Ashby Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, married. Born in Dallas, Texas, USA. US Navy US Navy

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 15 - 1995. Active Entered space service: 9 December 1994. Number of Flights: 3.00. Total Time: 27.68 days.

Official NASA Biography - 1997

NAME: Jeffrey S. Ashby (Commander, USN)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born June 16, 1954 in Dallas, Texas. Raised in the Colorado mountains. Not married. Recreational interests include skiing, backpacking, fly fishing.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Evergreen High School, Evergreen, Colorado in 1972. Bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Idaho, 1976. Master of science degree in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee, 1993.

SPECIAL HONORS:

Distinguished Flying Cross, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Air Medals (4), Navy Commendation Medals (2), Navy Achievement Medal, and numerous Unit decorations. Navy Attack Aviator of the Year, 1991.

EXPERIENCE:

Ashby has accumulated over 5000 flight hours and 1000 carrier landings. He is a graduate of the Naval Test Pilot School (1988) and the Naval Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun, 1986).

During his 16 year tenure as a fleet Navy pilot, Ashby completed five carrier deployments, flying A-7E and FA-18 aircraft from the USS CONSTELLATION, USS CORAL SEA, USS MIDWAY, and USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN. He has flown missions in support of Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Southern Watch in Iraq, and Operation Continue Hope in Somalia. Ashby completed 33 combat missions in the FA-18 during Operation Desert Storm.

As a Navy test pilot, Ashby participated in the early development of the FA-18 aircraft, directing and flying tests of its smart weapons systems and electronic warfare suite. He has flown test flights for over 80 projects including carrier suitability, ordnance release, and flying qualities of the Night attack and reconnaissance versions of the Hornet.

In his final operational Navy tour, Ashby served as the Commanding Officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 94.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in December 1994, Ashby reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. He is presently assigned to work technical issues as an assistant to the Director, Flight Crew Operations.

• 23 July 1999 Flight: STS-93. Flight Up: STS-93. Flight Back: STS-93. Flight Time: 4.95 days.

• 19 April 2001 Flight: STS-100. Flight Up: STS-100. Flight Back: STS-100. Flight Time: 11.90 days.

• 7 October 2002 Flight: STS-112. Flight Up: STS-112. Flight Back: STS-112. Flight Time: 10.83 days.

9 June 1995 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 15 selected.. The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.

Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. 10 pilots and 9 mission specialists, 6 civilians and 13 military officers, chosen from 2,962 applicants, of which 122 screened in June-August 1994. 4 additional international astronauts.

The orbiter payload bay contained only the Chandra spacecraft, the IUS, and the IUS tilt tableTthe following payloads were carried in the shuttle’s cabin: STL-B (Space Tissue Loss), CCM (Cell culture module), SAREX-II (Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment), EarthKam, PGIM (Plant Growth Investigations in Microgravity), CGBA (Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus), MEMS (Micro-electric Mechanical System), and BRIC (Biological Research in Canisters) and SWUIS (the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, an 0.18-m UV telescope to be used for airglow and planetary observations); GOSAMR (the Gelation of Sols: Applied Microgravity Research experiment) and LFSAH, the Lightweight Flexible Solar Array Hinge. MSX and SIMPLEX experiments were also to be carried out.

Chandra/IUS-27 was deployed from Columbia at 11:47 GMT July 23. Flight duration was limited; this was the heaviest shuttle (122,534 kg) and heaviest payload (19,736 kg) to that date. Columbia landed at 03:20 GMT on July 28 on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center. Post-flight inspection found the presence of holes in the cooling lines on the nozzle of SSME 2019 (engine 3) which caused a hydrogen leak. A loose repair pin in the engine broke free and caused the failure. The cause of the short was found to be chaffed wiring inside the shuttle. The entire fleet was grounded for inspection and replacement of wiring as necessary.

"We were extremely confident in the IUS system in placing Chandra in it's orbit," said NASA IUS Mission Director Representative Rob Kelso. "In addition, this mission culminated in more than three years of training for the IUS flight team at the USAF Onizuka Air Station. We couldn't be more pleased with the success of the IUS and being able to start this important observatory on it's way."

Following an eight hour sleep period, Columbia's five member crew -- Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini of the French Space Agency (CNES) -- were awakened at 6:31 p.m. CDT to begin their second day in space.

The main focus of the crew's Flight Day 2 activities will be in activating the secondary payloads and experiments being carried on the flight. Among those efforts will be the set up and first observations using the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System (SWUIS) that operates from inside the shuttle cabin. SWUIS is used to image planets and other solar system bodies in order to explore their atmospheres and surfaces in the ultraviolet (UV) region of the spectrum, which astronomers value for its diagnostic power. SWUIS, making its second flight on STS-93, will obtain ultraviolet imagery of an array of planetary and astrophysical targets. The specific targets that SWUIS will observe include Earth's moon, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter.

At 4:36 a.m. CDT Saturday morning, Collins and Coleman will take a break to do interviews with network reporters from CBS "Saturday Morning," the Fox News Network, the NBC "Saturday Today Show" and Cable News Network (CNN).

Columbia is flying smoothly on in an orbit 187 x 176 miles above the Earth, circling the planet every 90 minutes with its systems operating in excellent shape.

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

Hawley, the resident astronomer of the STS-93 crew, will continue his work with the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, or SWUIS instrument, to collect imagery of targets associated with Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and the Moon. Although small, the sensitive SWUIS system has unique attributes that make it a valuable complement to more expensive space observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope. Among these attributes are SWUIS's unusually wide field of view (up to 30 times Hubble's) and its ability to observe objects much closer to the Sun than most space observatories. This latter capability allows SWUIS to explore the inner solar system -- something few other instruments can do.

Collins and Ashby will be responsible for maneuvering Columbia in support of various experiments including observations made with the SWUIS telescope or the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), which uses sophisticated sensors to collect ultraviolet, infrared, and visible light data of firings of the shuttle's orbital maneuvering system engines or primary reaction control system jets.

Collins also will conduct a conversation with students at the Harbor View Elementary School in Corona Del Mar, California using the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) system. She also will check experiments associated with the Cell Culture Module (CCM) and the Biological Research In Canister (BRIC) payloads.

At 4:36 a.m. CDT on Sunday, Collins and Coleman will conduct an interview with CBS Radio Network. Coleman also will be interviewed by Donna Shirley, former mission manager for the Mars Pathfinder Project, in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts' Mars Millenium Project.

Coleman will work with the Plant Growth Investigations in Micro-Gravity (PGIM) and the Lightweight Flexible Solar Array Hinge (LFSAH) experiments, and document on-orbit operations with High Definition Television (HDTV) equipment.

Ashby will tend to various orbiter systems and check the Space Tissue Loss (STL) experiment. STL is a payload designed to validate models of bone and muscle loss induced by the weightless environment of space.

Tognini will use the SAREX system to conduct a ham radio conversation with fellow French astronaut Jean-Pierre Haignere who is currently flying aboard the Russian Mir Space Station. That communication opportunity is planned for early Sunday morning at 12:33 a.m. CDT. He'll also help check the BRIC and LFSAH experiments, and work with experiments in the Commercial Generic Bio-Processing Apparatus (CGBA).

While the STS-93 crew presses on with the remainder of its flight, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory team at the Operations Control Center in Cambridge, Mass., is preparing for the first burn of Chandra's Integral Propulsion System. The firing is scheduled for about 8:11 p.m. CDT on Saturday, July 24. Two of Chandra's four Liquid Apogee Engines will burn for approximately five minutes. Tonight's burn will be the first of four apogee burns that will result in an increase to Chandra's perigee. Later in the mission, there will be one perigee burn to increase the spacecraft's apogee. There are four engines, two primary and two redundant. Each engine has 105-pounds of thrust and uses hydrazine as fuel with nitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizer.

Following the first Integral Propulsion System burn, the new perigee is expected to be 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) and the new apogee is expected to be 45,014 miles (72,023 kilometers). Chandra's new orbit duration will be 24 hours, 38 minutes, slightly longer than its current orbit of 24 hours, 17 minutes.

Columbia is orbiting at an altitude of 158 x 148 nautical miles circling the Earth once every 90 minutes.

Hawley, the resident astronomer on board, used the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, or SWUIS instrument, to collect imagery of Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and the moon in this, its second flight into space. Hawley reported that he could not see a new comet called Lynn, but that the SWUIS may have captured imagery of the comet for investigators on the ground. The telescopic instrument is mounted on the side hatch window in the shuttle's middeck.

Coleman monitored several plant growth experiments while Tognini collected data from a biological cell culture experiment. The two astronauts collaborated on the smooth deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory yesterday.

Chandra is currently orbiting the Earth in a highly elliptical orbit of about 200 statute miles by 44,000 statute miles, thanks to the successful firing of its two-stage Inertial Upper Stage booster an hour after it was spring-ejected from Columbia's cargo bay cradle. The first of five scheduled firings of Chandra's thrusters to refine its orbit is planned for 8:16 p.m. Central time tonight, a five-minute firing of the telescope's liquid-fuel propulsion system. That maneuver should leave Chandra in an orbit of about 774 statute miles by 44,600 miles. Four additional maneuvers are expected over the next two weeks.

Collins and Ashby fired Columbia's large orbital maneuvering system engines and primary reaction control system jets on several occasions to provide data for researchers in a pair of experiments designed to characterize jet thruster plumes in the space environment.

They also conducted a successful test of a procedure called the "flycast" maneuver in a rehearsal for the STS-99 mission in September, in which a 200-foot mast will be deployed from the cargo bay of the shuttle Endeavour equipped with a sophisticated radar system to study Earth's topographical features. The maneuver uses multiple thruster firings and the shuttle's autopilot system to maintain stability. The procedure will be crucial for the September mission to minimize disturbances to the radar mast.

Coleman also conducted several tests of High Definition Television equipment carried on board Columbia. HDTV gear is being tested for future use on both the shuttle and the International Space Station to conform to evolving broadcasting industry standards for television products.

The astronauts are scheduled to begin an eight-hour sleep period at 9:31 a.m. Central time this morning and will be awakened at 5:31 this afternoon to begin their third day in space.

Columbia is currently orbiting at an altitude of 177 statute miles.

Hawley collected additional data for investigators from the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System (SWUIS), which he trained on the moon and Venus. Tognini and Coleman, meanwhile, monitored the operation of bioprocessing hardware collecting data from a number of biological and biomedical experiments. Tognini and Coleman reported that a series of hinges constructed from new lightweight materials unfurled successfully in a demonstration of technology expected to be applied to the development of solar panels for future spacecraft.

Last night, at 8:16 p.m., controllers at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Operations Control Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported a successful firing of the telescope's liquid-fuel thrusters, the first of five such firings which will ultimately place Chandra in its proper scientific orbit. News of the successful maneuver was relayed to the astronauts by flight controllers in Mission Control. All of Chandra's systems are functioning normally.

