Bursch Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Married, four children. Born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, USA. US Navy US Navy

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 13 - 1990. Inactive Entered space service: 17 January 1990. Left space service: June 2005. Number of Flights: 4.00. Total Time: 226.93 days. Number of EVAs: 2.00. Total EVA Time: 0.50 days.

NAME: Daniel W. Bursch (Commander, USN)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born July 25, 1957, in Bristol, Pennsylvania, but considers Vestal, New York, to be his hometown. Married to the former Roni J. Patterson of Modesto, California. Three children. He enjoys tennis, softball, windsurfing, skiing, and woodworking. His parents, Dudley and Betsy Bursch, reside in Stuart, Florida. Her mother, Gayle Hutcheson, resides in Nassau Bay, Texas. Her father, Jack Patterson, resides in Truckee, California

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Vestal Senior High School, Vestal, New York, in 1975; received a bachelor of science degree in physics from the United States Naval Academy in 1979, and a master of science degree in engineering science from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1991.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association, the Association of Naval Aviation and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

SPECIAL HONORS:

Awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal, NASA Space Flight Medals, the Navy Commendation Medal and the Navy Achievement Medal. Distinguished graduate, U.S. Naval Academy and U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.

EXPERIENCE:

Bursch graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1979, and was designated a naval flight officer in April 1980 at Pensacola, Florida. After initial training as an A-6E Intruder bombardier/navigator (B/N), he reported to Attack Squadron 34 in January 1981, and deployed to the Mediterranean aboard the USS John F. Kennedy, and to the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans aboard the USS America. He attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in January 1984. Upon graduation in December he worked as a project test flight officer flying the A-6 Intruder until August 1984, when he returned to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as a flight instructor. In April 1987, Bursch was assigned to the Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Group 1, as Strike Operations Officer, making deployments to the Indian Ocean aboard the USS Long Beach and the USS Midway. Redesignated an Aeronautical Engineering Duty officer (AEDO), he attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, from July 1989 until his selection to the astronaut program.

He has over 2,500 flight hours in more than 35 different aircraft, and has over 200 carrier landings.

Selected by NASA in January 1990, Bursch became an astronaut in July 1991. His technical assignments to date include: Astronaut Office Operations Development Branch, working on controls and displays for the Space Shuttle and Space Station; Chief of Astronaut Appearances; spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) in mission control. A veteran of three space flights, Bursch has logged over 746 hours in space. He served as a mission specialist on STS-51 in 1993, STS-68 in 1994 and STS-77 in 1996.

STS-51 launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 12, 1993. During the ten-day mission the crew of five aboard the Shuttle Discovery deployed the U.S. Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), and the Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS) with NASA and German scientific experiments aboard. Following a spacewalk by two crew members to evaluate Hubble Space Telescope repair tools, the crew initiated rendezvous burns and Bursch recovered the SPAS using the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). The mission concluded on September 22, 1993, with the first night landing at the Kennedy Space Center. Mission duration was 236 hours and 11 minutes.

STS-68, Space Radar Lab-2 (SRL-2), launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 30, 1994. As part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, SRL-2 was the second flight of three advanced radars called SIR-C/X-SAR (Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar), and a carbon-monoxide pollution sensor, MAPS (Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites). SIR-C/X-SAR and MAPS operated together in Endeavour's cargo bay to study Earth's surface and atmosphere, creating radar images of Earth's surface environment and mapping global production and transport of carbon monoxide pollution. Real-time crew observations of environmental conditions, along with over 14,000 photographs aided the science team in interpreting the SRL data. The SRL-2 mission was a highly successful test of technology intended for long-term environmental and geological monitoring of planet Earth. Following 183 orbits of the Earth, the eleven-day mission ended with Space Shuttle Endeavour landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on October 11, 1994. Mission duration was 269 hours and 46 minutes.

STS-77 launched from the Kennedy Space Center on May 19, 1996. It included the fourth Spacehab module flight as a scientific laboratory, designated SPACEHAB-4. It consisted of 12 separate materials processing, fluid physics and biotechnology experiments, with an emphasis on commercial space product development. STS-77 completed a record four rendezvous in support of two satellites sponsored by the Goddard Space Flight Center, and the SPARTAN 207/Inflatable Antenna Experiment (IAE) and the Passive Aerodynamically-stabilized Magnetically-damped Satellite/Satellite Test Unit (PAMS/STU). Following 160 orbits of the Earth, the ten-day mission ended with Space Shuttle Endeavour landing at the Kennedy Space Center on May 29, 1996. Mission duration was 240 hours and 39 minutes.

CURRENT ASSIGNMENT:

Bursch is assigned as a crew representative to the International Space Station.

• 12 September 1993 Flight: STS-51. Flight Up: STS-51. Flight Back: STS-51. Flight Time: 9.84 days.

• 30 September 1994 Flight: STS-68. Flight Up: STS-68. Flight Back: STS-68. Flight Time: 11.24 days.

• 19 May 1996 Flight: STS-77. Flight Up: STS-77. Flight Back: STS-77. Flight Time: 10.03 days.

• 5 December 2001 Flight: ISS EO-4. Flight Up: STS-108. Flight Back: STS-111. Flight Time: 195.82 days.

17 January 1990 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 13 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.. Reported to the Johnson Space Center in late July 1990 to begin their year long training. Chosen from 1945 qualified applicants, then 106 finalists screened between September and November 1989.

Engineers at the Mission Control Center outside of Moscow conducted a series of tests and verified that the exterior connections made by Commander Frank Culbertson and Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov during Monday's space walk had successfully brought the Pirs Docking Compartment's automated Kurs telemetry system to full functionality.

With the help of Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, they spent Wednesday cleaning up, servicing and storing the Orlan spacesuits they had used on the 5-hour, 4-minute space walk. They also spent about 20 minutes answering questions posed by middle school students in Texas and Kansas as part of a regional education conference.

With those activities complete, the trio of space researchers began getting ready for a series of comings and goings, and packing for their impending return home. The Progress 5 resupply craft currently docked to the Zvezda service module is scheduled to undock Nov. 22; it later will be commanded to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere where it will burn up along with refuse being stored inside by the crew this week. Another supply vehicle, Progress 6, is scheduled to launch Nov. 26 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and dock with the station Nov. 28.

All preparations for the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour and the Expedition Four crew - Commander Yuri Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz - are on schedule for launch at 6:42 p.m. CST Nov. 29. Mission managers will meet at Kennedy Space Center this Thursday to review all preparations for launch; an official launch target is expected at the conclusion of that meeting. The shuttle crew - Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani - joined the new station crew in Florida for a final dress rehearsal of the launch last week.

While visiting the station, the shuttle crew will conduct a space walk to install insulation blankets on the beta gimbal assemblies for the station's large solar array wings. These large swivels, which allow the solar arrays to track the Sun's rays and provide maximum power generation, appear to be experiencing adverse effects related to the extreme temperature swings that occur as the station moves in and out of direct sunlight. These multi-layer insulation blankets are expected to reduce the temperature swings and allow normal operation of the solar arrays.

Meanwhile in Florida, the next major component to be launched to the space station has successfully completed acceptance testing and been moved to a work platform for final closeouts. One last software test remains, and that will be completed in January. The S-zero truss, which will serve as the base section of a framework connecting more large solar array wings, is scheduled for launch on STS-110 in March 2002.

With systems operating normally, the station is orbiting at an average altitude of 247 statute miles (397 km).

Science work aboard the station continues with emphasis on human physiology experiments as the crew nears the end of its time on orbit, and with autonomous microgravity materials research. Overall coordination of the research is the responsibility of the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The Human Research Facility is managed by the Johnson Space Center.

The Progress, attached to the docking port at the rear of the Zvezda service module, is the fifth to visit the station. It will undock at 10:06 a.m. CST Thursday, to be deorbited and burn up in the atmosphere with its load of trash and unneeded equipment. Its undocking makes room for Progress 6, scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:24 p.m. CST Monday. The new Progress, filled with fresh supplies, is planned to dock to the station at 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 28.

The Expedition Three trio also began preparations for their return home after about four months in space. They began packing up gear and readying station equipment in anticipation of the arrival of the space shuttle Endeavour, targeted for a launch to the space station from Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 29 at 6:41 p.m. CST on the STS-108 mission. Endeavour is commanded by Dom Gorie. Pilot is Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists are Linda Godwin and Dan Tani.

The major purpose of the mission is bring the Expedition Four crew, cosmonaut and Commander Yury Onufrienko and Astronauts Dan Bursch and Carl Walz, to the station and bring home Expedition Three. Also during the flight, Godwin and Tani will do a spacewalk to install thermal blankets over the station's beta gimbal assemblies of the orbiting laboratory's solar wings, which stretch 240 feet from tip to tip. The assemblies let the wings track the sun to provide maximum power.

