare Pump Module to an external stowage platform before replacing a damaged power and data cable reel assembly in the station’s truss. The repair will allow the Mobile Transporter to move along the truss during installation of new truss segments on future shuttle assembly missions.

• 2006 Jul 7 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #06 

  After a successful docking to the International Space Station Thursday, the focus of the STS-121 shuttle mission now turns to unloading more than 7,000 lbs of cargo, continued shuttle inspections and preparations for the mission’s first spacewalk.

  The first task of the day will be the relocation of the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) from the shuttle payload bay onto the station’s Unity Module. Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will use the station robotic arm, Canadarm2, to maneuver the module, with help from pilot Mark Kelly.

  Once successfully mated to its temporary position on the station, shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey and new Expedition 13 Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter will conduct leak checks and enter the pressurized cargo container. Wilson will lead the transfer activities, which are scheduled to continue until next Thursday.

  Later, using the shuttle robotic arm and boom system, Kelly, Nowak and Wilson will conduct additional inspections of the orbiter’s thermal protection system. They will target a few specific areas on the shuttle’s nose cap that were missed on the initial scans, as well as two gap fillers that appear to be protruding from Discovery’s underside. They also intend to get a closer look at a piece of fabric near the shuttle nose.

  Fossum and Sellers will make preparations for Saturday’s planned spacewalk. They will configure tools and the U.S. airlock Quest for the spacewalk. They will repair the station's mobile transporter and test the capability of the robotic arm boom extension to carry spacewalkers. The results of that test will help engineers understand the feasibility of using the arm for thermal system inspections and repairs if needed on later flights.

  The crew has time set aside at the end of the day for a review of the spacewalk procedures.

  The newly augmented space station crew, including Flight Engineer Jeff Williams and Commander Pavel Vinogradov, will work closely with the shuttle crew, assisting with transfer activities and robotic arm operations.

  Some crewmembers will talk with journalists. Lindsey and Kelly will chat in the morning with radio reporters from CBS, Fox, ABC and National Public Radio. Toward the end of the day, the Expedition crew will speak with CNN, CBS News and the Associated Press.

  The space shuttle crew awoke at 2:14 a.m. CDT by the Beatles’ "Good Day Sunshine" dedicated to first time spaceflyer Lisa Nowak. The Expedition 13 crew awoke 30 minutes later with their standard wake up tone.

• 2006 Jul 7 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #07 

  The STS-121 Mission Management Team Friday decided to extend Discovery’s flight by an additional day to 13 days after reviewing the rate at which the orbiter’s consumables are being used.

  The extra day will allow a third spacewalk to test thermal protection system repair techniques and evaluate a thermal imaging camera.

  With the mission extension, landing is now planned at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, July 17 at 8:12 a.m. CDT.

  Among the highlights of Friday’s activities was the transfer of the Leonardo Multipurpose Logistics Module from Discovery’s cargo bay to its temporary mounting point on the International Space Station’s Unity module. Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson operated the robotic arm on ISS around 4:45 a.m. to begin the process. After some initial concern that loose straps on a cover of the latching mechanism on the Unity module docking port might interfere with a proper seal between Leonardo and Unity, the MPLM was successfully latched in place by 7:15 a.m. CDT. After leak checks confirmed a good seal, Leonardo was ready for access by the astronauts who will move its supplies and equipment into the ISS over the next few days.

  Discovery’s astronauts went to bed shortly after 6 p.m. Friday and were scheduled to awaken just after 2 a.m. Saturday to begin preparations for the first spacewalk of the mission.

  Also on Friday, mission managers reviewed the preliminary surveys of Discovery’s heat shield and picked some areas for additional attention. Six areas were the subject of focused attention including some protruding gap fillers, the nose cap and a heat shield blanket.

  In the post-Mission Management Team briefing Friday, Orbiter Project Office Manager Steve Poulos gave details of heat shield survey work. None of the items being looked at more closely gives reason for concern, said Poulos, but more analysis remains before Discovery’s heat shield can be given a clean bill of health.

• 2006 Jul 8 - EVA STS-121-1  Crew: Sellers, Fossum. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.31 days.

  The astronauts tested the OBSS robot arm extension that would be available in later missions to carry an astronaut underneath the Shuttle for tile repairs.

• 2006 Jul 8 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #08 

  The first spacewalk of Discovery's STS-121 mission to the International Space Station will highlight Saturday activities for crews of both docked spacecraft.

  Spacewalkers Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum have two major tasks. First they will work to ensure that the second power and data cable linking the mobile transporter to the rest of the station is spared the fate of the mobile transporter's other trailing umbilical system cable. It was inadvertently severed by its safety cutter last December. The second activity is to test the capability of the shuttle's robotic arm and its 50-foot extension to act as a platform for spacewalkers making repairs.

  Expedition 12 crewmembers tried to install a safety bolt to protect the remaining cable. They were unable to insert the bolt, so they removed the cable from the emergency cutter.

  Sellers and Fossum will install a device to block the cutter blade. If that doesn't work, they'll install a new unit, called an interface umbilical assembly, this one without a blade. Once they reinstall the cable, the mobile transporter will again be able to move the station's robotic arm along the rails on the station's main truss. The arm is scheduled to be moved during the Monday spacewalk.

  For the test of the arm as a repair platform, Sellers will work on the end of the 50- foot extension, called the orbital boom sensor system. Then both spacewalkers will simulate working motions at the end of the extension. That will be done in at least three arm positions.