Midway through the astronauts' workday, Tognini and Collins took time out to talk with the three cosmonauts aboard the Russian Space Station Mir in a ham radio hookup. Travelling some 7,700 miles apart, French astronaut Tognini offered greetings to his fellow countryman, Jean-Pierre Haignere, a European Space Agency astronaut who is in the homestretch of a six-month scientific research mission aboard Mir. Haignere, Commander Viktor Afanasayev and Flight Engineer Sergei Avdeyev are scheduled to land in their Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan on August 28.

Collins reported to flight controllers late last night that a circuit breaker associated with an electrical bus on the Shuttle had popped open during a transient short seconds after launch. Although Columbia's climb to orbit was unaffected by the short circuit, the breakers will be analyzed postflight to determine the exact cause of the problem.

Collins and Ashby also continued to provide investigators with data for a pair of experiments involving the study of exhaust vapors from the engines of space vehicles by firing reaction control system and orbital maneuvering system engines several times as Columbia passed over worldwide tracking network stations.

The astronauts will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 8:31 a.m. Central time this morning and will be awakened at 4:31 this afternoon to begin their fourth day in space. Columbia is flying smoothly, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 182 statute miles.

The day started off with a wake-up call sent up in honor of Pilot Jeff Ashby. It was a song called "Some Day Soon," written by Judy Collins and performed by Suzy Boguss.

The first job for Ashby and Mission Specialists Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini was to set up an exercise treadmill and the Treadmill Vibration Information System (TVIS) which will measure vibrations and changes in microgravity levels caused by on-orbit workouts. These workouts are needed to maintain astronauts' cardiovascular fitness and muscle tone, which can suffer in the absence of gravity. Each crewmember was scheduled to take a turn on the treadmill before it is put away at the end of the day.

Astronomer Hawley once again is scheduled to make observations of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon with the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System (SWUIS) as Commander Eileen Collins and Ashby put the shuttle in the proper orientation for his observations.

Tognini and Mission Specialist Cady Coleman will check on the bioprocessing experiments, and harvest mouse-ear cress plants as part of the Plant Growth Investigations in Microgravity experiment. These genetically engineered plants are expected to yield clues to the sensitive mechanisms the plants use to monitor their environment and help scientists develop plants that respond better to the stresses of space flight.

Collins and Ashby will fire the shuttle's engines so that the sophisticated sensors of the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite will be able to collect ultraviolet, infrared and visible light data on the firing. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in 1996. The commander and pilot also will practice landings on a laptop computer, simulation software and joystick combination called the Portable In-Flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT).

Meanwhile, Mission Operations' Wayne Hale reported that engineers on the ground continue to evaluate the short in one of the shuttle's electrical systems, which occurred shortly after launch as well as the slightly reduced performance of the main engines. Neither problem poses any risk to the remainder of the mission, Hale said.

Hale said the crew's discovery that a circuit breaker had popped during the climb to orbit provides reassurance that the problem has been isolated and will not affect any of the shuttle's other electrical systems used for reentry and landing. He also said that the right engine's reduced performance may have been due to a small hydrogen leak in tubes that help cool the nozzle. While it won't be confirmed until the shuttle returns to Earth, Hale said the evidence pointing to the leak includes a slightly higher than normal temperature in that engine, and launch photos showing a white streak that could be escaping hydrogen.

At this point, Columbia is flying smoothly, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 182 statute miles.

Commander Eileen Collins and Pilot Jeff Ashby checked out the shuttle's cockpit instruments, displays and flight control systems this evening as part of the preparations for landing. They also test-fired Columbia's 38 small steering jets, finding everything in good shape and ready for the trip back to Earth.

Also today, Collins and Ashby were joined by the rest of the crew -- Mission Specialists Steve Hawley, Cady Coleman and Michel Tognini -- for a press conference, fielding questions from reporters in Houston, Florida and Massachusetts.

All activities are focused on a landing at KSC tomorrow, the shuttle's primary landing site, and flight controllers do not plan to consider any landing opportunities at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on Tuesday. Two opportunities are available for a landing in Florida tomorrow, beginning on Columbia's 79th orbit of Earth with an engine firing at 9:19 p.m. CDT leading to a touchdown at 10:20 p.m. If Columbia lands on the first opportunity, its course toward Florida will take it above much of south central Texas and southern Louisiana and the shuttle may be easily visible to observers on the ground in those areas.

The second opportunity is on the next orbit of Earth, starting with an engine firing at 10:54 p.m. leading to touchdown at 11:55 p.m. Columbia's course toward Florida on the second opportunity would take it above southern Texas and the Louisiana coast as it closes in on the Florida peninsula. The crew is scheduled to go to sleep at 6:31 a.m. CDT and awaken at 2:31 p.m. Tuesday.

Columbia is orbiting at an altitude of 182 statute miles with all of its systems in excellent condition.

Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini completed work with the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, a telescopic instrument mounted on the side hatch window in the middeck which has collected ultraviolet data on the moon, Jupiter and Venus. Additional work was conducted with several experiments studying the reaction of biological samples and plant growth to the absence of gravity.

Collins and Ashby fired Columbia's orbital maneuvering system engines and its reaction control system jets several times to provide more data for a pair of experiments examining how engine exhaust disturbs the molecules in the ionosphere in low Earth orbit.

Ashby, Hawley and Tognini took turns on a special treadmill set up in the middeck which was equipped with accelerometers and sensors to measure how well the device can offset vibrations induced by crew exercise. Engineering data from the treadmill may be used by technicians in the development of exercise equipment for the International Space Station designed to minimize disturbances to delicate microgravity experiments.

Tognini and Collins took time out to field questions from French Space Agency officials and students in Toulouse, France near the end of the crew's work day and Collins was joined by Ashby to discuss the progress of the mission with U.S. television networks and local television affiliates in upstate New York.

With all of Columbia's systems functioning in excellent shape, NASA managers will be discussing landing opportunities and weather forecasts for Florida in advance of the astronauts' final full day in orbit.

Current forecasts call for mostly clear skies and a possibility of thundershowers near the 3-mile long landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center for Columbia's planned touchdown tomorrow night at 10:20 p.m. Central time. A backup landing opportunity is available at the Florida spaceport 90 minutes later.

The five crew members will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 7:31 a.m. Central time this morning and will be awakened at 3:31 p.m. to begin their fifth day in space. Collins and Ashby will check out Columbia's flight control surfaces and fire the ship's reaction control system jets tonight in the routine pre-landing checkouts conducted the day before every shuttle landing, insuring that the orbiter is in good shape to support the vehicle's high-speed return to Earth.

Columbia is orbiting at an altitude of 182 statute miles with all of its systems in excellent condition.

With the Chandra X-Ray Observatory undergoing what so far has been a flawless checkout on orbit for future scientific investigations, Commander Eileen Collins and Pilot Jeff Ashby successfully exercised Columbia's aerosurfaces and fired all of its steering jets late Monday night, confirming that the Shuttle is ready to support its high speed return to Earth.

With all systems operating in good fashion, Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini stowed all of their hardware and deactivated secondary experiments in preparation for tonight's landing opportunities at the Florida spaceport.

The astronauts have two chances to land tonight, the first calling for a firing of the orbital maneuvering system engines in a braking maneuver at 9:19 p.m. Central time tonight. That will slow Columbia down by 250 feet per second, allowing it to drop out of orbit for its hour-long entry back to Earth. If all goes as planned, landing will occur on Runway 3-3 at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:20 p.m. Central Daylight time, after Collins executes an overhead right hand turn to align Columbia with the southeast to northwest approach to the 3-mile long landing strip. This will be the 12th night landing in Shuttle program history.

If weather somehow prevents a landing on the first opportunity, a backup opportunity exists 90 minutes later. The alternate landing site at California's Edwards Air Force Base will not be called up for landing support tonight.

Additional opportunities for landing will be available on Wednesday at both landing sites if weather prevents Columbia from coming home tonight. The forecast, however, looks very favorable, with only a few clouds predicted near the Shuttle Landing Facility and a slight chance of a thundershower offshore at the time of touchdown.

The astronauts began an eight-hour sleep period at 6:31 a.m. Central time this morning and will be awakened at 2:31 this afternoon to begin deorbit preparations.

The first major task will be the closing of Columbia's cargo bay doors at about 6:40 this evening, followed by the astronauts climbing into their launch and entry suits shortly before 8 p.m. Entry Flight Director John Shannon and his team of flight controllers will receive updated weather forecasts throughout the late afternoon and evening before a "go-no go" decision for the deorbit burn is issued around 9 p.m.

Assuming clear weather, the orbiter should be visible as it streaks across the night sky over Texas, Lousiana, and then Florida. In Houston, Columbia should appear in the northern sky at about 10:05 p.m. CDT before the 10:20 landing.

If Columbia lands this evening, the astronauts are due back at Ellington Field in Houston around mid-morning on Wednesday. An exact time for crew arrival will be firmed up after landing.

Columbia is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 179 statute miles with all systems operating normally.

Commander Eileen Collins flew Columbia to a textbook touchdown at 10:20 p.m. Central time on Runway 3-3 at the Cape's Shuttle's Landing Facility, swooping out of darkness to complete a mission spanning almost 1.8 million miles. Pilot Jeff Ashby, Flight Engineer Steve Hawley and Mission Specialist Cady Coleman joined Collins on the flight deck for entry and landing. Mission Specialist Michel Tognini of the French Space Agency was seated alone down in the middeck. It was the 19th consecutive Shuttle landing at the Florida spaceport and the 12th night landing in Shuttle program history.

A few minutes earlier, Columbia provided a light show for residents in Houston as it sped overhead about 15 minutes before landing, visible in the nighttime skies as an orange streak headed for Florida. Columbia was at an altitude of about 200,000 feet at the time, travelling about 15 times the speed of sound.

Left behind in orbit is the Chandra Observatory, which was released from Columbia's cargo bay last Friday morning. Telescope controllers at the Chandra Operations Control Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts say the Observatory is in excellent shape in the first week of its checkout for scientific operations.

The astronauts will be reunited with their families overnight Wednesday before holding a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center to discuss their flight. That news conference is scheduled at about 4:30 a.m. Central time and will be broadcast on NASA Television just prior to the astronauts' departure from KSC.

The crew plans to return to Ellington Field near the Johnson Space Center Wednesday morning at about 10:15 a.m. Central time, where the five astronauts are expected to be greeted by Vice-President Gore, JSC Director George W. S. Abbey and center employees. The crew return, which will occur at Hangar 276 at Ellington, will be broadcast live on NASA TV. It is open to the public.

The first major task will be the closing of Columbia's cargo bay doors at about 6:40 this evening, followed by the astronauts climbing into their launch and entry suits shortly before 8 p.m. The entry flight control team led by Flight Director John Shannon will receive updated weather forecasts throughout the late afternoon and evening before a "go-no go" decision for the deorbit burn is issued around 9 p.m.