Flight controllers at Houston's Mission Control Center have seen in those mechanisms occasional unexpected surges in the power required to turn the wings. They believe the surges are related to extreme temperature swings that occur as the station moves in and out of direct sunlight. Installation of the blankets is expected to reduce the temperature fluctuations and eliminate the "power spikes" seen as the wings pivot.

The spacewalkers will go out of Endeavour's airlock, then get a 50-foot lift from the shuttle's robotic arm. They will have to climb with the blankets another 30 feet to the worksite, atop the P6 Truss and about 80 feet from Endeavour's cargo bay.

With systems operating normally, the station is orbiting at an average altitude of 247 statute miles (397 km).

Human physiology experiments continue to be a focus of crew science activities as the crew prepares for its return home. Autonomous microgravity materials research continued to accumulate scientific experiment run time hours in a variety of disciplines. Overall coordination of the research is the responsibility of the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The Human Research Facility is managed by the Johnson Space Center.

At 12:24 p.m. CST (1824 GMT) today, the Progress 6 resupply craft, filled with fresh supplies for the station, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and successfully reached orbit nine minutes later. Progress 6 is planned to dock to the station Wednesday at 1:40 p.m. CST (1940 GMT). The Progress 5 capsule that was attached to the docking port at the rear of the Zvezda service module undocked from the station last Thursday and reentered the atmosphere, where it was destroyed.

Today, the crew also tested a manual docking system, called the TORU, which can be used should the Progress 6 experience any problems with its automated docking system as it approaches the aft docking port of the Zvezda Service Module Wednesday. The crew also prepared some of the spacewalking equipment that will be used by STS-108 astronauts Linda Godwin and Dan Tani. Godwin and Tani will conduct a 4-hour spacewalk next week with Endeavour docked to the ISS to install thermal blankets over the station's mechanisms which enable the large U.S. solar wings to rotate to track the sun for the manufacture of electricity for station systems.

Flight controllers at Houston's Mission Control Center have seen those mechanisms experience occasional unexpected surges in the power required to turn the wings. They believe the surges are related to extreme temperature swings that occur as the station moves in and out of direct sunlight. Installation of the blankets is expected to reduce the temperature fluctuations and eliminate the "power spikes" seen as the wings pivot.

The major purpose of the 108 mission, however, is to bring the Expedition Four crew, Russian Commander Yury Onufrienko and U.S. Astronauts Dan Bursch and Carl Walz, to the station and bring home Expedition Three.

With systems operating normally, the station is orbiting at an average altitude of 247 statute miles (397 km).

Human physiology experiments continue to be a focus of crew science activities as the crew prepares for its return home. Autonomous microgravity materials research continued to accumulate scientific experiment run time hours in a variety of disciplines.

The Progress 6 craft, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Monday, gently docked to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module over Central Asia at 1:43 p.m. CST, completing a two-day automated flight.

On board the station, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin monitored the docking, and prepared for the opening of the hatch between Zvezda and Progress later today.

The Progress is carrying more than a ton of food, fuel and equipment for the Expedition Four crew, Russian Commander Yury Onufrienko and U.S. Astronauts Dan Bursch and Carl Walz, who are scheduled to be launched aboard the shuttle Endeavour tomorrow night on the STS-108 mission to relieve the Expedition Three crew, which has been in orbit since August. They will be ferried to the ISS by Endeavour Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani. Launch from the Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 6:41 p.m. CST.

With systems operating normally, the station is orbiting at an average altitude of 247 statute miles (397 km).

Human physiology experiments continue to be a focus of crew science activities as the crew prepares for its return home. Autonomous microgravity materials research continued to accumulate scientific experiment run time hours in a variety of disciplines. Overall coordination of the research is the responsibility of the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The Human Research Facility is managed by the Johnson Space Center.

STS-108 cargo bay payload was dominated by the Raffaello (MPLM-2) logistics module with 4 RSP and 8 RSR resupply racks. Also in the cargo bay were the MACH-1 and LMC experiment trusses flown under the Goddard small payloads program. MACH-1 was an MPESS-type Hitchhiker bridge carrying the CAPL-3 capillary thermal control experiment on top. On its forward side was the Starshine-2 launch canister, the CAPL-3 avionics plate, the Hitchhiker avionics plate, and the SEM-15 canister. On the aft side was the G-761 canister containing experiments from Argentina, the PSRD synchrotron detector (a prototype for the AMS antimatter experiment which will fly on Station later), and the COLLIDE-2 and SEM-11 canisters. The SEM (Space Experiment Modules) are collections of high school experiments. LMC, the Lightweight MPESS Carrier carried four canisters with materials science and technology experiments: SEM-12, G-785, G-064 and G-730. In addition, an adapter beam on the starboard sidewall carried G-221 and G-775, with materials science and biology experiments.

Raffaello was transferred back to the Shuttle payload bay on December 14. Endeavour undocked from the Station at 17:28 UTC on December 15 and made a half loop around the station before making a small separation burn at 1822 UTC. The Starshine-2 reflector satellite was ejected from the MACH-1 bridge in Endeavour's payload bay at 1502 UTC on December 16. Endeavour landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 1755 UTC on December 17. The Expedition 3 crew of Culbertson, Dezhurov and Tyurin returned to Earth aboard Endeavour, leaving the Expedition 4 crew of Onufrienko, Bursch and Walz in charge of the Station.

The station was about 250 statute miles above the central Indian Ocean as Endeavour rocketed away from Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center, FL, on time at 4:19 p.m. CST. Endeavour will close in on the station for the next two days and dock with the complex on Friday to begin a week-long stay.

Endeavour is commanded by Dom Gorie with Mark Kelly serving as pilot. Mission Specialists are Linda Godwin and Dan Tani. Also aboard Endeavour are station Expedition Four crew members Commander Yuri Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch, who are beginning more than five months in orbit.

Endeavour will bring home the Expedition Three station crew, Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who have been aboard the station since mid-August. In addition to the new crew, Endeavour is carrying more than three tons of food, supplies and equipment in the Raffaello logistics module to the orbiting outpost.

Endeavour's crew will spend the next few hours unpacking equipment, setting up computers and conducting the first of periodic engine firings that will occur over the next two days to refine the shuttle's approach to the station. The shuttle crew will begin a sleep period at 11:19 p.m. CST and will be awakened at 7:19 a.m. CST Thursday. On Thursday, Endeavour's crew will check out the shuttle's equipment and systems that will be needed for Friday's final approach and docking to the International Space Station. Docking is planned for just after 2 p.m. CST Friday. On Saturday, the Raffaello module will be lifted from the shuttle payload bay using Endeavour's robotic arm and attached to a station berthing port to be unloaded. Godwin and Tani are planned to conduct a four-hour space walk on Monday to install insulation around two solar array rotation mechanisms. Raffaello will be returned to the shuttle payload bay later in the mission and brought back to Earth.

In addition to a new station crew and supplies, Endeavour is carrying a host of scientific investigations, including experiments from space agencies, schools and universities across the United States, Europe and South America as well as a small satellite that has involved more than 25,000 students in 26 countries.

The crew, Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly, Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani, Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko, Flight Engineer Carl Walz and Flight Engineer Dan Bursch, was awakened by the song "Soul Spirit" and "Put a Little Love in Your Life," sung by Bursch's daughter and her second-grade classmates.

The crew will spend the day preparing shuttle systems for docking with the International Space Station, which is scheduled for about 2 p.m. CST Friday. Preparations include powering up the shuttle's robotic arm and checking out the airlock and the space suits that will be used on Monday's planned four-hour spacewalk by Godwin and Tani to place thermal blankets on the motors that rotate the solar arrays atop the P6 truss.

In addition to performing the spacewalk, other activities during the mission include a crew exchange on board the space station Saturday and the transfer of more than three tons of cargo. The cargo, housed in the Raffaello logistics module that will be attached to the Unity module, includes food, supplies and equipment that the Expedition Four Crew will use during its stay on the station. The Expedition Three crew, Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin have been living aboard the space station since mid-August and will return home on Endeavour.

Also on board Endeavour is a host of scientific investigations, including experiments from other space agencies, schools and universities across the United States, Europe and South America. Two experiments located in the Multiple Application Customized Hitchhiker-1 (MACH-1) in the shuttle payload bay had already completed 15% and 10% of their mission objectives by the time the crew went to sleep last night. Those experiments are the Capillary Pumped Loop Experiment (CAPL) and the Prototype Synchrotron Radiation Detector (PSRD) respectively. The CAPL demonstrates a multiple evaporator capillary pumped loop system and the PSRD measures cosmic ray background data.