  Sellers will be the lead spacewalker and wear the spacesuit with red stripes. He did three spacewalks in October 2002 during the STS-112 mission of Atlantis to the station. On that mission he helped install the station's starboard one (S1) truss.

  Fossum will wear the all-white spacesuit. He is making his first spaceflight. Discovery Pilot Mark Kelly will serve as the intravehicular officer, coaching and helping the spacewalkers from inside the station-shuttle complex.

  Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson will operate the robotic arms during all three of the mission's spacewalks. They will maneuver the shuttle's Canadarm with its extension during the first, scheduled to begin at 8:13 a.m. CDT Saturday. They will use the station's Canadarm2 during the second spacewalk on Monday and the third on Wednesday.

  Expedition 13 Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams and Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey also will help out during the spacewalk.

  Meanwhile Thomas Reiter, the European Space Agency astronaut from Germany who became part of the Expedition 13 crew shortly after docking, will work with station commander Pavel Vinogradov to transfer cargo and equipment from the Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module.

  In staggered wake ups, the shuttle crew arose at 2:08 a.m. CDT to the sound of "God of Wonders" by Marc Byrd and Steve Hindalong. The music was selected for Fossum by his family. The station crew was awakened about 30 minutes later.

• 2006 Jul 8 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #09 

  Astronauts from Space Shuttle Discovery prepared the International Space Station’s rail car for restoration and tested a repair crane during a 7 hour 31 minute long spacewalk today, while their colleagues delivered a new oxygen generator and laboratory freezer to the station.

  Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum turned their spacesuits to battery power to officially start the spacewalk at 8:17 a.m. CDT. After they configured their tools and safety tethers, they moved to the S0 Truss and installed a blade blocker in the zenith Interface Umbilical Assembly to protect the undamaged power, data and video cable. Then they rerouted that cable through the IUA so the Mobile Transporter rail car could be moved into position on the truss for replacement of the Trailing Umbilical System containing the severed power and data cable during a spacewalk Monday.

  The remainder of today’s spacewalk was devoted to testing the combination of space shuttle robotic arm and Orbiter Boom Sensor System as a platform for spacewalking astronauts to make repairs to a damaged orbiter. Sellers got into a foot restraint on the OBSS, almost 100 feet from where the shuttle arm is attached to the payload bay sill, and performed a set of motions designed to see how the arm/OBSS handled the forces generated by those movements; Fossum stood nearby and reported his observations of the arm/OBSS’ movements.

  Then Fossum joined Sellers on the end of the OBSS for another round of demonstrations, with measurements again taken by a load cell mounted under the foot restraint. For the last measurement the arm maneuvered Fossum into position so he could push against the end of the P1 Truss.

  Sellers, wearing the spacesuit with red stripes, and Fossum, wearing the white spacesuit, re-entered the station and started pressurizing the airlock at 3:48 p.m., concluding the first of three spacewalks planned for the mission. Today’s EVA was the fourth of Sellers’ career, and the first for Fossum.

  Pilot Mark Kelly served as intravehicular crewmember, keeping the spacewalkers on time and relaying information from Mission Control in Houston, while Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson and Expedition 13 Flight Engineer Jeff Williams operated the shuttle robot arm and Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey monitored their activities while transferring water onto ISS.

  During the EVA ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter unloaded cargo from the Multipurpose Logistics Module. Today’s transfers included a new oxygen generator, to be installed in the Destiny laboratory in the coming months, and a Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS, which will provide low temperature storage for lab supplies and for experiment samples awaiting return to Earth.

  Delivery of cargo from the MPLM onto ISS will be the centerpiece of activity on orbit Sunday, and the second of two spacewalks will take place Monday morning at 7:13 a.m. CDT.

  Also Saturday, Mission Managers reported clearing for entry all but one area of the orbiter’s thermal protection system that engineers had been looking at closely. The remaining area, a protruding gap filler near the external tank umbilical doors, needs further analysis, according to Steve Poulos, Orbiter Project Office Manager. The outlook was favorable for clearing that area, as well, Poulos said, but image analysts will be working through the night Saturday to finish looking at it.

  Overall, the spacecraft thermal protection system had relatively few “dings” and Chairman of the Mission Management Team John Shannon said that Discovery was by far the "cleanest" in terms of damage to the heat shield.

• 2006 Jul 9 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #10 

  Continued unloading of the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module will be the focus of the Space Shuttle Discovery and International Space Station’s crew today.

  Some preparations for the second spacewalk, on Monday, also are on today's plan.

  The Discovery crew was awakened at 2:08 a.m. CDT with "I Have a Dream", by ABBA, for shuttle pilot Mark Kelly. It was requested by his children. The station’s crew woke up at 2:38 a.m. CDT for the third day of joint operations.

  Every member of the two crews would have at least some involvement in the cargo activities throughout the day. Mission specialist Stephanie Wilson is leading the transfer effort, which will ultimately relocate the more than 7,400 lbs of equipment and supplies that were brought up in the cargo module named "Leonardo" and 1,800 lbs from the shuttle’s middeck.

  Flight controllers reported that 14 percent of equipment and supplies from the MPLM has already been transferred, including the Minus Eighty Lab Freezer and the 1,400 lb Oxygen Generation System that will expand the station’s ability to support up to six crewmembers. Six percent of equipment from the shuttle’s middeck has been relocated thus far.

  All nine crewmembers will participate in a joint news conference. They will field questions from U.S. media at NASA centers and journalists at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany.