There are two opportunities to land Tuesday night. The first begins with a deorbit burn on orbit 79 at 9:19 p.m. with a landing at 10:20 p.m. at Kennedy Space Center Florida. Columbia's orbital maneuvering engines will fire, slowing the 100-ton spacecraft by 250 feet per second, enough to drop it into the atmosphere halfway around the world. Columbia's unpowered glide through the atmosphere will heat a plasma layer around the heat-protecting tiles and creating a brilliant streak across the night sky for many ground observers. The Orbiter will cross Baja California and northwest Mexico, bisect Texas from west to east and pass over southern Louisiana on its way to Florida. Weather permitting, ground observers will be able to see the entry path about 100 miles on each side of the track. Columbia will cross Texas between 10 and 10:05 p.m. and a few minutes later will overfly Louisiana. Present plans call for a right turn to line up with runway 33, a southeast to northwest landing.

The second opportunity is one orbit later with an engine firing at 10:54 p.m. CDT and a landing at KSC at 11:55 p.m. The groundtrack is similar to the previous orbit's entry path.

Edwards Air Force Base will not be called up for support Tuesday night because of the good chances for landing at KSC.

Flight controllers will be keeping an eye on the weather in Florida. The primary threat to ending Columbia's mission at the Shuttle Landing Facility there is the possibility of thunderstorms within 30 miles, most likely to the west. Winds and cloud cover were not a concern leading up to the engine firing.

If Columbia lands at Kennedy Space Center it will be the 12th night landing in the Shuttle program's history. Five of those have been at Edwards Air Force Base in California and the rest have been at KSC. There have been 18 consecutive landings at KSC and 25 of the last 26 have been there. The last Edwards landing was in March 1996 with the STS-76 mission.

Additional opportunities for landing will be available on Wednesday at both landing sites if weather prevents Columbia from coming home tonight.

If Columbia lands this evening, the astronauts are due back at Ellington Field in Houston around mid-morning on Wednesday. An exact time for crew arrival will be firmed up after landing.

Columbia is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of 179 statute miles with all systems operating normally.

Minor issues being worked by the crew and flight control teams in Houston and Moscow are not impacting the operation and health of the complex, but are occupying time of engineers in preparing troubleshooting procedures for items on board.

The activation of the station's Ku-Band antenna is on standby until procedures are put in place for a possible software patch to account for an apparent pointing error with the dish-shaped antenna. The Ku Band system is used to transmit television, voice and high-speed data to the ground. Normal communication is being managed through the S-Band audio system. Any required TV images, in the meantime, can be accommodated through the use of the laptop computer-based digital video system. Until that problem is corrected, transmission of experiment data from the Human Research Facility experiment rack in the Destiny laboratory is on hold.

A Destiny condensate venting system is not working and while troubleshooting continues, the thermal loop temperatures have been increased so that no water currently is being condensed. As a point of verification, a contingency water container has proven to be useful in serving as a storage location for condensate, if required.

In and around maintenance tasks and routine housekeeping chores, the crew has been busy setting up additional equipment and conducting status checks on some of the payloads. A new bicycle exercise machine called CEVIS (for Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation System) was setup this week, while engineers assess the work needed to repair the station's treadmill, which is showing wear in many of the slats that provide support to the unit designed to allow exercise with little or no vibration that could impact sensitive experiment work.

The Progress supply craft docked to the Zvezda module delivered 89 kilograms of oxidizer to the service module's storage tanks via remote commanding from the ground. The Progress will be undocked from the station in mid-April in preparation for the arrival of the next shuttle flight carrying the station's Canadian-built robot arm and another Italian Space Agency supplied logistics module called Raffaello.

The Progress undocking provides an open port for the relocation of the Soyuz capsule around April 16-18 which will provide clearance for the placement of Raffaello during the shuttle mission, which launches April 19.

Later this week the Expedition Two crew is scheduled to perform some maintenance work in an attempt to get the carbon-dioxide removal assembly in Destiny working. The plan calls for a test of a cable to ensure it is working before changing the pump with a spare brought up on the most recent shuttle flight. As of now, with only three people onboard, carbon dioxide removal from the cabin air is adequately conducted by Zvezda's Vozdukh system.

The crew plans to take part in its first interview opportunity on Friday with reporters from CBS and the Associated Press at 10 a.m. CST Friday. The interview will be broadcast on NASA TV, but will be audio only.

Meanwhile down at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the crew of shuttle mission STS-100 is conducting its traditional countdown dress rehearsal in preparation for launch to the ISS April 19. The international crew consists of Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeff Ashby, Flight Engineer John Phillips, Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, European astronaut Umberto Guidoni and Russian Aviation and Space Agency cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.

The International Space Station continues to orbit the Earth in good shape at an altitude of 238 statute miles (384 km).

• Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System, External Airlock, 3 EMU spacesuits - 2160 kg including 360 kg for the 3 suits
• Bay 3 Starboard: Adapter Beam with DCSU switching unit - 180kg
• Bay 5: Spacelab Pallet with Canadarm-2 SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System, 1800 kg mass), LDA, and 56 kg UHF antenna - 3256 kg
• Bay 6 Port: Adapter Beam with IMAX Camera - 238 kg
• Bay 8-12: Rafaello Module (MPLM-2) with MPLM racks and 3400 kg cargo - 7500 kg
• Sill: Canadarm RMS 303 - 410 kg

On 23 April the SSRMS station manipulator was unberthed from the SLP Spacelab pallet at 1114 GMT and latched on to the PDGF fixture on the Destiny ISS module at 1416 GMT. This was followed at 1458 GMT with the MPLM-2 Raffaello module being moved from Endeavour's payload bay by the Shuttle's RMS and berthed to the nadir port on the ISS Unity module at 1600 GMT. Over the next few days, the cargo racks on the MPLM were transferred to Destiny. Raffaello was then unberthed from Unity at 2003 GMT on April 27 and reberthed in the rear of Endeavour's bay for return to earth at 2059 GMT.

Undocking of Endeavour was delayed by a series of computer problems at the Station. Failures in the Station's command and control computers left only one of the three computers operating.

They were all restarted by April 29, and the Shuttle RMS grappled the Spacelab pallet at 2044 GMT . The station's Canadarm-2 released it at 2106 GMT, and the RMS berthed the pallet back in the Shuttle cargo bay. Endeavour undocked from the Station at 1734 GMT on April 29. The weather in Florida was bad at the planned May 1 landing time, so Endeavour landed in California. The deorbit burn was at 1502 GMT on May 1, with landing at 1610:42 GMT on runway 22 at Edwards. Endeavour returned to the Kennedy Space Center atop a Boeing 747 SCA aircraft on May 9.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Endeavour is scheduled to dock with the station at 8:36 Saturday morning to deliver the Canadian built high tech robotic arm, called Canadarm2 and the Raffaello Multipurpose Logistics Module supplied to the program by the Italian Space Agency. Raffaello contains equipment and supplies for the station and its crew of Commander Yury Usachev, and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms. It also brings two new experiment racks for the station's U.S. laboratory Destiny.

The Endeavour crew, Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, John Phillips, Scott Parazynski, Umberto Guidoni of the European Space Agency and Yuri Lonchakov of Rosaviakosmos were awakened at 2:41 a.m. Friday by "Then the Morning Comes" by the musical group Smashmouth. It was chosen for Phillips, making his first spaceflight.

Today the shuttle crew will checkout three spacesuits and the orbiter's robotic arm while rendezvous preparations include installation of the centerline camera and extension of Endeavour's Orbital Docking System ring. Another rendezvous engine burn is scheduled shortly before the crew finishes today's activities.

Space station crewmembers also will get ready for the rendezvous. Later today they will prepare equipment for transfer to the shuttle shortly after docking.

Endeavour will bring the first visitors to the Expedition Two crew since Discovery's departure last month. Shortly after Endeavour's scheduled undocking and departure from the station on April 28, a taxi crew is to arrive with a new Soyuz spacecraft. It will replace the Soyuz, which launched the first crew toward the station on Oct. 31, 2000. The Soyuz capsule has an on-orbit life of about six months.

Hadfield and Parazynski will conduct two spacewalks on Sunday and Tuesday. The first will focus on installation of the 2-ton, 57-foot-long Canadarm2. The second is devoted to checkout of the arm that will be instrumental in future space station assembly.

Major systems aboard Endeavour and the International Space Station continue to function well.

Endeavour is scheduled to dock with the station at 8:32 a.m. Saturday although the crews will not greet each other until early Monday. In preparation for tomorrow's rendezvous and docking, Hadfield and Parazynski checked out the tools and hardware that will be used during Endeavour's approach to the station, and Commander Kent Rominger and Pilot Jeff Ashby installed a center-line camera in the orbiter docking system.

Rominger, Ashby and Flight Engineer John Phillips performed another in a series of engine firings to refine Endeavour's approach to the Station. As of 5 p.m., Endeavour was approximately 1,400 miles behind and below the station, and closing that distance at the rate of about 171 miles every orbit of the Earth. Hadfield and Parazynski also verified the operation of the spacesuits they will wear on two scheduled space walks to install and activate the new Canadarm2 robotic arm.

European Space Agency astronaut Umberto Guidoni began preparations for the transfer of hardware and material from Endeavour to the station and worked with Ashby in checking out the shuttle's robotic arm to verify its operation. Yuri Lonchakov of Rosaviakosmos worked on the middeck and filled two large water containers for later transfer to the station.

Endeavour's astronauts will go to sleep at 5:41 p.m. today, awakening at 1:41 a.m. Saturday. They will quickly begin the final stages of their chase of the International Space Station. The final intercept burn is scheduled for 6:13 a.m., with docking at 8:32 a.m., as the two spacecraft fly overhead the Southeast coast of China, northeast of Victoria, Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, on the space station, Expedition 2 Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss continued packing return items and making sure their orbiting home is ready for the crew's first visitors. Flight controllers report that the Russian segment's carbon dioxide removal system is not working at its highest rate, probably due to a clogged filter screen. The situation poses no problems for the upcoming shuttle visit, but could lead to increased use of backup lithium hydroxide removal systems after the shuttle undocks and additional crew members arrive on a Soyuz taxi flight. The station crew may be asked do some repairs on the unit on Saturday.

Otherwise, all major systems aboard Endeavour and the International Space Station continue to function well.

Before the undocking a week later, two space walks will have been conducted and Raffaello, the second Multipurpose Logistics Module provided by the Italian Space Agency, will have been unloaded and reloaded after berthing to the station. The pressurized cargo carrier - an orbital moving van - is bringing food, equipment and other supplies, as well as two scientific experiment racks for the U.S. laboratory Destiny.

Endeavour will approach the station from behind and below. Commander Kent Rominger and Pilot Jeff Ashby, assisted by the rest of the crew, will fly the shuttle to a point about 600 feet directly below the station. With the cargo bay pointed toward the station, they will fly a quarter circle to a point about 300 feet ahead of the station. From there they will begin a slow approach to the docking port at the forward end of Destiny. Stationkeeping will begin at a distance of about 30 feet to ensure a good alignment with the station's docking target before Rominger resumes the approach at a speed of about one foot every 10 seconds until docking.

Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" awakened Endeavour's crew - Rominger, Ashby and Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield, John Phillips, Scott Parazynski, Umberto Guidoni and Yuri Lonchakov - early this morning. The song from the Top Gun soundtrack was played for Rominger.

The space station's crew was awakened shortly after 2 a.m. to make final preparations for the shuttle's arrival. The Expedition Two crew of Russian Commander Yury Usachev and astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms has been aboard the station for more than a month since assuming duty from the Expedition One crew on March 18.

Though joined together, the two crews will not meet face-to-face until early Monday, after the first space walk by Hadfield and Parazynski. Endeavour's cabin pressure was lowered to 10.2 pounds per square inch Friday afternoon in preparation for that space walk, while the atmosphere inside the station remains a normal 14.7 psi.

The first space walk, scheduled to begin about 6:20 a.m. Sunday, will focus on installation of the station's robotic arm, called Canadarm2. The space walkers also will install a UHF antenna on the station's exterior. Their second space walk Tuesday, features routing power and checking out the stations arm, which at 57.7 feet long, is longer, more flexible and more powerful than the robotic arm used by the shuttle fleet. If necessary, a third space walk could take place Thursday.

All systems are in good shape aboard both vehicles.

Rominger, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists John Phillips, Chris Hadfield, Umberto Guidoni, Scott Parazynski and Yuri Lonchakov, briefly opened a hatch leading from the Shuttle into Pressurized Mating Adapter-2, and retrieved a battery-powered drill for use on Sunday's space walk. They also left behind some supplies that were later retrieved by the station crew. From the station side of the hatch leading to PMA-2, flight engineer Jim Voss used a video camera to film the smiling Shuttle crew members as they transferred four water containers, computer equipment, some fresh food and film for the IMAX camera.

Though securely linked together, the two crews are not scheduled to greet one another in person until early Monday, following the first space walk to be conducted Sunday by Hadfield and Parazynski. Late in their day, Hadfield and Parazynski were joined by space walk coordinator Phillips in conducting some final checks of the suits and hardware that will be used during tomorrow's planned 6 ½ hour space walk. The full crews on both vehicles then reviewed the procedures to be followed throughout Hadfield and Parazynski's space walk.

This first space walk, scheduled to begin about 6:20 a.m., will focus on installing the station's robotic arm, called Canadarm2, and attaching an ultrahigh frequency (UHF) antenna on the station's exterior. A second space walk is scheduled for Tuesday, and will focus on establishing power connections and checking out the new 57.7 foot-long robotic arm.

Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineer Susan Helms verified the performance of the station's carbon dioxide removal system, called Vozdukh, which had been operating in a slightly degraded condition. The system started working normally overnight on its own, and their checkout confirmed that it is operating within normal parameters. Usachev, Helms and Voss also exercised and continued preparations for the next week of joint operations with the Shuttle crew.

All systems are in good shape aboard both vehicles. The Station crew will go to sleep at 5:31 p.m. today, followed 10 minutes later by the crew of Endeavour. Mission Control will awaken the shuttle crew at 1:41 a.m. Sunday and the station crew will hear its wake-up alarm tone at 2:01 a.m.

Mission Control Houston recognized the importance of today's activities sending up a congratulatory message from Canadian Astronaut Steve MacLean and playing the Canadian anthem, "Oh Canada" before the two space walkers - Scott Parazynski and Chris Hadfield - floated back into Endeavour. Hadfield became the first Canadian to conduct a spacewalk today as he worked to install the Canadian built and provided Canadarm2 robotic arm.

"It really just opens the door to what all of us can be doing here internationally, beginning to explore space as a planet," said Hadfield.

Parazynski and Hadfield spent 7 hours and 10 minutes working outside the station, installing first an Ultrahigh Frequency (UHF) antenna before turning their attention to the station's new robotic arm. They floated out of Endeavour's airlock at 6:45 a.m. central time and about two hours later had installed and deployed the UHF antenna on the Destiny module of the station.

With that complete, the two astronauts turned their attention to installing the new station robotic arm. The main boom was deployed at 10 a.m. central, and a few minutes later, at 10:10 a.m. Hadfield and Parazynski began unfolding the arm as Endeavour and the station flew 238 miles over the Atlantic Ocean.

With the new arm secured in its pallet attached to the exterior of the Destiny laboratory, Hadfield and Parazynski connected cables to give the arm power and allow it to accept computer commands from inside the lab. After unfolding the arm, they used a pistol grip tool to properly secure a series of expandable fasteners that keep the booms rigidized in position. The two space walkers experienced some difficulty ensuring an appropriate torque level had been placed on the fasteners. By taking the pistol grip tool from automatic to manual mode, Hadfield and Parazynski securely tightened the bolts in place, completing their activities for the day and beginning to clean up the payload bay before returning to Endeavour.

Today's spacewalk, which concluded at 1:55 p.m., was the 19th conducted to assemble the International Space Station. A second spacewalk scheduled for Tuesday will focus on establishing permanent power connections between the arm and station and performing a thorough checkout.

At 1:53 p.m., Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss, on board the station, commanded the first motion of the new station robotic arm as they flew 242 miles over the Indian Ocean crossing the eastern coast of Africa. All indications are that the arm operated perfectly in this initial commanding.

Tomorrow, just before 5:30 a.m., Helms and Voss will "walk" the arm off the pallet and attach it to a grapple fixture on the Destiny module. On Wednesday morning, they will use the station arm to hand the pallet to the shuttle arm. In a procedure that will take about 3 ½ hours from start-to-finish, the pallet will be transferred from one arm to the other and berthed back in Endeavour's payload bay for return to Earth

Endeavour's 50 foot-long robotic arm will be pressed into service once again Monday morning as Pilot Jeff Ashby grapples the Italian Space Agency-provided "Raffaello" logistics module and docks it to the Unity module. Early Tuesday morning, the Expedition Two crew - Voss, Helms and Commander Yury Usachev - will enter Raffaello and begin transferring the supplies, equipment and experiment racks loaded inside.

After a busy day on orbit for both crews, the station crew will go to sleep at 5:31 p.m., followed 10 minutes later by Endeavour's crew. Mission Control will wake up Commander Kent Rominger, Ashby, Mission Specialists John Phillips, Yuri Lonchakov, Umberto Guidoni, Hadfield and Parazynski at 1:41 a.m. Monday. The station crew is scheduled to wake up at 2:01 a.m.

Shortly after crew wakeup, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield and Scott Parazynski began suiting up for the six and a half hour space walk that marks the 19th devoted to the assembly of the ISS and the 63rd in the history of the shuttle program. Hadfield will be wearing a spacesuit with red stripes around the legs, while Parazynski's suit will have no markings. John Phillips will serve as the in-cabin quarterback for the space walk as Pilot Jeff Ashby and European Space Agency astronaut Umberto Guidoni operate the shuttle's robotic arm to install the new arm on the outside of the Destiny laboratory.

Hadfield and Parazynski will connect cables to give the arm power and allow it to accept computer commands from the lab. They will unbolt the arm from the pallet, then unfold its two booms and tighten bolts to make them rigid. The space walkers also will install a UHF antenna on Destiny.

The Space station's Expedition Two crewmembers Jim Voss and Susan Helms will power up the arm from the Robotic Work Station inside Destiny, checking connections made by the space walkers.

A second space walk is scheduled for Tuesday, and will focus on establishing permanent power connections between the 57.7 foot-long arm and station and running it through a thorough checkout.

The shuttle crew was awakened earlier this morning by Canadian Stan Roger's "Take It From Day to Day" played for Hadfield in honor of the space walk - the first ever by a Canadian. The Expedition Two crew was awakened shortly after the shuttle crew.

Endeavour's cabin pressure will be increased to match that of the station during the space walk leading toward opening of the hatches between the shuttle and station Monday morning. Endeavour docked with the station at 8:59 a.m. Saturday followed soon after by entrance into the docking port on the station to retrieve some tools for use during today's space walk. The shuttle crew left behind four water containers, fresh food, computer equipment and IMAX camera film for the station crew.

The new 57-foot long Canadian-built Canadarm2 robot arm took its first step this morning, "walking off" a pallet mounted at the top of the Destiny Laboratory to grab onto an electrical grapple fixture on Destiny capable of providing data, power and telemetry to the dexterous appendage.

With Expedition Two Flight Engineer Susan Helms sending commands from a workstation inside Destiny, the arm began to move off the pallet at 6:13 a.m. Central time. Three hours later, after an extensive checkout of all of its new joints, the arm affixed itself to the Destiny grapple point where it will remain overnight in preparation for its first active grappling of a payload --- the pallet on which it was launched --- on Tuesday.

As Canadarm2 was completing its work for the day, Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski used Endeavour's slightly smaller robot arm to latch onto the Italian-built Raffaello cargo module in the Shuttle's payload bay. Raffaello was lifted out of the bay and was attached to a docking port on the Station's Unity module at 11:00 a.m., setting the stage for Expedition Commander Yury Usachev, and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Helms to begin unloading three tons of supplies beginning tomorrow. Parazynski was assisted by European Space Agency astronaut Umberto Guidoni, who will take the lead in assisting the Station crewmembers in the unloading of Raffaello and the repacking of discarded items in the module later this week.

Parazynski and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield prepared for their second spacewalk of the mission tomorrow by checking out their tools and spacesuits. They are scheduled to emerge from Endeavour's airlock around 8 a.m. Tuesday for a planned 6 ½ hour excursion to rewire the base of the newly installed Canadarm2 so it can operate from its new home on the Destiny Laboratory, to remove a communications antenna from Unity which is no longer needed and to mount a spare electrical converter unit on a stowage platform on Destiny for future Station use.

Earlier today, Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists John Phillips and Yuri Lonchakov of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency led the way as hatches swung open between Endeavour and the ISS at 4:25 a.m., allowing the ten crewmembers to greet one another for the first time. Some supplies carried to the Station aboard Endeavour were transferred throughout the day until the hatches once again were closed at 2:26 p.m. after 10 hours of joint operations. The hatch closure enabled the Shuttle's cabin pressure to be lowered to support tomorrow's spacewalk.

Near the end of the day, Rominger and Ashby supervised a one-hour firing of Endeavour's jets to gently raise the orbit of the ISS about 2 ½ statute miles, from 237.8 statute miles to 240.3 statute miles. Two more reboosts are planned on Wednesday and Thursday to leave the Station at the correct altitude for the arrival of a Russian-commanded "taxi" crew next week delivering a fresh Soyuz return vehicle to the complex.

Both crews are scheduled to end their day just after 6:30 p.m. and will be awakened early Tuesday morning. Both spacecraft are in excellent shape orbiting the Earth every 92 minutes.