Endeavour's crew - Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly, Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani, Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko, and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch - will quickly move into their final rendezvous activities today, bringing the shuttle to a position about 9 ½ miles behind the International Space Station about 11:44 a.m. today.

From that position behind the station, Gorie and Kelly will command Endeavour 's jets in a final major rendezvous maneuver to begin the final phase of the approach for docking. Endeavour will close the final miles to the station during the next orbit of the Earth, about 90 minutes.

As Endeavour approaches the station, the on-board rendezvous radar system will begin tracking the station providing distance and closing rate information to the crew. During the approach, the shuttle can perform up to four, small mid-course corrections at regular intervals. Just after the fourth burn, Endeavour will be about one-half mile below the station. Gorie will take over manual control of the approach, slowing Endeavour's approach and maneuvering to a point about 600 feet directly beneath the station. There he will begin a quarter-circle of the station, slowly moving to a position in front of the complex, in line with its direction of travel.

Once Endeavour has firmly docked to the station, and required leak checks are complete, the hatches between the spacecraft will open around 4 p.m. allowing Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin to greet their newest guests.

Culbertson, Dezhurov and Tyurin began their formal residency on the station on August 13 as their custom-made Soyuz seat liners were installed on the Soyuz return vehicle. Their residency will officially end once those seat liners are transferred to Endeavour and the Expedition Four crew's seat liners are installed in the Soyuz on Saturday.

With the new Expedition Four station crew of Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch looking on from Endeavour's flight deck, shuttle Commander Dom Gorie brought Endeavour to a gentle linkup with the ISS at 2:03 p.m. CST as the two craft sailed over England. Within minutes, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani began to conduct post-docking checks of the mechanical interface between Endeavour and the station's Destiny Laboratory prior to the opening of the hatches on the two vehicles. At first, the shuttle's docking ring and the docking mechanism on the ISS did not align properly, but after allowing the two craft to dampen their relative motion against one another, the vehicles were hard mated for a week of joint operations by the ten crewmembers.

On board the ISS in their 119th day in space and their 116th day aboard the station, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin watched as their replacements arrived for the start of more than five months of orbital duty. The only other visitors for the Expedition Three crew during its increment arrived on the ISS in October to deliver a new Soyuz return vehicle.

The hatches were opened between Endeavour and the ISS' Destiny Laboratory at 4:42 p.m. CST, enabling the ten crewmembers to greet one another. Onufrienko, Walz and Bursch will officially take over command of the ISS Saturday afternoon from Culbertson, Dezhurov and Tyurin after transferring custom made Soyuz seatliners and conducting leak checks to their spacesuits.

The crews now begin a busy week of handing over station responsibilities and unloading tons of supplies brought to the complex by Endeavour. Saturday's activities will be highlighted by Kelly's use of the shuttle's robotic arm to hoist the Italian-built Raffaello logistics module from Endeavour's payload bay and attach it to a station berthing port. Raffaello will stay attached to the station for most of the week while it is unloaded. The crews will begin a sleep period at 10:19 p.m. CST today and awaken at 6:19 a.m. CST on Saturday.

The transfer of the Expedition Four seatliners to the Soyuz return vehicle attached to the station marked the official exchange of crews. Culbertson reported that his crew had completed the exchange and that Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch had become official station residents at 4:11 p.m. CST. Handover briefings between the two crews will continue for the duration of docked operations.

While the crew exchange was under way, aboard Endeavour Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialist Linda Godwin used the shuttle's robotic arm to lift the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module from the shuttle payload bay and attach it to a berth on the station's Unity node. Raffaello was removed from the payload bay at 11:01 a.m. CST and secured in place on the station at 11:55 a.m. CST. The hatch to Raffaello was opened and the crews began unloading the cargo module just before 7:30 p.m. CST. Over the course of the next several days, the crews will work together to transfer approximately three tons of food and supplies from Raffaello to the station.

The crews will begin a sleep period at 10:19 p.m. CST and awaken at 6:19 a.m. CST Sunday. Sunday's work will focus on unloading Raffaello, continuing an exchange of information between the two station crews and some preparatory work for a space walk planned to take place Monday by shuttle astronauts Godwin and Dan Tani. Endeavour and the International Space Station remain in excellent condition with no significant systems problems of concern to Mission Control.

Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialist Linda Godwin will work together to remove the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module from Endeavour's payload bay and attach it to the Unity node of the International Space Station. Over the course of about three hours, Kelly will use the shuttle's robotic arm to gently lift Raffaello from the payload bay and maneuver it into place, securing it to the Earth-facing berthing port on the Unity module about 12:39 p.m. CST today.

As Kelly works to install the Raffaello module, the formal exchange of space station crews will occur as the Expedition Three crew - Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov, and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin - and the Expedition Four crew - Commander Yury Onufrienko, and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch, exchange their customized seat liners in the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. As each Expedition Four crew member's seatliner is installed in the Soyuz and checked out, he officially becomes a resident of the space station with the Expedition Three crew member moving over to become a member of the Endeavour crew. Handover briefings between the crews will continue throughout docked operations.

Mission Specialist Dan Tani will focus his attention on transferring equipment from Endeavour to the space station while Commander Dom Gorie tends to vehicle operations.

The three commanders onboard - Gorie, Culbertson and Onufrienko - along with Endeavour's Pilot Kelly will participate in media interviews at 3:44 p.m. CST. MSNBC, CBS News and WAGT-TV in Augusta, Georgia will have the opportunity to interview the crewmembers in the station's Destiny laboratory.

Two payload bay experiments located in the Multiple Application Customized Hitchhiker-1 (MACH-1) facility have already completed 50% and 76% of their mission objectives. Those experiments are the Capillary Pumped Loop Experiment (CAPL) and the Prototype Synchrotron Radiation Detector (PSRD) respectively. The CAPL demonstrates a multiple evaporator capillary pumped loop system and the PSRD measures cosmic ray background data.

Aboard Endeavour are 6,000 small United States flags that will be distributed to heroes and families of the victims of the attacks after the shuttle returns to Earth. Also aboard are a U.S. flag that was found at the World Trade Center site after the attacks, a U.S. flag that has flown above the Pennsylvania state capitol, a U.S. Marine Corps Colors flag from the Pentagon, a New York Fire Department flag, and a poster that includes photographs of firefighters lost in the attacks.

Shuttle Commander Dom Gorie said the flag carried aboard Endeavour which came from the World Trade Center elicited especially poignant thoughts among the crew.

"This was found among the rubble and it has a few tears in it. You can still smell the ashes. It is a tremendous symbol of our country," Gorie said. "Just like our country, it was a little battered and bruised and torn, but with a little bit of repair it is going to fly as high and as beautiful as it ever did. And that is just what our country is doing."

International Space Station Expedition 3 Commander Frank Culbertson and his crew -- cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin -- were in orbit Sept. 11 and will be on their way home to Earth when Endeavour departs the station next week. The space station flew above New York the morning of Sept. 11, and the crew could see evidence of the attacks out the windows.

"That was quite a disturbing sight, as you might imagine, to see my country under attack," Culbertson said. "All of us were affected by that day greatly.

"To all of those who lost loved ones, to all of those who worked so hard to help people survive, and to the people who are trying so hard to stop this threat, we wish you the best. We have thought about you often over the last three months that we've been here ... and we will continue to keep you in our thoughts," Culbertson added. "We will continue, I hope, to set a good example of how people can accomplish incredible things when they have the right goals. We will continue to think of how we can improve peace around the world and how we can improve knowledge, and hopefully that will bring people together."

While the unloading of almost three tons of new food, supplies and experiments continued today, Culbertson's crew also conducted a handover of station work to the oncoming Expedition Four crew -- Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz. Also today, Endeavour fired its steering jets gradually over the course of an hour to increase the station's altitude by about two statute miles, the first of three similar reboost maneuvers planned for this week's mission.

The hatches were closed between the shuttle and the station, with only the Expedition Four crew remaining aboard the station, at about 6:43 p.m. CST today in preparation for a space walk planned from the shuttle on Monday. Closing the hatch allows the cabin pressure on the shuttle to be lowered slightly, part of a protocol that protects space walkers from decompression sickness when they go to the low pressure, pure oxygen space suits.

Astronauts Linda Godwin and Dan Tani are scheduled to exit the shuttle airlock at 11:24 a.m. CST Monday to begin four hours of work outside to add insulation to mechanisms that rotate the station's solar arrays. After the space walk is completed Monday afternoon, the hatches between Endeavour and the station will be reopened.