  Throughout the day, Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will work on post- and pre-extravehicular activity tasks. The two completed the first spacewalk of the mission on Saturday and are preparing for the second, scheduled for Monday. They will make configurations to the Quest Airlock and prepare the tools needed for this second trip into the vacuum of space. The rest of the Discovery's crew, Commander Steve Lindsey, Kelly, Wilson, and Mission Specialist Lisa Nowak will all participate in an EVA procedures review.

• 2006 Jul 9 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #11 

  Delivering the equipment and supplies loaded in an Italian-built moving van was the primary activity for the crews of Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station today.

  The astronauts also made preparations for the second spacewalk during joint docked operations, scheduled for Monday morning.

  Leonardo, the Multipurpose Logistics Module that rode to orbit in the shuttle payload bay, launched with more than 7,400 pounds of new space station equipment and crew supplies. Today’s operations included transfer of a new heat exchanger for the Common Cabin Air Assembly, a component of the ISS environmental control system which collects condensate out of the air, and a spare U.S. spacewalk suit and emergency jet pack.

  As they deliver the module’s contents onto the station, the astronauts are also refilling Leonardo with almost 4,400 pounds of material no longer needed on the station. That includes experiment samples, trash, and broken equipment.

  For several hours today Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum refreshed the systems of their spacesuits and prepared tools and equipment for tomorrow’s EVA. During that planned six and a half hour excursion, scheduled to begin at 7:13 a.m. CDT, they will deliver a spare cooling system Pump Module to a stowage platform and replace the Trailing Umbilical System on the nadir side of the S0 Truss. That replacement will give the station’s Mobile Transporter rail car a redundant pair of power, data and video cables so it can translate along the truss in support of future station assembly tasks.

  Earlier today, Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly, and Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Fossum and Sellers joined Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter to answer questions about their missions from reporters at NASA centers and at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany.

  Late today John Shannon, the deputy shuttle program manager and chairman of the STS-121 Mission Management Team, reported that mission managers cleared Discovery for its return to Earth, declaring that the shuttle’s heat shield was free from any damage. The crew will conduct another inspection later in the mission looking for any other evidence of damage done by orbital debris prior to landing.

  Discovery’s crew began its sleep period just after 5 p.m. CDT and will be awakened at 1:08 a.m. CDT Monday to begin the seventh day of the flight.

• 2006 Jul 10 - EVA STS-121-2  Crew: Sellers, Fossum. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.28 days.

  The crew worked on the exterior of the ISS. They installed a spare pump module on the ESP-2 platform and replaced an umbilical cable assembly for the ISS Mobile Transporter, making it ready for installation of new solar truss panels on the next mission.

• 2006 Jul 10 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #12 

  Discovery Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will work on the International Space Station’s mobile transporter and install a pump module today on the second of three spacewalks of the STS-121 mission.

  The shuttle crew was awakened at 1:08 a.m. CDT by "Clocks," performed by Coldplay. It was requested by Sellers' family for the day of the second spacewalk.

  The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 7:13 a.m. and expected to last nearly seven hours. First, Fossum and Sellers will make their way to the shuttle’s payload bay to a spare pump module for the station’s thermal control system. Once there, they will attach it to the fixed grapple bar which will allow Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson, inside at the controls of the robotic arm, to maneuver the pump to the external stowage platform.

  While the module is being moved, Fossum and Sellers will stay in the payload bay and get ready for their next task, replacement of a trailing umbilical system (TUS) reel assembly, this one on the nadir side of the mobile transporter.

  After they reconfigure the payload bay for the activity, they’ll then translate to the starboard zero truss segment, to get it ready for retrieval. Fossum will disconnect electrical cables while Sellers changes out the assembly. Once it is ready, they will leave that site to go to the stowage platform and assist with the detaching and installation of the pump into its permanent storage location. That pump is onboard as a spare should it be needed in the future.

  The two spacewalkers will then return to the truss and remove the TUS reel assembly. Fossum, on the end of the robotic arm, will take the reel assembly to the payload bay. Sellers will move there on his own, and set up for the swap of that assembly with a new one. After the swap is complete, the two will go back to the worksite to install the new reel assembly, reroute the power and data cable and thus restoring the desired redundancy to the mobile transporter and enabling it again to be used for continued station assembly tasks.

  Shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey and Pilot Mark Kelly will support the spacewalk with Lindsey monitoring the vehicle systems and video/television set ups and Kelly overseeing activities and coaching the spacewalkers.

  The Expedition 13 crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter, will be working steadily throughout the day transferring trash and unneeded equipment and supplies for return to Earth in the multipurpose logistics module Leonardo. More than 4,300 pounds of cargo will be packed for the return to Earth.

• 2006 Jul 10 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #13 

  A six-hour, 47-minute spacewalk by astronauts from Space Shuttle Discovery today restored the International Space Station’s Mobile Transporter rail car to full operation and delivered a spare pump module for the station’s cooling system.

  Spacewalkers Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum exited the Quest module’s airlock at 7:14 a.m. and climbed down into the shuttle payload bay, where they lifted the Pump Module from its stowage platform so Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson could grapple it with the station’s 58-foot-long robotic arm. While the arm moved the module to its destination, Sellers and Fossum moved to the S0 Truss segment to begin work on the primary task of the EVA, replacement of the nadir-side Trailing Umbilical System (TUS).