Hatch opening was set for 4 a.m. following a wakeup call from Mission Control earlier this morning. Judy Collins' "Both Sides Now" for Pilot Jeff Ashby started the shuttle crews' day.

After transfer of equipment and supplies, the hatches will be closed again a little after 2 p.m. so that the Shuttle cabin pressure can once again be lowered to prepare for Tuesday's second spacewalk. That spacewalk will focus on permanently powering the station arm and doing further checkouts.

The 57.7-foot arm was installed and unfolded Sunday during a 7 hour, 10 minute spacewalk by Scott Parazynski and Chris Hadfield. They also installed a UHF antenna on the station's U.S. laboratory Destiny. It was the 19th spacewalk devoted to ISS assembly and the 63rd in the history of the shuttle program.

After additional checkouts by Helms and Voss this morning, the arm will "walk" off the Spacelab Pallet on which it was launched. Its free end will be attached to a Power and Data Grapple Fixture on Destiny, becoming the arm's base. That first step, beginning a little after 5 a.m., will cover just over 24 feet. Wednesday morning, the station arm will hand the pallet to the shuttle arm, to be berthed in Endeavour's cargo bay for return to Earth.

Endeavour's own 50-foot robotic arm, operated by Ashby, will grapple the Raffaello logistics module in the cargo bay and dock it to the Unity module. Its installation there should be complete about 10 a.m. today. Early Tuesday, the Expedition Two crew will begin transferring the food, supplies, equipment and two experiment racks for installation in Destiny from Raffaello to the station.

Both crews are scheduled to end their day about 6:30 p.m. today. Both spacecraft are in excellent shape orbiting Earth every 92 minutes at an altitude of 240 statute miles.

While robotic arm operations are underway by Expedition Two crewmembers Susan Helms and Jim Voss aboard the station, and shuttle crewmembers Chris Hadfield and Scott Parazynski, the remaining shuttle and station astronauts and cosmonauts continue the task of unpacking the Raffaello high-tech moving van. European Space Agency astronaut Umberto Guidoni is overseeing the unloading of the Italian-built logistics module.

Today's wakeup call to the crew was "Con te Partiro" ("With You I Will Go"), sung by Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli. It was played for Guidoni who is from Italy.

Working at the Robotics Work Station in the Destiny Laboratory, Helms and Voss will use the new Canadarm2 to maneuver the pallet within reach of Endeavour's robotic arm under control of Hadfield and Parazynski. In a reverse passing of the torch, the new arm will pass the pallet to its older cousin officially beginning the station arm's own career in space.

Hadfield and Parazynksi completed connections on the station's new robotic arm during the second of two planned spacewalks yesterday. The 7 hour, 40 minute Extravehicular Activity included the connection of power, data and television cables, which allow the robot arm to operate from a base on the outside of the Destiny science laboratory.

At about 2:30 today, Endeavour's Commander Kent Rominger and Pilot Jeff Ashby will boost the station's altitude another 2 ½ miles by firing thruster jets in a precise sequence for about one hour. With one reboost maneuver completed several days ago, a third and final identical firing of the reaction control system jets is planned Thursday.

Both spacecraft are in excellent shape orbiting the Earth every 92 minutes at an altitude of 243 statute miles.

The successful exchange of the pallet was the last remaining major objective of the mission to be accomplished and could pave the way for Endeavour to undock from the station Sunday morning, if computers on board can be placed in a stable configuration overnight. Mission managers had established three specific criteria to be met prior to Endeavour's undocking. The criteria were to reberth the cradle pallet in the shuttle's payload bay, complete final transfer activities and place the station's command and control (C&C) computers in a stable configuration.

With the pallet securely in Endeavour's payload bay and all final transfer items in place, the one remaining item is to ensure the computer system is in a stable configuration prior to Endeavour's departure. Overnight, flight controllers will uplink a series of commands designed to restore the two computers to full capability. C&C three is in an acceptable condition, although it is known to have a bad hard drive. Helms and crew mate Jim Voss will perform repair work on that computer at a later date.

A final decision whether to undock Endeavour - and delay the docking of the Soyuz replacement vehicle - is expected late tonight or early Sunday morning.

After spending much of this morning refining procedures to minimize inputs to the station's primary command and control computer, which developed problems accessing its hard drive, Space Station Flight Director Mark Ferring gave the Expedition Two crew a "go" to begin with arm operations at 1:27 p.m. With Helms working at the robotic work station, first motion of the station arm occurred at 3:01 p.m. Through a series of carefully choreographed commands, the station arm was maneuvered into its handoff position. Hadfield then slowly moved Endeavour's 50-foot long robot arm into position to latch onto the cradle, which was securely attached to the station arm at 3:43 p.m. At 4:02 p.m., as the two spacecraft flew over British Columbia, the pallet changed hands.

Both arms then began backing away - with the station arm now under command of Voss, according to plan. Hadfield then stowed the pallet in Endeavour's payload bay at 4:51 p.m.

Earlier in the day, Voss informed flight controllers that Endeavour crew members were helping with maintenance activities on the station's treadmill, called TVIS, installing new hardware to allow the Expedition crew to once again use it for exercise. The treadmill's walking surface had degraded and the crew had been told not to use it until repairs were made. Voss reports repairs are now about 50 per cent complete.

After enjoying a meal together, both crews were scheduled to go to sleep shortly after 7 p.m. Both crews will enjoy an extra hour of sleep, waking up just before 4 a.m.

Due to a compressed schedule tomorrow, the in-flight crew news conference, originally scheduled for 6:15 a.m. Sunday, has been canceled.

If a decision is made to undock tomorrow, the astronauts and cosmonauts will exchange final farewells about 9:30 a.m. and then begin closing the hatches between the two spacecraft. Undocking would occur at 12:34 p.m. central. Pilot Jeff Ashby would then slowly back Endeavour away to a distance of approximately 450 feet, where he will begin a three-quarter circle flyaround of the station before commanding a final separation burn signaling Endeavour's final departure from the station. With an undocking Sunday, the mission is scheduled to conclude with a landing at the Kennedy Space Center at 8:04 a.m. Central time Tuesday.

The crews are plan to close the hatches between the two spacecraft at 9:41 a.m.. Endeavour is scheduled to undock from the station at 12:34 p.m. With Pilot Jeff Ashby at the controls, the shuttle will back away to distance of about 450 feet to perform a three-quarters circle of the station which will include a special maneuver to allow filming by a payload bay-mounted IMAX camera. At 1:32 p.m., Ashby will fire Endeavour's jets to separate the vicinity of the station and put Endeavour on course for a 7:59 a.m. CDT Tuesday landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Aboard the station, all three command and control computers - one primary and two backups -- are on line and operating well. One, the primary computer, has full capabilities. Of the two backups, one is functioning but has a failed hard drive. The third is working but flight controllers are still bringing up its hard drive.

After Endeavour undocks today, the station crew will have the afternoon off duty. A Russian Aviation and Space Agency Soyuz spacecraft with a crew of three - Commander Talgat Musabaev, Flight Engineer Yuri Baturin and American businessman Dennis Tito -- is planned to dock with the station at 2:52 a.m. Monday. The Soyuz, which will replace the Soyuz now docked to the station as a space "lifeboat" for the complex, is trailing the complex by about 6,000 statute miles.

Endeavour's crew was awakened this morning by the song "Miles from Nowhere," performed by Cat Stevens and played for Ashby in anticipation of today's undocking. A crew news conference for Endeavour's crew is tentatively planned for Monday morning.

As Pilot Jeff Ashby slowly backed Endeavour away, Commander Kent Rominger and Expedition Two flight engineer Susan Helms exchanged final wishes for Endeavour's planned return to Earth, and a continued safe journey for the station crew. Once Endeavour was at a distance of 450 feet from the station, Ashby initiated a three-quarter circle flyaround of the station as Mission Specialist Yuri Lonchakov activated a large-format IMAX camera in Endeavour's payload bay to photograph the station.

At 1:28 p.m., with the flyaround complete, Ashby fired a separation burn, initiating Endeavour's final departure from the orbiting complex, now equipped with a new Canadian-built robotic arm and communications antenna, installed by Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Chris Hadfield during two space walks. During eight days of joint operations, the two crews also transferred more than three tons of supplies, equipment and scientific experiments to the station.

On board the station, the Expedition Two crew - Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Helms - will enjoy some time off this afternoon following a busy week on orbit. Early Monday morning, they will support the docking of a replacement Soyuz spacecraft that will serve as the station's "lifeboat." The Soyuz and its crew of three - Commander Talgat Musabayev, Flight Engineer Yuri Baturin and American businessman Dennis Tito -- is scheduled to dock at 2:52 a.m. Monday.

Endeavour's crew will go to sleep shortly after 4:30 p.m. today, awakening at 1:41 a.m. Monday to begin what should be their final full day on orbit. Endeavour is scheduled to return to the Kennedy Space Center, weather permitting, at 8:03 a.m. Tuesday. The primary activity for the crew on Monday will center on Endeavour's return to Earth, with Rominger, Ashby and Flight Engineer John Phillips verifying the performance of Endeavour's flight control surfaces and steering jets. Hadfield, Parazynski, Lonchakov and Umberto Guidoni will begin stowing away much of the equipment the crew has used over the past 11 days on orbit. All seven crew members are scheduled to participate in a press conference, talking with media in the U.S., Canada and Italy, at 10:01 a.m. Monday.

Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield, Scott Parazynski, Yuri Lonchakov and Umberto Guidoni stowed away much of the equipment the crew has used over the past 11 days in space. All seven crew members also were scheduled for some time off today to relax. Preliminary forecasts at the three-mile long Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida are not promising for tomorrow's opportunities, with the possibility of rain and high winds in the area. The back-up landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California has been called up to provide Entry Flight Director LeRoy Cain and his team of flight controllers with additional options in returning Endeavour to Earth. There are two opportunities for Endeavour to return to the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. The first would see a deorbit burn to slow Endeavour down and drop it out of orbit, occuring at 6:55 a.m., with landing to follow at 8:04 a.m. Central time. There is a second opportunity one orbit later with a deorbit burn at 8:31 a.m. resulting in a 9:39 a.m. landing. There are also two opportunities to land at Edwards Air Force Base tomorrow, at 11:11 a.m. and 12:47 p.m. respectively. Throughout the night, flight controllers will continue to look at weather conditions at both landing sites formulating plans to bring Endeavour home. Endeavour's crew is scheduled to be awakened at 11:41 p.m. today and will begin preparations for their possible return trip home shortly after 3 a.m. tomorrow. In the meantime, with the arrival of the three-member Soyuz taxi crew, the first activity on board the International Space Station today was an extensive safety briefing conducted by Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev. The briefing included familiarizing the crew with station systems and evacuation routes. Crew members then swapped their custom-fitted Soyuz seatliners from one vehicle to another, and transferred some cargo from Soyuz to the station, setting up a plasma crystal experiment.