The crews begin a sleep period at 10:19 p.m. today and awaken at 6:19 a.m. on Monday.

A New York firefighter presented Pilot Mark Kelly with today's wake-up music when Kelly visited the World Trade Center site with former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin shortly after the September 11 attacks. All the astronauts and cosmonauts on board Endeavour and the International Space Station will take time today to remember the victims, their families and rescue workers in a special message from space, at 4:24 p.m. CST today.

Commander Dom Gorie, Kelly, Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko, and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch will all gather in the Destiny laboratory aboard the station to display a U.S. flag and take a moment to honor the victim's families and survivors of the attacks.

Coordinated through the "Flags for Heroes and Families" campaign, which was initiated by Former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, several American flags are being flown aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. Those flags include 6,000 small U.S. flags, one U.S. flag that was recovered from the debris of the World Trade Center, a Marine Corps flag that was retrieved from the Pentagon, and an American flag from the State of Pennsylvania. Also onboard, is a large New York Fire Department flag, 23 replica New York Police Department shields, and 91 New York Police Department patches. Those items are stowed away in the shuttle and will be distributed upon Endeavour's return to Earth.

The crew's activities today will focus on continuing transfer of several hundred pounds of equipment and supplies from the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module that was attached to the station yesterday. Transfer of equipment, supplies and experiments to and from the shuttle mid deck is already complete. Today, Godwin and Tani will also check out and prepare the tools they will use for Monday's scheduled spacewalk.

The space walk went smoothly as Godwin and Tani installed insulation around the two barrel-shaped devices atop the station's five-story tall truss structure. The space walkers also attempted to secure one of four legs that brace the starboard station array, but they were unable to close the latch, which has been open since the array was installed a year ago. The other legs have always been latched securely and are sufficient.

On their way down from the top of the station, the two space walkers stopped at a stowage bin to retrieve a cover which had been removed from a station antenna during an earlier flight. The cover will be brought back to Earth and may be reused. Godwin and Tani also performed a "get-ahead" task, positioning two switches on the station's exterior to be installed on an upcoming shuttle mission, STS-110, that will deliver a central, 40-foot long truss section this spring. Godwin and Tani left Endeavour's airlock at 11:52 a.m. CST as the shuttle and station flew above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America. They ended the space walk at 4:04 p.m. CST.

Meanwhile, aboard the station, the Expedition Four crew -- Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz -- continued moving supplies to and from the Raffaello logistics module, now more than 70 percent unloaded. So far, at least 3,500 pounds of food and supplies have been moved from Raffaello to the station and another 1,000 pounds of gear and experiments have been moved to the station from Endeavour's cabin. The hatches between Endeavour and the station, closed late yesterday to prepare for today's space walk, were reopened just before 6 p.m. CST.

Today's space walk completes a record year with 18 space walks conducted: 12 originating from the shuttle and six from the station. That number eclipses the previous records for most space walks performed in a single year, a tie between the years 1973, when nine space walks were conducted from the Skylab space station, and 1997, when nine space walks were conducted from the shuttle and from the Russian Mir space station combined. The space walking record set this year is expected to be broken again next year -- in 2002, 22 space walks are planned from the shuttle and station.

The crews will begin a sleep period at 10:19 p.m. CST and Endeavour's crew will awaken at 6:19 a.m. CST Tuesday with the station crew awakening a half-hour later.

The focus of activities aboard Endeavour today will be on the planned four-hour spacewalk to be conducted by Godwin and Dan Tani. Godwin and Tani will exit the shuttle's airlock about 11:24 a.m. and will be carried about half way up the truss of the space station by the shuttle's robotic arm, operated by Pilot Mark Kelly. Commander Dom Gorie will coordinate efforts as the two spacewalkers maneuver hand-over-hand to their worksite location at the top of the P6 truss, some 80 feet above Endeavour's cargo bay.

The prime objective of the spacewalk is to place insulating blankets on the two Beta Gimbal Assemblies (BGA) that control the rotation of the solar arrays as they track the sun. The thermal blankets will protect the BGAs from temperature variances experienced in space, which has been leading to current spikes from the motors inside the BGAs. Once that task is complete, the spacewalkers will perform some get-ahead-tasks including retrieving tools from an outside pouch and bringing them inside for use during a spacewalk on the next mission to the space station early next year.

With hatches between the two spacecraft closed for today's space walk, the Expedition Four Crew, Commander Yury Onufrienko, and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz will continue transferring equipment and supplies from the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the station. This is the crewmembers' first day alone on the space station after exchanging places with the Expedition Three Crew, Commander Frank Culberston, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, on Saturday.

Shortly after the crews onboard Endeavour and the International Space Station were awakened, they prepared to take a moment to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the attacks on America on September 11, as part of President Bush's "Anthems of Remembrance" event. The event will take place at 7:46 a.m. CST, the exact moment of the attack three months ago.

The United States and Russian national anthems will be played in the shuttle and station flight control rooms in Mission Control and aboard the shuttle and the space station. The three commanders aboard the two spacecraft - Shuttle Commander Dom Gorie, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, and Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko, will share their personal thoughts as well as play a special pre-recorded message from the rest of the crew currently in orbit.

Onufrienko, along with Expedition Three crew members Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin, will take time today to talk with Russian media located at the mission control center outside Moscow in an interview scheduled to begin at 9:24 a.m. Later in the day, the full crews - Gorie, Onufrienko, Culbertson, Pilot Mark Kelly, Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani, Expedition Four flight engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch, along with Dezhurov and Tyurin - will have an opportunity to talk with American news media during a crew news conference scheduled for 2:04 p.m.

A ceremony to mark the change of command from Culbertson to Onufrienko will take place at 2:48 p.m. today. Culbertson, in his 123rd day in space, will ceremoniously pass command of the space station on to Onufrienko, its newest commander. The official crew exchange occurred Saturday, December 8 with the transfer of Soyuz seatliners for each crew member. Today's event continues the tradition begun by Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd in March of this year, when he relinquished command of the ISS to Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev.

The crews will also continue transferring equipment and supplies from the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the space station for later use by the Expedition Four Crew. About 4,000 pounds of cargo has already been transferred from Raffaello to the station.

Flight Day 8 for Endeavour's crew began with a wake-up call from Mission Control offering a rendition of "Fly me to the Moon", sung by Oliver "Ollie" O'Regin for Dan Tani.

The astronauts and cosmonauts have transferred more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and material from Endeavour's middeck, and the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the station. Today, the crews will focus on packing up the Raffaello module with items bound for a return trip to Earth. Raffaello will be detached from the Unity module of the station onFriday and reberthed in Endeavour's cargo bay for its ride home.

With a one-day extension to the mission, Endeavour's crew - Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Tani - will spend today assisting the Expedition Four crew - Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Expedition Dan Bursch and Carl Walz - with maintenance tasks on board the station, including the replacement of some of the components of the on-board treadmill. Tomorrow, the crew will replace a failed compressor in one of the air conditioners in the Zvezda Service Module. As the Expedition Three crew - Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin - prepare for a return to Earth on Monday, they continue a series of handover briefings to acquaint the newest resident crew with their orbital home.

Endeavour is currently scheduled to undock from the ISS on Saturday morning, with landing planned for early Monday afternoon at the Kennedy Space Center.

When the day began, the crews had already completed unloading more than 4,600 pounds of food, clothes, supplies and equipment from Raffaello, about 95 percent of the module's total cargo. They also had completed moving the 1,000 pounds of station gear and experiments that were launched in Endeavour's cabin to the orbiting complex.

In repacking the cargo module and Endeavour with unneeded equipment bound for Earth, the crews have loaded more than 1,800 pounds of material into Raffaello, almost half the amount expected by the time the packing is completed. Packing of Raffaello and Endeavour will continue on Thursday. On Friday, Raffaello will be detached from the station and moved back into Endeavour's payload bay for the trip home.

In addition, Endeavour's crew - Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly, Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani, and offgoing station crew members Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin - assisted the new station Expedition Four crew in replacing most components of a station treadmill today. Expedition Four - Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz - will use the new treadmill almost daily during their five and a half months aboard the station. The job went smoothly and the crews finished several hours ahead of schedule, loading the old treadmill parts into Raffaello to be refurbished on Earth and, eventually, reused. A third and final scheduled reboost of the station by Endeavour also was completed today. The three boosts performed during the mission, each accomplished by a gradual, hour-long periodic firing of the shuttle steering jets, have raised the station's altitude by a total of almost 9 statute miles. The station's average altitude is now about 241 statute miles.