  A TUS contains a power, data and video cable that serves the Mobile Transporter as it moves along the station’s truss; the nadir TUS cable was inadvertently severed late last year and required replacement. As the first step in that process Sellers replaced the Interface Umbilical Assembly - the component containing the cutter - with a new IUA, one without a blade.

  By that time, Canadarm2 reached External Stowage Platform 2 on the forward side of Quest with the Pump Module; Sellers and Fossum moved to the platform to receive the module from the arm, secured it to the storage platform, and returned to the TUS work site.

  The spacewalkers removed the damaged TUS from within the S0 Truss, and Fossum carried it to the payload bay while riding the station arm. When he arrived, Sellers removed the new TUS from the payload bay platform, and the two swapped cable reels. Sellers stowed the old TUS on the cross-bay carrier while the arm moved Fossum back to the truss work site, where Sellers rejoined his crewmate to complete installation of the TUS and properly route its power, data and video cable through the IUA.

  At two points during the spacewalk Fossum paused to take care of a loose connection of the emergency jet thruster backpack on Sellers’ spacesuit, securing it the first time with a safety tether.

  The spacewalkers closed the hatch and began to repressurize Quest to end the spacewalk at 2:01 p.m. to conclude a six-hour, 47-minute excursion; the combined time spent spacewalking on two EVAs on this mission so far is 14 hours, 18 minutes. A third spacewalk, devoted to testing potential repair techniques and materials, is scheduled for Wednesday.

  During the spacewalk Pilot Mark Kelly oversaw the timeline for the spacewalkers while Commander Steve Lindsey managed the cameras and transferred two containers of water onto ISS. Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter continued to work on delivery and stowage of equipment and supplies from the Multipurpose Logistics Module.

• 2006 Jul 11 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #14 

  Repacking the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo will be the focus of today’s activities for the Space Shuttle Discovery and International Space Station crews.

  More than 4,300 pounds of experiment results, unneeded hardware and trash is scheduled to be loaded onto the pressurized cargo module for return to Earth in Discovery's cargo bay next week. Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson serves as the loadmaster for the extensive transfer activity.

  All nine shuttle and station crew members will help gather and stow the return cargo in Leonardo. It brought more than 7,000 pounds of clothing, food and other supplies for the station.

  Throughout the day, Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will also have spacewalk preparation tasks. They’ll recharge the spacesuits, gather and organize needed tools, and configure the airlock.

  Before the day’s end, they’ll be joined by Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly, and fellow Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson for a review of the spacewalk procedures.

  Kelly, Fossum, Nowak, Wilson and Sellers will talk with representatives from the Associated Press and USA Today. That 20-minute chat is scheduled to begin at 7:18 a.m. CDT.

  The shuttle crew was awakened at 1:08 a.m. by "All Star," performed by Smashmouth. It was for Nowak, requested by her family.

  Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter were awakened 30 minutes later, at 1:38 a.m.

• 2006 Jul 11 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #15 

  In between spacewalks, the joint crews aboard Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station today turned their attention to packing the Leonardo logistics module in preparation for its return to Earth.

  Additional time was set aside today for procedural review for the third spacewalk planned to begin at 6:13 a.m. CDT Wednesday.

  Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov along with Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter spent most of the day loading items no longer needed on the station into the Multipurpose Logistics Module docked to the station’s Unity module. Before being returned to Discovery’s payload bay on Friday, the Italian-built Leonardo will be filled with almost 4,400 pounds of experiment samples, unneeded hardware and trash.

  Included in the more than 7,400 pounds of supplies delivered to the station was a new window and window seals for the Microgravity Science Glovebox, a European Space Agency-developed enclosed workspace for science experiments involving fluids, flames, particles or fumes. Reiter, the ESA astronaut who joined the station crew last week, installed the new window and window seals today. Additional work will be needed after the shuttle departs before the MSG can resume operation.

  Discovery Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum, who already have spent 14 hours and 18 minutes outside the Discovery/ISS complex on two spacewalks, devoted much of the day to preparing their spacesuits and tools for the mission’s third Extravehicular Activity. The planned 6-˝ hour spacewalk is devoted to testing a non-oxide adhesive as a repair material for the reinforced carbon carbon panels that line a shuttle’s leading edge, and the use of an infrared camera to detect unseen damage to RCC.

  At 7:18 this morning the spacewalkers joined Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson to talk about the progress of their flight in interviews with the Associated Press and USA Today.

• 2006 Jul 12 - EVA STS-121-3  Crew: Sellers, Fossum. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.30 days.

  The crew tested repairing samples of heat shield material with DTO 848 protection system repair kit demonstator mounted in the shuttle payload bay.

• 2006 Jul 12 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #16 

  The third and final spacewalk of the STS-121 space shuttle mission will be the focus of today’s space activities.

  Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will test techniques to inspect and repair damage to an orbiter's heat shield. The 6.5-hour spacewalk from the Quest airlock is scheduled to start at 6:13 a.m. CDT.

  Sellers and Fossum will set up tools and a foot restraint on the station robotic arm. Sellers will position himself on the arm, operated by Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson. He will use an infrared camera to record about 20 seconds of imagery as the arm, and Sellers, move along the shuttle’s wing leading edge.

  Sellers, designated EV1 and wearing the spacesuit with red stripes, will meet EV2 Fossum, in the all-white suit, in Discovery’s payload bay. There they will set up the worksite for the repair tasks. A pallet with 12 reinforced carbon-carbon panels is pre-positioned in the payload bay. Eight are pre-damaged and will be the subject of the repair test. Two are blank, to be used as a work palette, and the last two are for further imaging by the infrared camera.