The Soyuz has a lifetime on orbit of about six months. The crew of the Soyuz which docked today, commander Talgat Musabayev, Flight Engineer Yuri Baturin and American businessman Dennis Tito, will return to Earth aboard the Soyuz capsule that launched the Expedition One crew to the station last Oct. 31. That Soyuz has been at the station since it docked there Nov. 2.

When this morning's docking occurred, the shuttle Endeavour was about 78 statute miles ahead of the space station. Its seven crewmembers will spend today preparing for its return to Earth. Landing is scheduled for 8:04 a.m. CDT Tuesday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Endeavour crewmembers were awakened at 12:41 a.m. by music from the soundtrack of the movie Gladiator.

Today, shuttle Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Flight Engineer John Phillips will test Endeavour's flight control surfaces and steering jets. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, mission specialist Scott Parazynski, cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov and European Space Agency astronaut Umberto Guidoni will stow away much of the equipment the crew has used over the past 11 days in space. All seven crewmembers are also scheduled to participate in a press conference with media in the U.S., Canada and Italy at 10:01 a.m.

Endeavour accomplished all of its major mission goals during the eight days it was docked to the space station. Parazynski and Hadfield installed and helped test a new Canadian-built robotic arm on the space station during two spacewalks that lasted a total of 14 hours and 50 minutes. Hadfield made history on that first space walk by becoming the first Canadian astronaut to ever walk in space. Working with the station's Expedition Two crew, Russian Commander Yury Usachev and astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms, they transferred more than three tons of supplies, equipment and scientific experiments to the station, then repacked 1,600 pounds of equipment that was no longer needed aboard the station.

Space station flight controllers were successful overnight in reformatting the hard drive on new Command and Control (C&C) Computer One, which was originally a payload computer. Controllers then copied all the software from the prime C&C 2, to the C&C 1 hard drive. After more testing later today, the station's three C&Cs will have two hard drives that contain all the necessary software to run the station's systems.

With continuing cloud cover, rain showers and gusty winds at the Kennedy Space Center, Entry Flight Director LeRoy Cain waved off landing opportunities there and elected to return to the West Coast where weather conditions were perfect for today's landing. Today's landing was the 48th at Edwards Air Force Base in shuttle program history.

Endeavour's crew - Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski, Chris Hadfield, John Phillips, Yuri Lonchakov and Umberto Guidoni - is expected to remain overnight in California, returning to Houston Wednesday afternoon.

During 11 days on orbit, eight of which were spent in joint operations with the International Space Station crew, Endeavour's crew installed a new robotic arm called Canadarm2, and transferred more than 6,000 pounds of equipment, experiments and supplies between vehicles.

A public welcome home ceremony for the crew is slated for 4 p.m. at Hangar 990 at NASA's Ellington Field.

Two opportunities to land at Edwards are available today. For the first, the deorbit burn would occur at 10:03 a.m. central time with landing at 11:11 a.m. The second would see a deorbit burn at 11:39 a.m. and touchdown at 12:47 p.m. Forecasters said weather at Edwards is ideal. Endeavour, which was launched April 19, brought an advanced and more powerful robotic arm, Canadarm2, to the International Space Station. The shuttle also delivered to the station more than 6,000 pounds of equipment and supplies, much of it transported in the Italian-built Multipurpose Logistics Module named Raffaello. Among equipment aboard Raffaello were two new scientific experiment racks for the space station's U.S. laboratory Destiny. Endeavour's crew, Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, John Phillips, Scott Parazynski, Umberto Guidoni of the European Space Agency and Cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov, were awakened at 11:48 p.m. by "Truth," performed by Spandau Ballet. The wakeup music was for Rominger, requested by his family.

The first opportunity of the day to land Endeavour at the Florida spaceport has already been passed up and flight controllers continue to plan for a landing on the second and final opportunity at Kennedy today. But spacecraft communicators told Endeavour's crewmembers that if a second Florida waveoff occurs, they likely would land at Edwards later today. Two opportunities to land at Edwards are available today. For the first, the deorbit burn would occur at 10:03 a.m. central time with landing at 11:11 a.m. The second would see a deorbit burn at 11:39 a.m. and touchdown at 12:47 p.m. Forecasters said weather at Edwards is ideal. Endeavour, which was launched April 19, brought an advanced and more powerful robotic arm, Canadarm2, to the International Space Station. The shuttle also delivered to the station more than 6,000 pounds of equipment and supplies, much of it transported in the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module named Raffaello. Among equipment aboard Raffaello were two new scientific experiment racks for the space station's U.S. laboratory Destiny. Endeavour's crew, Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, John Phillips, Scott Parazynski, Umberto Guidoni of the European Space Agency and Cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov, were awakened at 11:48 p.m. by "Truth," performed by Spandau Ballet. The wakeup music was for Rominger, requested by his family.

The Progress 9 vehicle linked up to the aft docking port of the Zvezda Service Module of the ISS at 12:01 p.m. Central time (1701 GMT) as the two spacecraft flew over Central Asia after a four-day flight following its launch Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The automated docking went off without a hitch as Expedition 5 Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson, and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev viewed the arrival of the new capsule from inside Zvezda. A few minutes later, hooks and latches closed between the two vehicles to form an airtight seal.

Korzun was prepared to take over manual control of the Progress for the docking in the event its automated rendezvous system did not work, but the linkup was executed flawlessly.

The crew was scheduled to open hatches between Zvezda and Progress this afternoon and will begin unloading supplies from the craft on Monday.

Some of the supplies include clothing and personal items for the Expedition Six crew - Commander Ken Bowersox and Flight Engineers Nikolai Budarin and Don Pettit - who will be launched aboard Endeavour on the STS-113 mission in November to replace Korzun, Whitson and Treschev following the completion of their 5 1/2 month mission.

The older Progress 8 vehicle, which arrived at the ISS in June and which was undocked on Tuesday, remains in orbit a safe distance away from the station, spending another 10 days aloft to enable Russian flight controllers to document smog and smoke over northeastern Russia through its cameras.

The Progress docking clears the way for the launch of Atlantis on the STS-112 mission Wednesday to deliver the 14-ton Starboard 1 (S1) Truss to the station. A Wednesday launch would result in Atlantis' docking to the ISS Friday. Commander Jeff Ashby, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Sandy Magnus, Piers Sellers and Fyodor Yurchikhin are in the final stages of their prelaunch preparations.

Aboard Atlantis are Commander Jeff Ashby, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Sandy Magnus, Piers Sellers and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin. A small television camera on the shuttle's external fuel tank captured a unique view of the Earth as Atlantis headed into orbit.

Less than nine minutes after launch, Atlantis and its crewmembers settled into orbit and work began to prepare for a planned 11-day mission.

As Atlantis headed toward space, on board the ISS, Expedition 5 Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev were completing their 124th day in orbit and their 122nd day aboard the station. At the time of Atlantis' launch, the space station orbited 240 statute miles above the Pacific Ocean west of Ecuador.

Atlantis' crew is setting up equipment on board and preparing to open the shuttle's payload bay doors to begin orbital operations prior to heading to bed just before 9 p.m.

Atlantis is scheduled to dock to the station at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, setting the stage for the installation of the S1 truss on the starboard side of the S0 truss, which arrived at the ISS in April. Three spacewalks are scheduled during the mission by Wolf and Sellers to help activate the new truss' systems. The S1 truss is the fourth of 11 truss segments which will form the structural backbone for the station and provide the cooling and support for new solar arrays to be delivered to the station next year.

The shuttle crew will be awakened at 4:46 a.m. Tuesday to begin its first full day in orbit and to prepare for Wednesday's docking.

Aboard Atlantis, Commander Jeff Ashby, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Sandy Magnus, Piers Sellers and Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin were awakened at 4:46 a.m. to the song "Venus and Mars" by Paul McCartney and Wings. It was for Wolf, requested by his wife, Tammy.

The Expedition Five crew, Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Cosmonaut Sergei Treschev – in their 18th week in space – were awakened at 3 a.m. Atlantis' crew will be their first visitors since June. They are shifting their sleep schedules to prepare for the week of docked operations with Atlantis.

Today, Atlantis' crew focuses on preparations for rendezvous and docking by checking out the necessary tools. The crew also will prepare the spacesuits to be used during the three planned spacewalks by Wolf and Sellers scheduled for Thursday, Saturday and Monday. The shuttle's robotic arm also will be checked out and used to survey the payload bay, including the Starboard 1 (S1) Truss.

This afternoon the centerline camera will be mounted in the Orbiter Docking System hatch to assist Ashby as he guides the orbiter in for docking. The crew then will extend the docking ring, which makes first contact with the station.

The station crew is continuing with science operations and standard exercise activities. Whitson is working with radiation monitors for Wolf and Sellers, who will conduct the spacewalks to hook up the S1 after it is lifted from Atlantis' cargo bay and installed on the station Thursday. She will activate the monitor's badge readers and do pre-spacewalk background readings.

Atlantis' crew is scheduled to begin an eight-hour sleep period at about 6:30 p.m. today.

After arising at 4:46 a.m. CDT, the crew began its first full day on orbit with Pilot Pam Melroy assisting Mission Specialists Dave Wolf and Piers Sellers in a checkout of spacewalk suits and equipment. Commander Jeff Ashby worked with the prime robotic arm operator, Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus, to verify the arm's readiness. Ashby and Magnus powered up the arm for a video survey of Atlantis' payload bay.

In preparation for Wednesday's rendezvous and docking with the station at 10:24 a.m., the crew set up the orbiter docking system's centerline camera, extended the orbiter's spring-loaded ring that will make first contact, and checked out rendezvous tools.

The crew successfully completed three Orbital Maneuvering System burns to boost the orbiter into the station's orbit and refine its approach path to the station.

Science already is getting underway on Atlantis with Wolf leading check-out activities for the SHIMMER experiment sponsored by the Naval Research Lab. The Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals experiment uses an ultraviolet sensing camera to observe the Earth's atmosphere at 40-90 kilometers looking for possible ozone loss. The experiment proved a bit balky, but with help from Mission Control the crew worked out steps to ready the gear for observations during the mission.

Meanwhile, the space station residents readied their home for the first visitors in the123 days since their arrival at the vehicle. Peggy Whitson and crewmates Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev have been prepacking materials to return on Atlantis and to make room for about 7,500 pounds of gear arriving at the station.

Whitson has been sending letters describing her life on the International Space Station back to Earth over the last few months. Her most recent letter describes her anticipation and preparations for the shuttle visitors.

Both crews will head for sleep two hours earlier than Monday at 6:46 pm to get plenty of rest before Wednesday's busy day. Rendezvous operations begin at 5:06 a.m., with station docking scheduled for 10:24 a.m. Hatch opening between Atlantis and the station is expected at 12:36 p.m.

Shortly after the musical wakeup call to the crew at 2:46 this morning – Tina Turner's "The Best" for Commander Jeff Ashby from his wife, Paige – the shuttle crew focused its attention on the rendezvous and docking procedures that will culminate with the orbiter docking to a port on the U.S. Destiny Lab of the station.