On Thursday, the crews will continue maintenance work as well as packing, replacing a faulty compressor in a Russian air conditioner on the station. Although the new crew officially took over aboard the station on Saturday, a formal handover ceremony also is planned for the two station crews at 2:04 p.m. CST Thursday.

The crews begin a sleep period at 10:19 p.m. CST today and awaken at 6:19 a.m. CST Thursday.

The crew has already unloaded almost three tons of station food, clothes, experiments and other gear that was launched aboard Endeavour and Raffaello. Early today, the crews had also completed more than 70 percent of the repacking of Raffaello for the trip home, loading the cargo module with trash and gear from the offgoing station crew's mission such as individualized Soyuz space suits and seat liners.

The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the shuttle-station complex gathered this afternoon in the station's Destiny Laboratory for a formal change of command ceremony as Expedition Three ends and Expedition Four begins. The new crew officially took over duties aboard the station on Saturday. Expedition Three -- Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin -- spent 117 days as the station crew. Expedition Four -- Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz -- will remain aboard the complex until May 2002.

On Friday, the crews will close the hatch on Raffaello and Endeavour Pilot Mark Kelly will use the shuttle's robotic arm to detach it from the station and lower it back into the shuttle's payload bay to be brought back to Earth. The crews also will continue maintenance work on the station, replacing a faulty air conditioner compressor. Endeavour will undock from the station on Saturday.

Endeavour and the International Space Station remain in good shape, orbiting at an average altitude of 241 statute miles. Last night, the crew and Mission Control noted a transient problem with one of the shuttle's three inertial measurement units (IMUs), the primary navigation units for the shuttle. Only two of the three IMUs were on line at the time, with the third unit off line to save electricity. The IMU that experienced a problem, designated IMU 2, was immediately taken off line and the third IMU brought on line. IMU 2 has operated well since then, but it has remained off line and is considered failed by flight controllers. The loss of one IMU has no impact on Endeavour's mission, and the other two units are operating in excellent condition. Endeavour could operate well on only one IMU if needed.

Endeavour's crew will begin a sleep period at 9:19 p.m. CST today and awaken at 5:19 a.m. CST on Friday.

Today's agenda for the shuttle crew - Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly, and Mission Specialists Dan Tani and Linda Godwin - will focus on packing up the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics module with unneeded equipment and supplies for the return flight home. Raffaello will be detached from the Unity module of the International Space Station tomorrow and reberthed in Endeavour's cargo bay for its ride back to Earth. Endeavour is currently scheduled to undock from the station on Saturday morning, with landing planned for early Monday afternoon at the Kennedy Space Center.

The Expedition Three crew will also continue handover activities with the Expedition Four crew - Commander Yury Onufrienko, and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz.

A ceremony to mark the change of command from Culbertson to Onufrienko will take place at 3:09 p.m. CST. Culbertson, in his 125th day in space, will formally hand command of the space station on to Onufrienko, it's newest commander. The official crew exchange occurred Saturday, December 8 with the transfer of Soyuz seatliners for each crew member. Today's event continues the tradition begun by Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd in March of this year, when he relinquished command of the ISS to Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev.

With the crew completing the stowage of Raffaello for the trip home, work to replace a faulty compressor in an air conditioner unit in the Zvezda Service Module was deferred until tomorrow morning, concurrent with the closing of the hatch to the Raffaello module prior to its detachment from the ISS.

Endeavour will leave the station with a new crew and almost three tons of new food, supplies, experiments and equipment. Endeavour will bring home the offgoing Expedition Three station crew -- Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin -- and more than two tons of unneeded station gear, food containers, clothes, and other cargo. The station's Expedition Four crew -- Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz -- will remain aboard the outpost until May 2002.

Endeavour Pilot Mark Kelly used the shuttle's robotic arm to detach the Raffaello logistics carrier from the station today and reberth it in Endeavour's payload bay. Raffaello was latched back into the shuttle bay at 4:44 p.m. CST. This morning, Dezhurov and Onufrienko worked together to replace a faulty air conditioner compressor in the station's Zvezda living quarters module as the crews completed cargo transfer activities.

Flight controllers are planning slight changes to Endeavour's departure from the station Saturday, allowing time for a small jet firing by the shuttle to boost the station's future path away from a piece of space debris that could pass near the complex on Sunday. Mission Control was notified early today that a spent Russian rocket upper stage launched in the 1970s could pass within three miles of the station if Endeavour did not perform the engine firing. With the shuttle reboost now planned on Friday, the station is predicted to instead pass more than 40 miles away from the debris on Sunday.

The new plan for Saturday's activities will have the station and shuttle crews bid farewell to one another and close hatches between the two spacecraft at about 7:30 a.m. CST. Endeavour will pulse its steering jets gradually for about 30 minutes beginning at about 8:55 a.m. CST to raise the station's altitude by almost three-quarters of a mile. Endeavour will then undock from the station at about 10:37 a.m. CST. Because of the changes, Endeavour will not perform a full-circle flyaround of the station after undocking. Instead, Endeavour will undock from the station and fly only a quarter circle of the complex, to a point about 400 feet directly above the station where it will fire its engines at about 11:20 a.m. CST to depart the vicinity of the oribting outpost.

Endeavour's crew will begin a sleep period today at 8:19 p.m. CST and awaken at 4:17 a.m. CST Saturday.

Raffaello has been loaded with unneeded equipment, as well as gear from the returning Expedition Three crewmembers, including their custom Soyuz spacesuits and seat liners. The hatch between Raffaello and the space station will be closed about 10 a.m. CST today once final transfers are complete. About 1:20 p.m., Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialist Linda Godwin will begin the process of detaching Raffaello from the station using the shuttle's 50-foot long robotic arm. The process of removing Raffaello from the station and carefully placing it back in Endeavour's payload bay is expected to be complete shortly after 3:30 p.m.

The two station commanders - Frank Culbertson and Yury Onufrienko - will continue their handover briefings even as they prepare for Endeavour's scheduled departure Saturday morning. Expedition Three crew member Vladimir Dezhurov will join Onufrienko in some final maintenance work on the station this morning replacing a faulty compressor in an air conditioner unit in the Zvezda Service Module.

All of the crew members - Endeavour Commander Dom Gorie, Kelly, Godwin and Dan Tani, along with Expedition Three crew members Culbertson, Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin and the Expedition Four crew, Onufrienko, Dan Bursch and Carl Walz - will meet late in the day today for a final briefing in preparation for Endeavour's departure tomorrow. Following final farewells tomorrow morning, about 7:30 a.m., the hatches between Endeavour and the station will be closed for a final time during this mission. Endeavour will undock from the station at 10 a.m. Saturday, and after a brief fly-around of the station, a final engine burn will mark Endeavour's departure from the station, leaving the Expedition Four crew on board for a planned five-month stay.

Endeavour's crew was awakened at 5:12 a.m. today by a traditional Russian song, "My Sweetheart," played for Onufrienko, Dezhurov and Tyurin. The Expedition Four crew was awakened about a half-hour later with a wake-up tone on board the station.

Endeavour and the International Space Station remain in good shape, orbiting at an average altitude of 241 statute miles. Wednesday, the crew and flight control teams noted a transient problem with one of the shuttle's three inertial measurement units (IMUs), the primary navigation units for the shuttle. That IMU, designated IMU2, experienced about an hour-long "drift rate," subsequently returning to normal operation. Flight controllers have taken IMU2 off line and declared it "failed," though it has performed normally since the initial problem was observed. The remaining two IMUs on board are performing well and the loss of a single IMU has no impact on Endeavour's mission or planned landing. Endeavour could operate well on only one IMU if required.

Endeavour is bringing home the Expedition Three crew - Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin - who have been in space since they launched to the station on August 10. In addition to bringing home the Expedition Three crew, Endeavour carried to orbit both a new crew and almost three tons of supplies and experiments to the station. That new crew, Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz, will remain aboard the space station until May.

The Endeavour astronauts were awakened for their 11th day in space at 4:17 a.m. by the song "Where I Come From," by Alan Jackson, for Pilot Mark Kelly from his family.

Overnight, flight controllers decided to execute an additional reboost of the space station, designed to add about three-quarters of a mile to the station's altitude. On Friday, flight controllers received word from U.S. Space Command that a spent Russian rocket upper stage, launched in the 1970s, could pass within three miles of the station. With today's scheduled reboost, beginning at 8:55 a.m. and using Endeavour's small firing jets for about 20 minutes, the space debris is now expected to pass more than 40 miles away from the station.

With Kelly at the controls, Endeavour is scheduled to undock from the station about 10:37 a.m., concluding more than a week of docked operations. Because today's scheduled reboost will use additional propellant, Endeavour will not perform a full-circle flyaround of the station after undocking. Instead, the shuttle will undock from the station, performing a quarter circle flyaround of the complex to a point about 400 feet directly above the station where it will fire its engines in a final separation burn at 11:20 a.m. beginning its departure from the orbiting outpost.