  Sellers and Fossum will use a variety of tools and methods for the repair work demonstration including a space-certified caulk gun and a variety of spatulas to manipulate the test materials.

  They hope to finish demonstrations on at least two of those samples. Then they’ll do a 60-second recording using the IR camera of two other damaged tiles. The camera is designed to capture temperature gradients that will indicate invisible damage.

  If they have time, they may take additional photos of some shuttle panels and move the fixed grapple bar in the shuttle payload bay.

  The spacewalkers will clean up the worksite and inspect their spacesuits. Then Fossum will ride the robotic arm back to the airlock, again taking video of the wing leading edge as he passes it. Sellers will make his own way back.

  Pilot Mark Kelly will again serve as the intravehicular activities officer. Commander Steve Lindsey will oversee the shuttle systems and spacewalk operations.

  While the shuttle crew is helping with the spacewalk, repacking of the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo will continue. The Expedition 13 crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter, will put experiment results, unneeded equipment and garbage into Leonardo.

  The STS-121 crew woke this morning at 12:08 a.m. to "I Believe I Can Fly," played for Wilson. The Expedition 13 crew was awakened 30 minutes later.

• 2006 Jul 12 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #17 

  Astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Discovery gathered valuable new data during the third spacewalk today as part of an ongoing evaluation of repairing a damaged orbiter.

  Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum began the spacewalk at 6:20 a.m. CDT and prepared a foot restraint on the end of the International Space Station’s Canadarm2. Sellers rode the arm, commanded by Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson, to the starboard wing of Discovery where he used an infrared camera to shoot 20 seconds of video of selected reinforced carbon carbon panels on the wing’s leading edge. Infrared imagery may aid in identifying damage on the inside of those panels.

  Fossum translated to the aft of Discovery’s payload bay to join Sellers and help prepare a box containing 12 RCC sample panels for the EVA’s primary task of testing a repair material known as NOAX. Non-oxide adhesive experimental is a pre-ceramic polymer sealant containing carbon-silicon carbide powder, and is being evaluated for repairing damage to RCC panels.

  Data gathered from tests on mission STS-114 last year indicated NOAX is most effective when applied while the temperature of an RCC panel is falling between 120° F and 30° F, so today’s spacewalkers were directed to apply NOAX to the pre-damaged RCC panels based on the temperatures of the panels. Over the course of almost two and a half hours, Sellers and Fossum completed three gouge repairs and two crack repairs with NOAX, and provided Mission Control a running dialogue describing the repair activity and how the NOAX responded. They also imaged four of the samples with the infrared camera, which Fossum also used to gather video of an area of Discovery’s port wing while riding Canadarm2 back to the airlock.

  Near the end of the EVA, Mission Control added a task to the spacewalk. Since the spacewalkers were on schedule and had plenty of supplies, Sellers carried a Pistol Grip Tool to the Integrated Cargo Carrier in Discovery’s payload bay and removed the fixed grapple bar used during delivery of the Pump Module during the second spacewalk. He carried it to the S1 Truss where Fossum helped him install it on an ammonia tank inside that truss so that the tank can be moved on a later shuttle assembly mission.

  Repressurization of Quest began at 1:31 p.m., completing a 7-hour, 11-minute spacewalk, the 68th in support of ISS assembly and maintenance. The cumulative duration of the three spacewalks on this mission is 21 hours and 29 minutes. Sellers’ total spacewalking time of 41:10 on six EVAs ranks him 4th among U.S. spacewalkers and 9th in the world all-time.

  ISS Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter concentrated on packing the Multipurpose Logistics Module today with returning experiment samples, unneeded hardware and trash. The Leonardo module is scheduled to be returned to Discovery’s payload bay on Friday.

• 2006 Jul 13 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #18 

  After eight days in space, three spacewalks and six days of cargo transfer, the Space Shuttle Discovery crew today gets a much deserved day off.

  The crew woke at 12:08 a.m. CDT to "Charlie's Angels Theme Song." It was for the entire crew, from their training team.

  Moments later, Texas A&M University yell leaders performed briefly for Mission Specialist Mike Fossum from Mission Control. Fossum is the first A&M undergraduate alum to fly in space.

  Fossum is scheduled to receive a call from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, also an A&M graduate and former member of the Corps of Cadets, at 11:58 a.m. It will air on NASA Television.

  Later in the day, Fossum and Mission Specialist Lisa Nowak will talk with representatives of MSNBC and FOX News Live. That interview, at 12:23 p.m., also will be seen on NASA-TV.

  Fossum, Nowak and shuttle Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Piers Sellers then have off duty time with only a few isolated tasks and exercise planned.

  International Space Station Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter will talk at 3:13 a.m. with European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque, a journalist, students and the operations manager at the Columbus Control Centre, in Cologne, Germany. At 8:09 a.m. the crew will talk with Russian journalists at Mission Control Moscow. Those events will air on NASA-TV and be replayed with interpretation at 9 a.m.

• 2006 Jul 13 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #19 

  Astronauts on board Space Shuttle Discovery today got a much deserved day off after having completed three successful space walks and thousands of pounds of supply and equipment transfers earlier in the flight.

  The only events scheduled today were interviews for both the International Space Station and the Shuttle crews.

  Mission Specialist Mike Fossum received a call from Texas Governor Rick Perry at 11:58 a.m. CDT today. Perry, who like Fossum is a graduate of Texas A&M University, told the astronaut how proud he was to have the first Aggie in space. “Aggies are all up in great arms to have the first Aggie in space,” said Perry. “You are making some history, Michael.”

