CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. - Three spaceship crews made a cosmic phone call early Tuesday
in a rare orbital hookup that linked 12 spaceflyers together in Earth orbit.
Astronauts
aboard NASA's shuttle Atlantis,
the International
Space Station (ISS) and the Russian Federal Space Agency's Soyuz
TMA-9 spacecraft greeted one another with heartfelt hellos despite
the airless vacuum of space separating their three spacecraft. The shuttle's STS-115 crew
is spending its last full day in space before a scheduled Wednesday morning
landing.
"It's a
little crowded in the sky this morning, not only with Atlantis you and us, but
also the Progress free-flying," ISS Expedition
13 flight engineer Jeffrey
Williams told NASA astronaut Michael
Lopez-Alegria, Expedition
14 commander, who sat aboard the Soyuz spacecraft with cosmonaut Mikhail
Tyurin and U.S.
entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari - the world's
first female space tourist. "We'll just have to keep eyeballs out a little
more than usual."
"We're
wondering if we had to hire some more air traffic controllers for the increased
traffic up here," said Lopez-Alegria, who with Tyurin will relieve Williams and
Expedition 13 commander Pavel
Vinogradov aboard the ISS this month.
"You guys
are just starting your really long journey in space, and our really short one
is coming to an end much quicker than we would like," Atlantis'
commander Brent Jett told the Expedition 14 astronauts, who launched
with Ansari early Monday. "You're going to be impressed when you get there and
I know you guys are going to have a good time."
Aboard
Atlantis, where six astronauts are packing items away and rehearsing landing
procedures,STS-115 mission specialist Joseph
Tanner assured the space station's Expedition 13 crew that he and his crew
did not in any way touch the outpost's Russian-built
Elektron oxygen generator before they undocked
early Sunday. A mild toxic liquid leaked from the Elektron Monday and led to a
short-lived emergency aboard the ISS Monday when the Expedition 13 crew
reported a smoke-like
smell, though the matter was swiftly resolved and the Elektron taken
off-line.
Williams
said he knew the shuttle crew wasn't to blame.
"We look
forward to seeing you all on the ground and reminiscing about our short mission
together," Williams told the shuttle astronauts.
Atlantis'
STS-115 crew is wrapping up an 11-day
mission to the ISS, where they delivered a massive new addition - the outpost's
first since late
2002 - in the form of two
wing-like solar arrays and a pair of
17.5-ton portside trusses. The astronauts are set to land at 5:59 a.m. EDT
(0959 GMT) tomorrow here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
"The
weather's not looking all that good for tomorrow at KSC," Jett told the Soyuz
and ISS astronauts. "It's supposed to be real good the next day, so we may end
up getting an extra day on orbit, which would not be all bad."
Aboard the
ISS, Expedition 13's Vinogradov and Williams are also nearing their end of
their own six-month spaceflight, and will return to Earth with Ansari on Sept.
28 after a nine-day crew change. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas
Reiter, also an Expedition 13 flight engineer, will join Expedition 14's
Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin for part of their mission.
Tuesday's
early-morning ship-to-ship call began while Atlantis and the ISS - flying about
98 miles (157 kilometers) passed over Australia. The Soyuz began the call while
orbiting over Russian just north of the Black Sea, and trailed both spacecraft by
more than 6,400 miles (10,299 kilometers) in distance and 58 miles (149 kilometers)
in altitude.
"You guys
accomplished a lot," Lopez-Alegria told Atlantis' crew. "I bet it'll be nice to
have a cold beer and a shower."
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