On the station, all systems are functioning well, including a newly refurbished air conditioning unit in the Russian Zvezda Service Module which received a new compressor yesterday. The air conditioner was tested last night and is functioning normally.

The STS-108 and Expedition Three crewmembers will take time this afternoon to discuss the progress of their mission with KGO-TV in San Francisco, the Fox News

Network and Associated Press in an interview scheduled to begin at 3:09 p.m. today on NASA TV. The crew also will enjoy several hours of scheduled off duty time today prior to gearing up for Monday's scheduled landing.

Homecoming at the Kennedy Space Center is scheduled at 11:55 a.m. Central time Monday. The early weather forecast calls for possible scattered and broken clouds and thunderstorms within 30 nautical miles of the landing strip.

Endeavour undocked from the station at 11:28 a.m. CST as the spacecraft flew 240 statute miles above the Indian Ocean off the Australian coast. Pilot Mark Kelly flew Endeavour through a half-circle of the station before firing jets to leave the vicinity.

Before undocking, Endeavour's jets were fired in a series of small pulses beginning at 8:55 a.m. CST to raise the altitude of the station about three quarters of a mile. The maneuver ensures the station will fly well clear of an old Russian rocket body that had been predicted to potentially pass close to the complex later this weekend. The final small reboost by the shuttle, coupled with three larger reboosts done earlier in the week, means the station was raised a total of more than nine statute miles by Endeavour.

The new station crew, Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz, said goodbye to Endeavour's crew and the departing Expedition Three crew and closed hatches between the spacecraft at 7:16 a.m. CST. Now en route home, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin completed 117 days as the primary station crew and spent 125 days aboard the station overall. When Endeavour lands on Monday, they will have spent a total of 129 days in space.

The crew members aboard Endeavour had several hours off duty after departing the station, a break from a very busy pace moving tons of supplies between the shuttle and station during the past week. Sunday's activities will focus on checking out systems used during descent and making preparations for a landing on Monday. Endeavour is set to land at the Kennedy Space Center, FL, about 11:55 a.m. CST Monday. The weather forecast predicts generally acceptable conditions except for a chance of rain showers in the vicinity of the landing site. Flight controllers determined today that all three Inertial Measurement Units on Endeavour, the primary navigation systems for the shuttle, would be usable for landing. One of the three units had been taken off line two days ago due to a brief fault. However, the unit has worked well since that time. Even if the problem were to recur, it would not affect Endeavour's entry and landing since the shuttle can operate with only one such unit if necessary. Endeavour's crew will begin a sleep period at 7:19 p.m. CST and awaken at 3:19 a.m. CST Sunday.

Concluding a successful mission to the International Space Station, today's landing brings to an end a voyage of more than 4.8 million miles for Endeavour and marks the 57th shuttle landing at the Florida spaceport.

On Endeavour's flight deck are Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani. On the middeck, strapped into recumbent chairs to reduce the effects of reentry, is the Expedition Three crew, Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin.

Following routine medical examinations, the STS-108 and Expedition Three crewmembers will enjoy a reunion with their families. All seven crewmembers are expected to return to a public welcome home at Hangar 990 at Houston's Ellington Field about 1 p.m. Wednesday.

During their 12 days in orbit, the STS-108 crew worked with both the returning Expedition Three and newly-arrived Expedition Four crews to transfer more than three tons of material, hardware and supplies from Endeavour to the station. Godwin and Tani also conducted a spacewalk to install thermal protection on motor assemblies that control the motion of the station's large solar arrays.

On board the International Space Station, the Expedition Four crew - Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz - are settling in for a planned five-month stay on orbit, unloading the recently arrived Progress resupply vehicle.

Last Saturday, the three new station crewmembers bid farewell to their predecessors, the Expedition Three crew, and the crew of Endeavour as the shuttle undocked to begin its journey home. The Expedition Three crew of Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin returned to Earth on Monday and to Houston on Wednesday. The three have begun several weeks of physical rehabilitation to help their bodies readjust to the pull of Earth's gravity

Aboard the station, Onufrienko, Bursch and Walz spent the week activating science experiments, including a cell growth experiment used to study colon and ovarian cancer cells and human kidney cells. They also continued to familiarize themselves with their new home, unload the Progress 6 cargo ship, and unpack equipment and supplies brought aboard Endeavour.

The crew will continue experiment work next week, and they will have a day off on Christmas Day to observe the holiday. The station's food stores include turkey and some other traditional holiday foods. The crew also will observe a holiday on New Year's Day.

All International Space Station systems are currently operating well. However, on Tuesday flight controllers noted that the Beta Gimbal Assembly that rotates the port-side U.S. solar array experienced strain on its electric motor and briefly stalled. The mechanism was restarted quickly and has since been performing normally. The stall had no significant impact on station operations and is similar to events seen several times in the past. The Beta Gimbal Assemblies rotate the station's arrays, allowing them to precisely track the sun, generating the maximum possible power for the station.

During Endeavour's flight, thermal blankets were installed on both assemblies to better insulate them in hopes of alleviating such problems. Engineers have confidence the mechanisms will continue to operate, and they are continuing to gather data from both the port and starboard mechanisms to evaluate the effectiveness of the new insulation.

Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch observed a quiet New Year's holiday in orbit, spending time relaxing and communicating with family and friends. Later in the week, work resumed as the crew operated two experiments that study astronauts' reactions to weightlessness. Walz and Bursch both participated in the H-Reflex experiment, a study that gauges the effects of weightlessness on spinal cord excitability and reflexes, and the Pulmonary Function experiment, a study of the effects of space flight and space walks on lung function.

Bursch and Walz had an opportunity to train in the operation of the station's robotic arm, the Canadarm2, while maneuvering the arm on Thursday to latch on to fixtures on the exterior of the station. In addition to providing training for the crew, the arm operations tested a new technique being developed to alleviate tension that has been seen as the arm releases its latch on a fixture. The tests provided valuable data for engineers on the ground developing those techniques, and similar tests may be repeated later in the mission.

The crew members have virtually completed unpacking and stowing the more than three tons of supplies and equipment brought to the station with them aboard the space shuttle in early December. Their attention next week will turn to an upcoming milestone for their flight -- the first of two planned this month and as many as four spacewalks that are planned during their five-month stay aboard the station. Walz and Onufrienko are planned to conduct a spacewalk for up to six hours tentatively beginning at about 2:50 p.m. CST Jan. 14. This weekend, the crew will begin shifting their sleep period later to adjust for the timing of the upcoming spacewalk, and, next week, checkouts will begin of the spacesuits and spacewalking gear that will be used for the work outside.

The spacewalk will use Russian Orlan space suits and originate from the Russian Pirs docking compartment airlock. Onufrienko and Walz will reposition an exterior Russian strela cargo crane from the station's pressurized mating adapter 1 to the station's Zarya module, moving it within reach of a similar crane on the Pirs compartment. The move will allow the cranes to be used in tandem to maneuver equipment on the station's exterior during future space walks.

After exiting the station from the Russian Pirs docking compartment, Onufrienko and Walz will use a Russian cargo crane that is already installed on Pirs to relocate a similar crane from the station's Pressurized Mating Adapter 1 onto Pirs. On future spacewalks, the two cranes, called Strela (the Russian word for "arrow"), can be used to maneuver equipment and spacewalkers on the station's exterior. Onufrienko and Walz also will install an amateur radio antenna on a handrail at the end of the Zvezda service module.

Monday's spacewalk will be the thirty-second in support of the assembly of the International Space Station, the seventh such excursion conducted from the station itself, and the sixth based out of the station's Russian segment. A second spacewalk this month -- to be conducted by Onufrienko and Bursch -- is targeted for Jan. 25. The plan for this spacewalk currently includes the installation of thruster deflector shields on the end of Zvezda.

In addition to preparing for next week's spacewalk, the Expedition Four crew continued a series of upgrades to the station's computer hardware. The crew also completed the first session of a Human Life Sciences experiment called Renal, which is investigating ways to prevent the formation of renal stones during long-duration spaceflights.

The first space walk Expedition Four crew's five-month tour of duty began at 2:59 p.m. CST and ended at 9:02 p.m. CST, lasting a total of 6 hours, 3 minutes. Monday's spacewalk was the thirty-second in support of space station assembly, the seventh such excursion conducted from the station itself, and the sixth based out of the station's Russian segment. The total amount of time spent on space station-based spacewalks now stands at 29 hours, 04 minutes, and the total spacewalking time spent on station construction at 196 hours, 19 minutes.