  At 12:44 p.m. Mike Fossum and Lisa Nowak participated in live interviews with MSNBC and Fox News Live.

  Expedition 13 crewmember Jeff Williams confirmed steps and final procedures for Friday’s closeout of the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module which will be relocated from the ISS to Discovery’s cargo bay Friday.

  The Shuttle crew also will begin a late mission check out of the shuttle’s heat shield tomorrow, taking a final look at the port wing to make sure no orbital debris struck the wing since it was inspected early in the flight.

• 2006 Jul 14 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #20 

  It’s back to work for the Space Shuttle Discovery crew.

  After a day off, the crew will spend much of today getting ready for their undocking from the International Space Station.

  The crew woke at 12:19 a.m. CDT with the Aggie War Hymn performed by the Fighting Texas Aggie Band. It was for Mission Specialist Mike Fossum, a graduate of Texas A&M University.

  The first activity of the day will be media interviews for most of the crew -- shuttle Pilot Mark Kelly, Mission Specialists Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson and Piers Sellers, and station Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams. Beginning at 3:03 a.m. they will talk with journalists from CNN, ABC News, NBC’s Today Show, and CBS News.

  Meanwhile, shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey and station Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter will deactivate the multipurpose logistics module Leonardo and begin preparing for its move back to Discovery’s payload bay. Nowak and Wilson will use the station robotic arm to maneuver Leonardo, which has been packed with more than 4,000 pounds of experiment results, unneeded supplies and equipment from the station, to its place in the cargo bay.

  The two, joined by Lindsey, will also use the arm with the boom extension to conduct a scheduled final inspection of the shuttle’s port wing to ensure it has not been damaged by orbital debris during the docked operations.

  Throughout the day, the remainder of the crew will continue with final transfer of supplies and equipment from the shuttle’s middeck, organize the spacewalk tools and do other tasks to get ready for Discovery's undocking from the station on Saturday.

• 2006 Jul 14 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #21 

  Emptied of its cargo and refilled with returns, the Multipurpose Logistics Module Leonardo is back in the payload bay of Space Shuttle Discovery with just hours left before the orbiter undocks from the International Space Station and heads home.

  First thing this morning Shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey and ISS Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter deactivated the cargo module, closed the hatch, and prepared it for removal from the Unity node. Just after 8:32 a.m. CDT Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson used the station robotic arm to uninstall Leonardo from ISS; the MPLM was reberthed in the shuttle payload bay at 10:00 a.m. CDT.

  More than 7,400 pounds of cargo was delivered to ISS in the cargo module, and approximately 4,600 pounds of material including experiment samples, broken equipment and trash are now packed inside for return to Earth.

  After the MPLM was returned to Discovery, Nowak and Wilson used the shuttle robot arm and the Orbiter Boom Sensor System to inspect the shuttle’s port wing. Similar to the pre-docking inspection on Flight Day 2, which was aimed at uncovering evidence of damage from debris at launch, this inspection looked for any signs of damage done by debris on orbit. None was found; inspection of the starboard wing and the shuttle’s nose cap will be done after undocking tomorrow, which is scheduled to occur at 5:08 a.m. CDT.

  Early this morning, as Lindsey and Reiter worked at the MPLM, Nowak and Wilson joined Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers, Pilot Mark Kelly, and ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams to discuss the mission in interviews with CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS.

• 2006 Jul 15 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #22 

  Today marks the final day of joint operations for the Space Shuttle Discovery and International Space Station crews.

  After almost nine days together, Discovery is scheduled to undock from the station today at 5:08 a.m. CDT.

  Discovery crew members were awakened at 12:08 a.m. by "Beautiful Day," performed by U2. It was for Discovery Pilot Mark Kelly, on undocking day.

  After a few final equipment transfers and system configurations, all nine crew members will gather for a televised farewell ceremony at 2:38 a.m. Hatch closure between the station and shuttle will immediately follow.

  After undocking, Kelly will perform the two separation burns to take Discovery away from the station.

  About three hours after undocking, Commander Steve Lindsey and Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Mike Fossum will use the shuttle's robotic arm and the orbital boom sensor system to perform final inspections of the starboard wing. Then Kelly and Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson will do the same on the shuttle nose.

  Discovery will remain about 45 miles behind the station until the mission management team reviews survey results and clears Discovery for landing, scheduled for Monday at Kennedy Space Center.

  The Expedition 13 crew will resume normal station operations. Once their shuttle counterparts have departed, they will conduct some routine maintenance and exercise onboard. Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter will conduct emergency drills training and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams will depressurize the pressurized mating adapter.

• 2006 Jul 15 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #23 

  The Space Shuttle Discovery is on its way home with six astronauts on board, one fewer than when it launched 11 days ago.

  The delivery of European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter to join Expedition 13 on the International Space Station was one of the major goals achieved on this second return to flight shuttle mission. Discovery is now aiming for an 8:14 a.m. CDT Monday landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

  The shuttle astronauts said goodbye to Reiter and his crewmates, Station Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams, and Commander Steve Lindsey and Pilot Mark Kelly reported the hatches between the two ships closed at 3:15 a.m. CDT. Astronauts Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson completed a leak check in the docking vestibule while Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers installed a centerline camera in the hatch window.