The Terminal Initiation burn preceding the final approach is planned for 8:04 a.m. and occurs with the two spacecraft 50,000 feet apart. That is followed by a series of four small correction burns, which set the stage for Ashby's taking manual control of Atlantis' thruster jets as he looks out the overhead and rear windows of the flight deck. He will fly Atlantis to a point 600 feet below the station, then begin a quarter circle alignment of the orbiter's docking system and Destiny, which will place the shuttle about 300 feet in front of the station.

Assisting with the rendezvous using lasers and computers are the remaining shuttle crewmembers, including Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Sandy Magnus, Piers Sellers and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.

Awaiting the arrival of Atlantis are the three station crewmembers – Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev – in their 126th day in space.

Thursday will see the installation of the station's newest component – the Starboard 1 (S1) Truss – and shortly thereafter, the first of three planned spacewalks will begin by Wolf and Sellers to connect power, data and fluid lines between S1 and the station.

Crew sleep is set to begin about 6:30 this evening.

All efforts pointed toward the deployment and installation of the Starboard One (S1) Truss. Pilot Pam Melroy, Space Station Commander Valery Korzun, and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Piers Sellers, and Fyodor Yurchikhin configured the spacesuits for Thursday's spacewalk. Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus and NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson reviewed robotic arm operations for moving the new truss segment into place. Sergei Treschev, ISS Flight Engineer, participated in the safety briefing for the station visitors.

Thursday, Magnus and Whitson will use the Canadarm2 from inside Destiny to grapple the huge S1 Truss, take it out of Atlantis' payload bay and move it into position at the starboard end of the S0 Truss. After the segments are soft-mated, capture bolts will make the mating solid. With the truss firmly attached to the station, the spacewalkers will exit the station.

Tomorrow's EVA begins three days of spacewalks – Thursday, Saturday and Monday - at the station-shuttle complex. Shuttle and Mir veteran Wolf and space rookie Sellers will perform the EVAs, which are primarily focused on the installation and hookup of the S1 segment. In Thursday's six-hour spacewalk, Wolf and Sellers will connect power, data and fluid umbilicals between the segments; install a camera and antenna assembly; and release a number of launch restraints. Wolf will ride on the end of the robotic arm for most of the excursion, while Sellers will be a "free floater" moving around the truss structure.

Tonight the crew is scheduled to begin its sleep period at 6:46 p.m. with the wake-up call to sound at 3:16 a.m. Thursday.

Expedition Five's Peggy Whitson and Atlantis' Sandy Magnus used the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to grapple the 45-foot-long, 14-ton S1 structure, remove it from Atlantis' cargo bay and move it to the starboard end of S0. Motorized bolts locked the two truss segments together at 8:36 a.m. CDT.

Wolf and Sellers ventured outside the station's Quest airlock at 10:21 a.m. Their first task was to connect power, data and fluid lines between the S0 and the S1 trusses. As Wolf worked to accomplish this task, Sellers, on his first spacewalk, released the locks on three folded-up radiators mounted to the S1, allowing S1's radiators to be oriented for optimal cooling

Wolf and Sellers then worked together to install a new S-band antenna assembly. Wolf, attached to the end of the station robotic arm, moved the antenna into position. He then tightened stanchion bolts to lock the antenna into place near the end of the S1 Truss where it connects to the S0 as Sellers held it in place. The new component will increase the S-band data and voice communications capability from the space station to ground controllers.

The duo then went to work releasing restraints that had held the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) cart to the S1 for launch and configure its brakes. The CETA cart, a handcar that rides along rails on the station's truss, can be used to move spacewalkers and equipment.

Installation of the S1's outboard nadir external camera was the final major task of the spacewalk. The camera, launched on Atlantis' middeck, is the first of two that will be installed on S1. They will be used as situational awareness tools for spacewalkers and robotic arm operators.

Throughout the spacewalk, Pilot Pam Melroy was inside, offering guidance and advice to the spacewalkers and keeping them on schedule. She had help with arm operations and spacewalk guidance from controllers in the International Space Station Flight Control Room because the spacewalk originated out of the station's Quest airlock. Shuttle Commander Jeff Ashby operated the shuttle robotic arm, providing camera views for documentation.

Following an inventory of the tools they used during the spacewalk and cleanup activities, Wolf and Sellers re-entered Quest. Airlock repressurization began at 5:22 p.m., signaling the end of the spacewalk.

Expedition Five's Peggy Whitson and Atlantis' Sandy Magnus will use the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to install the 45-foot long, 15-ton structure beginning about 5:30 this morning. Simultaneously, Astronauts Dave Wolf and Piers Sellers will prepare for the first of three spacewalks to attach plumbing, data and electrical lines to bring S1 to life. They plan to exit the Quest Airlock at about 9:40 a.m. and can easily be identified while outside. Wolf will wear a suit with solid red stripes, while Sellers will wear an all white spacesuit.

Throughout the spacewalk, Pilot Pam Melroy will be inside offering guidance and advice to the spacewalkers and keeping them on schedule. Shuttle Commander Jeff Ashby will operate the shuttle robotic arm providing camera views for documentation.

Following grapple of the S1, Magnus and Whitson will move it into position at the starboard end of the first truss segment where it will be secured in place by four remotely operated bolts. That first segment was delivered on a shuttle flight earlier this year.

In addition to hooking up power, data and fluid lines, Wolf and Sellers will release locks on a beam allowing S1's radiators to be oriented for optimal cooling. They also will deploy an antenna and release restraints on a handcar, which can be used to move spacewalkers and equipment along the truss. The next spacewalk, or Extravehicular Activity (EVA) is planned for Saturday to continue hooking S1 connections to the station.

S1 is the third of what will be 11 segments of the Integrated Truss delivered to the station. The truss eventually will stretch 356 feet from end to end and will support four huge solar wing assemblies, one pair of which is already atop the station's P6 Truss. The truss also will support cooling radiators and the first railroad in space, capable of carrying the robotic arm to assembly and maintenance sites around the station.

The workday began at 3 a.m. with a musical wakeup call to Atlantis' crew from Mission Control, Houston. The "medley of childhood songs" was played for Magnus from her family. The Expedition Five crew, Commander Valery Korzun, Whitson and Cosmonaut Sergei Treschev, woke aboard the station at the same time.

The crew is scheduled to go to bed about 8 o'clock this evening.

The crew moved a number of scientific experiments back and forth between the vehicles to return completed experiments to Earth and deploy new experiments at the station. Transfer items included a set of liver cell tissue samples from an experiment studying the function of human liver cells in microgravity, moved from the station onto the shuttle for return to Earth. Payload experiments such as Marshall Space Flight Center's protein crystal growth thermal enclosures for growing high-quality protein crystals in micro-gravity experiments were moved to and from the station. Seven water containers were transferred to the station.

Commander Jeff Ashby initiated a nitrogen transfer process that moved about 15 pounds of the gas from the shuttle to the station by the end of Friday. About another 35 pounds will be transferred through Flight Day 8.

STS-112 spacewalkers Dave Wolf and Piers Sellers, assisted by Pilot Pam Melroy, readied the EVA equipment for Saturday's excursion outside the station-shuttle complex. They recharged water on the extravehicular mobility unit, configured their tools and prepared the airlock.

Since it wasn't an EVA day, there was time for the crew to relate their experiences to several media organizations during live interviews. STS-112 Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus, Wolf and Sellers discussed Thursday's EVA and first-time experiences in space with CBS Radio Network and Cable News Network (CNN). Russian Commander Valery Korzun, Expedition Five Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev and STS-112 Mission Specialist Fyodor Yurchikhin participated in several interviews with the Russian press.

This evening, shortly before sleep, the crew reviewed procedures for tomorrow's spacewalk. Saturday the spacewalkers reverse positions for most of the EVA, with Sellers riding the arm and Wolf free-floating while tethered to the station. They'll attach umbilicals, install a second camera - this time on the U.S. laboratory Destiny, install spool positioning devices to quick disconnect fittings on ammonia lines and release radiator beam launch locks.

Completing the day, the crew had a joint meal in the Service Module. Wake up time Saturday is 4:16 a.m.

The spacewalk began at 9:31 a.m. CDT and ended about a half-hour early at about 3:35 p.m. CDT for an official duration of six hours, four minutes. About six and a half hours had originally been allotted for the spacewalk, the second of three ventures outside the station planned for Wolf and Sellers during STS-112 to set up the new station S1 (S-One) truss segment delivered by Atlantis.

The duo prepared a new handcar system for future use on the station's truss-mounted railway. Called the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid, the car will allow astronauts to propel themselves, maintenance and construction equipment hand-over-hand along what eventually will be a 100-yard railway atop the station's truss. The spacewalkers also installed 22 Spool Positioning Devices (SPDs) on station ammonia cooling line connections, devices that will prevent a possible condition that could lock up those connections, preventing them from being opened if needed.

Two more such devices were to be installed during the spacewalk, bringing the total to 24, but they were not attached. Due to a different configuration than anticipated on the two line connections in question, the additional two SPDs would not have fit properly. However, space station engineers and managers have determined those two connections are in a satisfactory condition and will not require any further work.

Other work included the installation of an additional exterior station television camera outside of the Destiny Laboratory; hooking up an ammonia supply for lines to a radiator on the new truss segment that will be deployed Monday afternoon; and checking equipment that will be used to add the next starboard truss segment to the station in the fall of 2003.

During today's spacewalk, STS-112 Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus and ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson operated the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm, using it to position the spacewalkers at various times. Prior to today's outing by Wolf and Sellers, Atlantis Commander Jeff Ashby and Pilot Pam Melroy fired the shuttle's small steering jets periodically over the course of an hour to boost the altitude of the shuttle and station by about 4 statute miles. The shuttle will perform another boost of altitude for the complex tomorrow, raising it an additional 2 miles.

The station and shuttle crews will begin a sleep period at 7:46 p.m. CDT and awaken at 3:46 a.m. CDT Sunday.

The Extravehicular Activity, or EVA, is set to begin about 9:40 this morning and is planned to last about 6 1/2 hours. It includes installation of devices to prevent pressure buildup in line fittings; connecting cooling system lines; removing launch restraints from a radiator which will be deployed Sunday, and installing a second camera.

The Spool Positioning Devices (SPDs) are designed to prevent pressure buildup in Quick Disconnect fittings, which could make it impossible to disconnect fittings, if necessary. Sellers and Wolf will install 24 of the devices – most of which are on ammonia lines – during the spacewalk.

Sellers, in the all-white spacesuit, will ride the station's robotic arm to the S1 Truss worksite to hook up nitrogen lines used to pressurize the ammonia system, while Wolf, wearing the suit with red stripes, releases launch restraints on the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid – a handcar on the truss rails. Peggy Whitson, NASA ISS science officer, and Atlantis' Sandy Magnus will operate the robot arm. As with the first spacewalk Thursday, Pilot Pam Melroy will choreograph the EVA from Atlantis' flight deck.

