Wednesday evening found the crew busy as Halsell and pilot Lt. Col. Scott "Doc" Horowitz prepare to fire the orbiters thrusters to continue boosting the station into a higher orbit. Col. Susan Helms, retired Army Col. Jim Voss and cosmonaut Yuri Usachev swapped a battery aboard the Russian Zarya module. Mary Ellen Weber, a civilian, and Lt. Col. Jeff Williams will move more equipment and supplies from Atlantis into the station.
"It sure is nice to be up here flying around the Earth almost 200 miles (320 kilometers) above with the space station," Halsell said after the crews wake up call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (20:30 GMT). "Were looking forward to another exciting day."
Atlantis will fire its thrusters 27 times at about 9:16 p.m. EDT (01:16 GMT) in the second of three maneuvers to reposition the station into a higher orbit in preparation for docking with the Russian-built Zvezda service module this summer. The stations current altitude is about 212 by 219 miles (339 by 350 kilometers). After the final boost Thursday evening, the station should orbit at about 233 miles (372 kilometers) above Earth.
Usachev, Voss and Helms, who will occupy the station as the second resident crew early in 2001, spent about one hour swapping out the last of four batteries to be replaced. One of the batteries installed Monday stopped charging, prompting troubleshooting efforts from the station controllers in Houston and Moscow.
Engineers discovered that the batteries couldnt be charged while others are being installed. Ground controllers began charging the recalcitrant battery after the astronauts knocked off for the day early Wednesday morning and by late afternoon the battery was back on line.
Mission managers have decided to replace four of the six batteries because of ongoing problems with them and because they are nearing the end of their useful life. The batteries were designed to operate until the Russian-built Zvezda service module arrived in 1998, but the module has yet to be launched. The delay-plagued unit is scheduled for a mid-July launch.
Astronaut Frank Culbertson said replacing the batteries is critical for a safe docking with the service module when it launches because the station will do the maneuvering.
"Keeping these batteries working is critical at this point because the FGB (Russian-built Zarya module) will be the active vehicle that docks with the service module this summer," Culbertson said. "So you want to make sure plenty of power with which to do that."
Culbertson managed the Shuttle-Mir program and is training to command the third crew to occupy the station in summer 2001. He said the continual delays and problems with the ISS are all part of the game.
"There are always going to be new things that come up and you say maybe we should have thought of that, but we didnt, so we need to deal with it," he said. "Its going to be continuous challenges of the technology and hardware as well as the cultural and professional aspects."
The crew will also move four plastic bags of water into the station. Some of the seven bags already stored aboard the ISS have developed brown stains on the outside that environmental engineers on the ground are looking into.
Later this evening, the crew takes a breather at 11:21 p.m. EDT (Thursday, 03:21 GMT) to talk to the news media again. Early Wednesday morning, the crew
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