  With Kelly at the controls, Discovery released its grip on the station at 5:08 a.m. CDT and springs pushed the two ships apart. Kelly guided the shuttle away to a distance of 400 feet and fired thrusters to separate the vicinity of the complex. A second engine firing, 50 minutes after undocking while above and behind the station, set Discovery on course that now has it about 46 miles behind the station and opening the distance slowly. No other shuttle engine firings are planned before it fires its engines to begin the descent to Earth Monday morning.

  After Discovery left the station, the shuttle crew used the robotic arm and boom sensors to thoroughly inspect the starboard wing and nose cap heat shield, looking for damage from orbital debris. A similar survey of the port wing was conducted yesterday. After the nose cap survey, the boom was berthed along the starboard sill of the payload bay and the robot arm was powered down.

  Mission managers reviewing the latest heat shield inspections of Discovery have found no concerns so far, and the analysis is continuing. Discovery is planned to fire its engines to deorbit at 7:07 a.m. CDT Monday. That is the first of two opportunities for landing on Monday at Kennedy. A second opportunity begins with a deorbit engine firing at 8:43 a.m. CDT leading to a landing at 9:50 am. CDT.

• 2006 Jul 16 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #24 

  The Space Shuttle Discovery crew is scheduled for their last full day in space today, as they make their final preparations for deorbit and landing tomorrow.

  Their day began at 12:18 a.m. with “Just Like Heaven,” by The Cure for Mission Specialist Piers Sellers. It was requested by his family.

  At 3 a.m., Shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Entry Flight Engineer Lisa Nowak will do an hour-long flight control system checkout and fire the reaction control system jets. The checkout will let managers further assess the performance of one of the auxiliary power units. The APUs power flight control surfaces. Specialists had detected a small leak in the APU but have determined it is likely a nitrogen gas leak and should not affect re-entry.

  Throughout the day, most of the crew members, including Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Stephanie Wilson, will work on final clean up and stowage of the vehicle cabin area. All six crew members will participate in a deorbit briefing with the ground team as part of their final preparation for landing.

  At 11:03 a.m. CDT, the STS-121 crew will participate in interviews with major television networks, including, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and NBC. That event will be televised on NASA television.

  Mission managers continue to analyze images from the post-undocking inspection of Discovery's port wing and nose cone. Initial analysis indicated nothing amiss. A decision on whether to clear Discovery for landing is expected later today.

  Discovery's deorbit burn is scheduled for 7:07 a.m. Monday, for an 8:14 a.m. CDT landing at Kennedy Space Center. A second opportunity would see a deorbit engine firing at 8:43 a.m. for a landing at 9:50 a.m.

  Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter are enjoying an off-duty day after the intense activity during Discovery docked operations.

• 2006 Jul 16 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #25 

  Discovery is targeted for a landing at 8:14 a.m. CDT Monday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

  For that landing, Discovery's engines would be fired at 7:07 a.m. CDT Monday to begin its descent. A second opportunity is available for Discovery to land at Kennedy on Monday, beginning the descent with an engine firing at 8:43 a.m. CDT and leading to a touchdown in Florida at 9:50 a.m. CDT. Flight managers do not plan to consider other shuttle landing sites on Monday.

  The weather forecast for landing on Monday calls for a chance of rain in the vicinity of Kennedy's shuttle runway that could be unacceptable for Discovery's landing.

  Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey and Pilot Mark Kelly checked the shuttle landing systems and steering jets early today. A test run of one of the three generators that power the shuttle hydraulics found that auxiliary power unit operating normally. A minute leak in that system has remained at expected levels. All three units are planned to be run as normal for landing.

  The astronauts spent the rest of their planned final full day in orbit stowing gear and securing the shuttle for the trip home. Key events leading up to Discovery's first landing opportunity on Monday include:

  4:27 a.m. CDT -- Discovery's payload bay doors are closed 6:07 a.m. CDT -- Discovery's astronauts begin to strap in for landing 6:48 a.m. CDT -- Mission Control "go" or "no-go" for the deorbit engine firing

• 2006 Jul 17 - Landing of STS-121 

• 2006 Jul 17 - STS-121 MCC Status Report #26 

  A smooth landing by the Space Shuttle Discovery at the Kennedy Space Center this morning completed the second return to flight test mission and set the stage to resume assembly of the International Space Station later this summer.

  Discovery and its crew of six astronauts touched down on runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at 8:15 a.m. CDT, completing 12 days, 18 hours and 38 minutes in space covering 5.3 million miles. They delivered European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter to the station to join Expedition 13 and completed three spacewalks, one to restore the station’s rail car to full capability and two to develop shuttle repair techniques.

  The crew was awakened at 12:08 a.m. CDT today with “The Astronaut” by Something Corporate, played for Commander Steve Lindsey as he prepared to complete his fourth shuttle flight. Returning to Earth aboard Discovery with Lindsey were Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson and Piers Sellers.

  Discovery’s deorbit engines were fired for three minutes at 7:07 a.m. CDT above the Indian Ocean to begin the descent. The shuttle flew above Guatemala and Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico and the southwest Florida coast on the way to landing.

• 2006 Jul 28 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-035 

  The International Space Station's Expedition 13 crew members are a week away from their first U.S. spacewalk.

  They spent much of this week preparing themselves and their gear, and they activated a new laboratory super deep-freezer.

  Astronauts Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter will leave the station's Quest airlock hatch at 9:55 a.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 3, for a spacewalk that is scheduled for six hours, 20 minutes. Station Commander Pavel Vinogradov will serve as the spacewalk choreographer from inside the complex.