Prior to the spacewalk, Commander Jeff Ashby and Melroy will gently raise the altitude of the station by firing small thrusters on Atlantis. This reboost maneuver will increase the altitude of the complex from 238 statute miles (383 kilometers) to 242 sm (389 km).

Atlantis' crew was awakened at 2:46 a.m. today by the song "Push It," performed by the group Garbage. It was for Sellers, requested by his family. The station crew woke up about 30 minutes later.

Atlantis and station crewmembers are scheduled to go to bed about 7:30 tonight.

The spacewalk began at 9:11 a.m., and was the 46th devoted to assembly and maintenance of the station. Making quick work of their first task, to remove a bolt preventing activation of a cable cutter on the mobile transporter, Wolf and Sellers moved on to connect ammonia lines and remove structural support clamps that held the truss in place during launch. With Sellers and Wolf working well ahead of schedule, an additional "get ahead" task – installing Spool Positioning Devices on a pump motor assembly – was added to the spacewalk. The pump motor assembly helps to circulate ammonia through the station's cooling system. Throughout today's spacewalk the station's robotic arm, which was used as a work platform by Sellers and Wolf, was operated by NASA's ISS science officer Peggy Whitson and Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus.

Earlier in the day at 6:20 a.m. Commander Jeff Ashby and Pilot Pam Melroy pulsed Atlantis' thrusters for 35 minutes gently raising the altitude of the station by 2.3 miles. The combined results of two reboost maneuvers by Atlantis increased the station's altitude by a total of six miles, setting the stage for the arrival of a replacement Soyuz spacecraft, set for launch on October 28.

Atlantis' crew is scheduled to awaken at 3:46 a.m. Tuesday with the station crew awakening about one-half hour later. Tuesday will see some scheduled off-duty time for the two crews, allowing them some final hours together before Wednesday's scheduled undocking and departure of Atlantis from the station.

Atlantis Commander Jeff Ashby and Expedition Five Science Officer Peggy Whitson put on their air-conditioning maintenance caps, removing and replacing a humidity separator in the station's Quest airlock. That device, which removes excess moisture from the airlock's atmosphere, had been exhibiting some leakage attributed to a clogged filter. The repair work went as planned, and the old unit is destined to come home in the same space on Atlantis that carried up the fresh unit.

Loadmaster Sandy Magnus coordinated the final transfer of equipment and supplies from Atlantis to the station, as well as the packing of items that are being returned to Earth on the shuttle. A total of about 1,800 pounds of supplies were delivered to the station, and an equal amount will be brought back.

The joint crew will be awakened at 2:46 a.m. CDT Wednesday and begin final departure preparations. The two crews will conduct a final farewell ceremony at 5:59 a.m., then gather on the opposite sides of their hatches and close the doors.

Undocking is scheduled for 8:13 a.m. After Pilot Pam Melroy gently eases Atlantis out to a distance of 450 feet, she will fire its reaction control system thrusters and begin a slow fly-around of the station so that her crewmates may take still and video pictures of the station with its newest addition, the Starboard 1 truss structure. Melroy expects to fly at least halfway around the station before separating, but if propellant supplies allow she may be able to make one complete revolution.

Once back on their own, the Expedition Five voyagers – 131 days into their mission, 129 as station crewmembers – return their attention to unpacking a Russian Progress supply vehicle that arrived in late September, and packing up belongings for their own return home scheduled for late November aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. Endeavour rolled out to its Kennedy Space Center launch pad over the weekend, and the next station addition, a Port 1 truss segment, was loaded in the cargo bay today.

Between now and then, Expedition Five will receive more guests from Earth when a new Russian Soyuz emergency return vehicle and crew arrive following launch Oct. 28 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Following undocking, Pilot Pam Melroy flew Atlantis a partial lap around the station, as her crewmates used cameras to document its latest addition and overall condition. At 10 a.m., she fired Atlantis' engines in a final separation maneuver, leaving the Expedition Five crew - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - to continue stowing away many of the items that were transferred over the past week and preparing for the early November arrival of a new Soyuz return vehicle, and its visiting crew.

Flying solo, the focus on board Atlantis is on preparing for a return trip to Earth on Friday. Commander Jeff Ashby, Melroy and flight engineer Sandy Magnus will check out Atlantis' flight control systems and test fire its reaction control system jets in preparation for re-entry and landing. The entire crew also will begin packing up the cameras, equipment and hardware they've used over the course of the past 10 days in space.

The Atlantis crew will be awakened at 2:16 a.m. to begin what should be its final full day in orbit with landing scheduled for 10:44 a.m. CDT Friday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Expedition Five crew will awaken at 3:30 a.m., settling into a slightly later than normal shift to support the upcoming visits of the Soyuz taxi crew and Space Shuttle Endeavour.

The first steps in changing Atlantis from a spaceship to an airplane are to test its aero surfaces, required as the orbiter begins to interact with the upper atmosphere on reentry and landing. Also tested today are the thruster jets on the nose and tail of Atlantis which maneuver the vehicle prior to dropping below 400,000 feet in altitude following the deorbit burn.

Atlantis' computers systematically deactivate these jets when desired air pressure readings are detected at various stages throughout entry and landing.

The crew of Commander Jeff Ashby, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Sandy Magnus, Piers Sellers and Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin spend the day stowing equipment, supplies and belongings in preparation for tomorrow's anticipated return to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

At 11:46 this morning, the crew will discuss the success of the mission with media representatives from the AP Radio Network, KMOX Radio of St. Louis and WISH-TV of Indianapolis. The interview will air on NASA Television.

Behind the shuttle at a distance of 120 miles (193 kilometers), the ISS Expedition Five crew of Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Cosmonaut Sergei Treschev are preparing for their next visitors, a Soyuz taxi crew scheduled to arrive late this month. The taxi crew will return to Earth in the Soyuz at the station, which is nearing its certified on orbit life limit.

The shuttle crew began its last full day on orbit with a wakeup call from Mission Control at 2:18 a.m. The song "These are the Days" performed by Natalie Merchant was played for Sellers at the request of his wife.

Atlantis' crew sleep begins at about 6:30 this evening and the crew will be awakened at 2:16 a.m. Friday to begin landing preparations.

Commander Jeff Ashby, Pilot Pam Melroy and Flight Engineer Sandy Magnus activated one of three hydraulic power units on Atlantis, tested all of the orbiter's aerosurfaces, and then test-fired the steering jets. All of the systems are in good shape for reentry and landing. The remaining crew members - Dave Wolf, Piers Sellers and Fyodor Yurchikhin - continued packing up gear and hardware in anticipation of tomorrow's landing.

Atlantis has two opportunities to land at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Friday. The first begins with a deorbit burn of the Orbital Maneuvering System engines at 9:36 a.m., followed by a landing at 10:44 a.m. Central (11:44 a.m. Eastern.) In the event weather prevents a landing on that first opportunity, there is a second opportunity, beginning with a deorbit burn at 11:16 a.m. and resulting in a 12:21 p.m. Central (1:21 p.m. Eastern) landing in Florida.

Tomorrow's weather forecast for the shuttle landing facility at KSC is favorable. The backup-landing site at California's Edwards Air Force Base was not called up for support Friday. Atlantis has sufficient consumables to remain in orbit, if necessary, until Tuesday.

Atlantis' crew will begin a scheduled eight-hour sleep period at 6:16 p.m. today, waking just after 2 a.m. Friday to prepare for a homecoming to the Kennedy Space Center. Actual deorbit preparations will get underway at 5:40 a.m. Atlantis' payload bay doors are scheduled to be closed at 6:56 a.m. and the crewmembers will get into their seats at 8:36 a.m.

Meanwhile, aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition Five crew - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - enjoyed a few hours of off-duty time today. Tomorrow they will turn their attention back to unpacking the Russian Progress resupply vehicle that arrived at the station in late September.

Atlantis has two landing opportunities at KSC. The first begins with the firing of the shuttle's braking rockets at 9:36 a.m. and a landing at 10:44 a.m. CDT. A second opportunity for a KSC landing would see the deorbit burn at 11:16 a.m. and a landing at 12:21 p.m. Forecasts call for favorable weather for landing, with scattered clouds, good visibility and 10-knot winds.

The backup-landing site at California's Edwards Air Force Base will not be activated today. Atlantis has enough consumables to stay in orbit until Tuesday.

The crew, Commander Jeff Ashby, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Sandy Magnus, Piers Sellers and Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, was awakened at 2:25 a.m. by "Someday Soon," performed by Suzy Bogguss. It was for Ashby, requested by his wife.

Deorbit preparations began about 5:40 a.m. The payload bay doors are to be closed at 6:56 a.m.

About 3,000 miles behind the shuttle, the ISS Expedition 5 crew, Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Cosmonaut Sergei Treschev, is in its 135th day in space. Crewmembers are awaiting a taxi crew scheduled to arrive late this month with a replacement for the Soyuz now at the station. Expedition 5 is to return home on the STS-113 mission of Endeavour, scheduled for launch with their Expedition 6 replacements no earlier than Nov. 10.

During the week it was docked to the station, Atlantis did two reboosts of the orbiting laboratory, raising its altitude by about six miles. Another station reboost was performed about 3:25 a.m. today using the engines of the Progress unpiloted cargo carrier docked to the rear of the Zvezda Service Module. It was to raise the station's altitude an additional 6.9 miles and adjust the orbit for the arrival of the new Soyuz. The station's average altitude after the reboost was expected to be 249 miles.

If Atlantis lands on time, crewmembers are tentatively scheduled to return to the Johnson Space Center in Houston Saturday afternoon.

With weather of little concern today, Commander Jeff Ashby piloted the shuttle to its 60th landing at KSC at 10:44 a.m. CDT. The deorbit burn occurred an hour earlier as Atlantis flew high above the southwestern Indian Ocean, dropping the shuttle out of orbit for the high-speed reentry and landing.

Atlantis' ground track carried it above Central America and western Cuba before crossing the west coast of Florida south of Tampa. Ashby took over manual control of Atlantis at an altitude of 50,000 feet, guiding the 200,000 pound shuttle through a 290-degree right turn to line up with Runway 33.

Meanwhile, aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition Five crew was able to watch Atlantis' safe landing while the three crewmembers continue to unpack and stow supplies delivered by the shuttle crew. Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Cosmonaut Sergei Treschev are in their 135th day in space (133rd aboard the station).

Their next visitors are the three members of a Soyuz Taxi Crew scheduled to deliver a fresh rescue spacecraft to the station later this month. Expedition Five's ride home will be aboard Endeavour scheduled to launch no earlier than Nov. 10 bringing another truss segment and the Expedition Six crew.

Atlantis will be hauled into its hangar later today to begin preparations for its next mission to the station in March 2003 on the STS-114 mission.

Atlantis' six crewmembers are expected to hold a news conference at about 4 p.m. today on NASA Television and plan to return to the Johnson Space Center in Houston Saturday at about 5:30 p.m.