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Shuttle Closes Gap with Station; Docking Set for Friday
By Todd Halvorson
Cape Canaveral
posted: 02:00 pm ET
06 December 2001
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Shuttle Endeavour and its U.S.-Russian crew closed in on the International Space Station Thursday, zooming toward a rendezvous and docking at the 17-story orbiting research center. With a new, three-man station crew in tow, Endeavour and its four shuttle astronauts are due to arrive at the frontier outpost at 2:59 p.m. EST (1959 GMT) Friday as the two spacecraft meet up some 247 miles (397 kilometers) above the planet. Approaching the outpost from below, shuttle skipper Dom Gorie will swing his ship out in front of the 140-ton complex and then slowly back up to a docking port at the end of the $1.4 billion U.S. Destiny science lab. He likened the link-up to a mechanical minuet. "It's a very slow ballet of a maneuver," the U.S. Navy captain and first-time shuttle mission commander said in a preflight interview. "You're not forcing anything like you would with an F-18 (like) I'm used to, slamming an airplane onto an aircraft carrier deck. But you are just very smoothly and precisely flying this thing with very slow and controlled rates." Hatches between the craft are scheduled to open up at 4:58 p.m. EST (2158 GMT) Friday, marking the start of a planned five-and-a-half month station stay for incoming Russian commander Yuri Onufrienko and two U.S. flight engineers: Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz. | Mission Updates | | For the very latest updates on Endeavour's mission to the space station, the first place to look is our Shuttle Missions page. |
Known as the Expedition Four crew, the three men will replace current station skipper Frank Culbertson and Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin. Onboard the station since August, Culbertson and his colleagues will return to Earth aboard Endeavour. Launched Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center, the Endeavour crew has been gradually catching up with the station, firing the shuttle's twin maneuvering engines and 44 nose-and-tail steering jets to close a narrowing gap between the craft. The shuttle's 46-hour chase began with a spectacular sunset launch that was precisely timed to put Endeavour on course for its high-flying hook-up with the station. The seven space travelers aboard Endeavour spent the day Thursday gearing up for their arrival at the station and the eight-day stay that will follow. To that end, the crew set out to: - Check out the shuttle's Canadian-built robot arm, which will be used to temporarily mount a shuttle-borne cargo carrier to the station so that it can be unloaded.
Filled with 3.5 tons of food, clothing, equipment and supplies for the Expedition Four crew, the cylindrical carrier will be attached to the station about 1:39 p.m. EST (1839 GMT) Saturday. - Test handheld lasers, computers and other navigational tools that will be used to guide the shuttle up to the station during the planned docking.
- Inspect two spacesuits that Endeavour mission specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani will wear during a spacewalk scheduled to begin at 12:24 p.m. EST (1724 GMT) Monday.
The two astronauts plan to venture outside the outpost to fix a balky motor drive on the station's massive American solar wings, which stretch 240 feet (73 meters) from tip to tip. The job is expected to take about four hours to complete.
With Culbertson, Dezhurov and Turin in tow, Endeavour is scheduled to depart the station Dec. 14, heading off on a two-day trip back to Earth. The shuttle is scheduled to land here at NASA's coastal Florida spaceport 12:28 p.m. EST (1728 GMT) Dec. 16, capping a 128-day stay in space for Culbertson and his Expedition Three crew.
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