  Williams and Reiter are both experienced spacewalkers. They will install a device to measure the electrical field around the station's exterior; replace a rotary joint motor controller and a computer for a radiator on the station's truss; deploy two experiments that expose samples of various materials to space for extended periods; and install various other hardware on the station.

  To get ready, the crew prepared spacesuits and tools, conducted a dry run of egress and ingress procedures, and moved the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm into position. The arm's cameras will provide television views of the spacewalk.

  This week the crew also began operations of the new Minus Eighty-degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS. The equipment can reach temperatures as low as minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit. Provided by the European Space Agency, the freezer was delivered on shuttle mission STS-121 earlier this month and is installed in the Destiny laboratory. It has 300 liters (about 79 gallons) of freezing and storage capacity in four compartments for experiment samples to preserve them for return to Earth.

  On Tuesday, Russian flight controllers fired thrusters on the Progress supply ship docked to the aft end of the station to boost the station's altitude. They raised the complex to an orbit of 219 by 203 statute miles. The adjustment optimizes conditions for a docking by the Space Shuttle Atlantis, targeted for a launch window that begins Aug. 27, and by the station's next crew, Expedition 14, set for launch in mid-September on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

• 2006 Aug 25 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-039 

  With the countdown clock ticking toward the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-115 mission, the International Space Station crew continues to prepare for visitors.

  Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight Engineer, NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany are ready for Atlantis to deliver a new section of the station's girder-like truss. Atlantis is set for launch on Sunday, which would result in docking with the station on Tuesday. During Atlantis' mission, astronauts will attach the new P3/P4 truss, a segment that includes a huge new set of solar arrays and a giant rotary joint to allow them to track the sun.

  To prepare for Atlantis' visit, the station crew members packed items that will be returned to Earth on the shuttle. They also reviewed spacewalk plans, talked with the shuttle crew in a long-distance conference and trained to photograph the shuttle's heat shield as Atlantis does a backflip while approaching the station.

  Flight controllers tested the operation of a U.S. air scrubbing system in advance. The Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly, or CDRA, was turned on for an extended period to test its capability to remove carbon dioxide from the air. The CDRA augments the Russian air scrubber, Vozdukh, which was turned off during the test. Engineers are continuing to evaluate data from the CDRA operations.

  The station was raised 2.5 miles by firing the ISS Progress 21 engines Wednesday. The boost places the complex at the optimum position for Atlantis' rendezvous and docking. It also puts the station at the optimum altitude for the launch of the next station resident crew, Expedition 14, from Kazakhstan in September.

  Williams replaced filters in part of the station's cooling system. The used filters will be returned to Earth for engineering analysis to confirm their success at removing fine particles from water in coolant lines.

  Williams completed runs of the Dust and Aerosol Measurement Feasibility Test, or DAFT experiment. DAFT is testing the effectiveness of a commercial hand-held air quality monitor called P-Trak that counts ultra-fine dust particles in microgravity. The study provides data that may help in the design of fire detection systems on future spacecraft. Its data also may prove useful for fire detection hardware in extreme environments on Earth, such as submarines or underwater laboratories.

  The station crew continued with the set-up and check-out of the European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) that was delivered on STS-121. This experiment system contains a centrifuge that can subject a wide range of small plant and animal experiments to partial gravity conditions.

  The first experiment that will be performed in EMCS is the Analysis of a Novel Sensory Mechanism in Root Phototropism, called Tropi, which seeks to identify the genes responsible for successful plant growth in microgravity. The experiment studies mustard seeds.

  Vinogradov and Reiter participated in European Space Agency science experiments that test the cardiovascular system's response to microgravity for long durations.

• 2006 Sep 28 - International Space Station Status Report: SS06-042 

  After six months aboard the International Space Station that included arrival of two space shuttle missions, resumption of construction of the orbiting laboratory and the restoration of a three-member crew, Expedition 13 landed at 9:13 p.m. EDT in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

  Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA station science officer Jeff Williams landed in their Soyuz TMA 8 spacecraft about 50 miles northeast of Arkalyk. Russian recovery forces and NASA officials arrived at the site shortly after the spacecraft touched down. The Soyuz undocked from the space station at 5:53 p.m. EDT.

  The crew will spend several weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical examinations.

  With Williams and Vinogradov was Spaceflight Participant Anousheh Ansari, who flew to the station with the Expedition 14 crew and spent eight days there. The American businesswoman went to the station under a contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

  During their mission, which launched March 29, Vinogradov and Williams were joined by Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut from Germany. He became the first non-Russian, non-U.S. long-duration station crew member. He will remain aboard as part of the Expedition 14 crew until December when he returns to Earth on the next space shuttle flight.

  Two successful spacewalks were conducted during Expedition 13. The first was by Vinogradov and Williams in Russian spacesuits and the second by Williams and Reiter in U.S. spacesuits.

  Vinogradov and Williams welcomed Space Shuttle Discovery astronauts and Reiter during the STS-121 mission to the station in July. In September Space Shuttle Atlantis' crew on the STS-115 mission brought and installed the station's integrated P3/P4 truss segments.

  Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria, Mikhail Tyurin and Reiter, now are on their own aboard the station after a week of handover, maintenance and some science activities. Vinogradov and Tyurin replaced a major component of the Elektron oxygen-producing device, which malfunctioned shortly after Atlantis departed.

  The device was activated Sept. 16 and functioned for about three hours before shutting itself off. Further troubleshooting is planned.