After exiting the station from the Russian Pirs docking compartment, Onufrienko and Walz assembled an extension for a Russian cargo boom that had been previously installed on Pirs. They used the operational cargo crane, called Strela 1 (Strela is the Russian word for arrow), to get into position to detach and relocate a similar crane temporarily stored on the outside of the Unity-to-Zarya connecting tunnel. Known as Strela 2, this second crane was moved back alongside Pirs and attached to a base point on the opposite side of the docking compartment and airlock at 6:31 p.m. CST.

The first piece of Strela 2 had been delivered and installed in May 1999, and the second piece in May 2000. On future spacewalks, the two cranes may be used to maneuver equipment and spacewalkers.

Onufrienko and Walz also installed an amateur radio antenna on a handrail at the end of the Zvezda service module. The antenna is one of four that eventually will allow space station crew members to make "ham" radio contacts from the comfort of their living quarters inside Zvezda. Currently, the amateur radio station is inside the Zarya module.

The next spacewalk of the expedition - to be conducted by Onufrienko and Bursch - is targeted for Jan. 25. The plan for this spacewalk currently includes installation of the remaining three amateur radio antennae and thruster deflector shields on the end of Zvezda.

Flight Engineer Carl Walz worked with computer experts on the ground to install and activate a new solid state mass memory unit for one of the station's three main command and control computers, known by its acronym of "C&C1." It took Walz about two hours to remove the older mass memory unit, which used a spinning disk design, and another two hours for flight controllers on the ground to complete the reactivation of C&C1. Computer experts on the ground are continuing to evaluate data on the health of the computer, but expect to place it in the backup spot to the primary computer, C&C2, on Jan. 23. C&C2 had its mass memory unit upgraded earlier this month. The final new mass memory unit is to be installed in C&C3 on Feb. 1. In addition, flight controllers this week also installed new software in two guidance, navigation and control computers on the station.

Meanwhile, Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Dan Bursch continued preparations for the next spacewalk, scheduled for Jan. 25. This week, they replenished space suit consumables used by Onufrienko and Walz on Monday, dried out the suits and readied the hardware items they will install on the outer skin of the station. The spacewalk is expected to begin at 9:35 a.m. CST next Friday, and last about 5 1/2 hours. Onufrienko and Bursch will wear Russian Orlan spacesuits and exit the station through the Pirs module, which serves as a docking module and airlock. Walz will provide support inside, monitoring their progress and moving the robotic Canadarm 2 for television coverage of their activities. It will be the 33rd spacewalk in support of space station assembly, and the eighth conducted from the station itself.

The two space-age construction workers will install 11 different systems on the outside of the Zvezda Service Module, including six thruster plume deflectors, the second of four ham radio antennae, a replacement experiment for studying contaminating particles from control jets, and a physics experiment. The Efflux Protection Assembly deflectors are designed to redirect plumes from the jets that help control the station's orientation so that they do not leave potentially harmful residues on the outside of the station where spacewalkers must work. The suitcase-like Kromka 1 experiment will replace the existing Kromka 1-0 experiment package, placing new materials samples where they can collect contaminants from the thrusters for future analysis (the Kromka 1-0 samples will be bagged and returned to the station for delivery to Earth aboard a Soyuz return craft). The Platan-M package is a physics experiment designed to search for natural low-energy heavy nuclei of solar and galactic origin.

The amateur radio antenna is one of four that eventually will allow space station crew members to make "ham" radio contacts from the comfort of their living quarters inside Zvezda.

While crew members concentrated on construction and maintenance tasks, inside the Destiny Laboratory, a host of scientific experiments continued to collect information about the effects of long-term space flight on humans, biotechnology, medicine, agriculture, electronics and pharmaceutical compounds.

With Onufrienko and Bursch working outside, Astronaut Carl Walz served as intravehicular crewmember, helping to coordinate the spacewalk and maneuvering the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2, to allow its television cameras to view the spacewalk. This was the 33rd spacewalk for station assembly and outfitting and the eighth conducted from the station itself. Onufrienko and Bursch, wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits, installed six plume deflectors around attitude control thrusters at the rear of the Zvezda module. The deflectors are designed to limit deposits on the outside of the station that result from the firing of those thrusters.

The spacewalkers also removed an experiment called Kromka situated near one of the thruster groups. The experiment captured material that results from thruster firings. It will be returned to Earth in early May aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. By studying the captured materials, engineers will gain a better understanding of the nature of the deposits. Onufrienko and Bursch installed a virtually identical new Kromka experiment in the same place. Future analysis of the materials it captures will provide information on the effect of the plume deflectors. They also installed a ham radio antenna and associated cabling at the rear of Zvezda. The antenna is the second of four that eventually will be situated around the back of the module. Onufrienko and Walz had installed the first antenna during a Jan. 14 spacewalk.

Onufrienko and Bursch also attached a physics experiment called Platan to Zvezda. Platan is designed to capture low-energy heavy nuclei from the sun and from outside the solar system. In addition, they installed three materials experiments, called SKK for their Russian acronym, on Zvezda. The experiments examine effects of the harsh environment of space on a wide range of materials. The spacewalkers also installed fairleads on Zvezda handrails. The fairleads, called pigtails, keep spacewalkers' tethers from fouling equipment or experiments on the module's exterior. Throughout the spacewalk, they took photos to document their work.

The crewmembers took a few breaks from their schedule during the week to field questions from a Cleveland, Ohio, television station and a New York, N.Y., radio station during an event on Thursday and to address more than 650 educators from across the United States on Friday that were gathered in Houston for the Eighth Annual International Space Station Educators Conference.

Maintenance activities included some minor repairs on the Active Rack Isolation System (ARIS), replacing the hard drive of one of the command and control computers, troubleshooting the slight echo usually heard during space-to-ground communications, removing the automated docking system from the Russian Progress resupply vehicle and installing a laptop computer in the Quest airlock. The ARIS dampens the vibrations caused by movement by the crew in an effort to isolate the sensitive science experiments located in the Destiny Laboratory. A shock absorber pushrod was replaced after malfunctioning because of normal wear and tear on the system.

The crew replaced the hard drive on the third and final command and control computer with the new solid-state mass memory unit that is expected to operate better in the microgravity environment than the spinning disk type hard drive. The new unit is now activated and operating well.

Ground controllers in Mission Control Houston and Moscow are guiding the crew through several tests of the station's communications system. The crew is trying several configurations of the system to help find a solution to an echo. The echo does not impact flight operations, but slightly decreases the quality of the audio heard on the ground.

The crew -- Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz -- was never in any danger, but began quickly powering down backup equipment and several experiments in case the power generated by the station's solar arrays began to decrease. With the station's orientation not controlled, the solar arrays were not able to autonomously point directly at the sun to generate full power for the complex. The computer went off-line at about 7 a.m. CST.

Flight controllers in Houston and Moscow worked together to restore all operations of the station during the morning, and, at one point, the crew sent manual commands to ensure the solar arrays remained directed at the sun. Russian controllers have not yet determined the cause of the computer problem and are continuing to analyze it.

By 9:30 a.m., flight controllers at the control center in Korolev, Russia, had successfully restarted the computer, and, by 11:30 a.m., the station's orientation control system had begun to be restored to operation.

The crew began its sleep period as normal at around 3:30 p.m. CST. They will awaken at about midnight CST, and they will spend some time tomorrow continuing a recovery of the equipment that was powered down as a result of today's problem.

In addition, Walz and Bursh prepared a set of three dosimeters each that will be used to measure any radiation they might receive during their scheduled Feb. 20 spacewalk. The dosimeters are part of the EVARM experiment, which is studying the amount of radiation astronauts receive during spacewalks to better design future radiation shielding in spacesuits.

Today, the crew spent their 64th day in space doing an inventory of the supplies aboard the station. The inventory will help planners determine how much and what kind of supplies the next station crew will need. The crew began the inventory process today and will complete it as time permits.

On Monday, the crew's normal work was interrupted for a few hours when a main computer in the station's Zvezda module unexpectedly went off-line, disrupting the system that controls the spacecraft's orientation. The computer was quickly brought back on-line and all station systems have operated normally since then. Russian controllers are still working to determine the cause of the disruption.

On Wednesday, Onufrienko celebrated his 41st birthday. He and his crewmates have been in space since Dec. 5. The crew has a light weekend of planned activities ahead, but usually takes time to complete a variety of odd jobs on their task list, a list of work aboard the station that does not need to be done at any specific time.

Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch, beginning their 10th week on orbit, received volumes of information and training materials from the flight control team on the ground, participated in computer-based training sessions, and checked out the spacesuit, airlock and experiment systems that will be used Feb. 20. A full dry-run of the airlock depressurization is planned Friday.

The excursion will mark the first use of the station's airlock since July 2001 and will test equipment and techniques that will be used during the April STS-110 assembly mission, when four spacewalks out of the Quest airlock will install the first piece of the station's structural and electrical "backbone." Bursch and Walz will perform a checkout of the airlock's systems, connect and disconnect several electrical cables, remove insulation blankets from the Z-1 truss structure and bring inside several tools to expedite the work planned for STS-110.

They will use U.S. space suits, with Walz, wearing a suit with red stripes on the legs and Bursch wearing an all-white suit. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at about 6 a.m. CST Wednesday. NASA Television coverage will begin at 5:30 a.m. CST Wednesday. Experiment work also continued aboard the station, as crew members set up and activated the second Advanced Astroculture experiment. The investigation will grow mustard plant seeds harvested on board the station by the Expedition Two crew and returned after analysis on Earth, making them a true second generation of space-grown plant life. The University of Wisconsin-sponsored experiment studies Arabidopsis thaliana, which is renowned in genetic research circles as a key to identifying genes and determining their functions for entire classes of similar organisms.

The crew disassembled the Active Rack Isolation System, which suffered a push-rod failure, and will soon conduct repairs that will enable the system to resume its work. The system protects sensitive microgravity experiments from the motions caused by everyday crew life aboard the station.

The crew also worked with flight controllers on the ground to complete some unplanned maintenance work after Sunday's failure in a Remote Power Conversion Module (RPCM) that distributes power to a variety of station systems. Full functionality was restored to the non-critical systems that were affected in the Destiny laboratory module after Bursch and Walz replaced the glorified breaker box with an onboard spare. To access the module, they removed Bursch's temporary sleep station and replaced it, installing additional high-density plastic radiation protection bricks while they had the opportunity.

A planned upgrade of the station's software was postponed until after the Feb. 20 spacewalk to allow software engineers on the ground to perform one last set of tests to verify all aspects of the software load. The new software will prepare the station's computer systems for the arrival of the truss structure and other components to be delivered on STS-110 and future flights.

It was the first spacewalk from Quest without the presence of a space shuttle at the station, earning it the designation of U.S. EVA 1. It also marked the first U.S. use of an Intravehicular (IV) officer, Astronaut Joe Tanner, working from Houston's Mission Control Center instead of from onboard the spacecraft, as has been the case up to this point. Also, new procedures were used to expedite airlock depressurization at the start of the spacewalk.

STS-110 will bring the S0 Truss to the station, the first segment of what will be the station's backbone. Four spacewalks will be conducted during that flight, all from the airlock and all using an oxygen/exercise protocol to purge nitrogen from the spacewalkers' bloodstreams. Walz and Bursch used that protocol today.

During the spacewalk today, Walz and Bursch deployed two electrical cables from their stowage area on the U.S. Laboratory Destiny and connected them to a cable tray near the base of the Z1 Truss. Plans to disconnect and restow the cables were put on hold while engineers evaluated unexpected readings from current conversion units in the circuit the cables completed. Walz removed four thermal blankets from the Z1 Truss and stowed them inside the truss, while Bursch retrieved tools to be used on STS-110 spacewalks and brought them to the airlock. The two also secured looser-than-expected latches on two oxygen tanks and two nitrogen tanks, on the airlock.

Walz and Bursch removed adaptors on which a Russian cargo crane had been mounted and attached one of them to the Zarya module's exterior. They brought the other, U.S.-made, adaptor into the airlock. They also inspected cable connectors outside the station and photographed the MISSE (Materials International Space Station Experiment). Some of the materials samples being exposed to the harsh conditions of space apparently were peeling back off their mountings.

Scientists used the spacewalk to gather additional data for an experiment looking at the effects of spacewalks and long-term exposure to microgravity on lung function. Also, Walz and Bursch will wear radiation sensors for the EVARM experiment, a study of radiation doses experienced by spacewalking astronauts.

Walz and Bursch each had made one previous spacewalk from the station last month, and Walz also made a spacewalk on STS-51 in September 1993. During today's spacewalk, Expedition 4 Commander Yury Onufrienko operated cameras on the station's Canadian provided robotic arm to document activities.

A planned upgrade of the station's software is scheduled for late this week to prepare station computers for arrival of the S0 Truss and other equipment to be delivered on subsequent flights.

Also today, Houston's Mission Control Center and the crew began a transition to new software for the station's computers, a process that is proceeding well and will continue with checkouts for several days.

Many of today's medical tests on crewmembers were done in the U.S. laboratory Destiny, in which the crew resumed work early this morning. As a precaution, they had spent much of the past 48 hours in the Russian segment while an air freshening system removed a musty odor that had spread through U.S. modules Wednesday. The odor originated from a Quest Airlock system that was being used to cleanse spacesuit air scrubbers Wednesday afternoon. The crew reported few remnants of the smell in the station this morning.

Russian flight controllers reboosted the station Thursday using the Progress vehicle docked at the rear of the Zvezda living quarters module. The reboost, performed in two segments, raised the altitude of the station by a little less than three statute miles to an average altitude of about 239 miles.

The crew began the week by bringing the Active Rack Isolation System back to life after installing a new shock absorber in the rack. One of the eight pushrods that was not operating correctly was replaced by the crew. The system works to dampen out the vibrations generated by crews' movement throughout the station. Those vibrations could affect the delicate science experiments located inside the rack. Air and water samples were taken from the Advanced Astroculture experiment inside the US Destiny laboratory. The samples will be brought back to Earth for scientists to study. Scientists hope to determine what nutrients and conditions are necessary for plants to grow in microgravity.

The Earthkam experiment was activated once again this week. The crew set up a digital camera in the window of Destiny, enabling middle school students on the ground to remotely take pictures of the Earth's geographical features from a vantage point 240 statue miles high.

To prepare for the Earthkam activation, the station's robotic arm was moved Tuesday so it would not block the view of Earth from the Destiny lab. The crew could not release the brakes to begin the move using the arm's primary avionics system. The secondary avionics system operated normally, however, and was used to perform the move. The specific cause of the problem with the primary avionics system is still being investigated.

Thursday, the crew put the arm through a practice run of the movements it will make during the next shuttle mission to the station, STS-110 in April. The arm will be used to attach the next major station component, the S0 truss. On Thursday, ground controllers also sent up tests for the primary and secondary computer workstations used to operate the arm. The secondary workstation was not able to boot up during the test, and engineers are evaluating it. When the workstation difficulties were encountered, the arm was left in a safe parked position while engineers study the problem.

The crewmembers onboard Columbia - Altman, Pilot Duane Carey and Mission Specialists John Grunsfeld, Nancy Currie, Rick Linnehan, Jim Newman and Mike Massimino - will have a rare opportunity to speak with another crew in orbit, the International Space Station Expedition Four crew.

At 2:15 a.m. Sunday the shuttle crew will talk with space station Commander Yury Onufrienko, and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch. STS-109 is the first space shuttle mission not dedicated to assembly of the space station, since a crew has been living aboard the orbiting laboratory. The station has been continuously inhabited since the first expedition crew arrived in November 2000.

Columbia's crew also will participate in a live question and answer session with reporters at 6:47 a.m. WABC Radio in New York City; KARE-TV of Minneapolis, Minn., and the CBS Radio Network will discuss the Hubble servicing mission with the crew.

Flight Controllers at the Space Telescope Operations Center in Greenbelt, Md., report that all systems on Hubble are operating well after its release from Columbia. The new, more efficient solar arrays and Power Control Unit are performing excellently. The activation of the science instruments is scheduled to begin about 11 p.m. Sunday. Controllers will continue to monitor the newly installed components until everything is brought back on line.

Science observations are expected to resume in the next few weeks from the veteran Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and Wide Field Planetary Camera. Any possible moisture accumulated during the maintenance operations will be allowed to evaporate before some instruments will be activated. The newest science instrument, the Advanced Camera for Surveys, will begin peering more deeply into the cosmos in the next few months.

The crew will begin a sleep period at 11:22 a.m. Sunday.

Although it will be at least several weeks before all of the scientific equipment installed by Columbia's crew is tested, space telescope controllers report that all functional checks of Hubble continue to be fully successful.

The crew is now beginning to turn their attention to the trip home, with a landing by Columbia planned for 3:32 a.m. CST Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The weather forecast for landing calls for generally acceptable conditions with only a slight chance of rain showers developing offshore.

Early this morning, the astronauts aboard Columbia made a long-distance call to their fellow space fliers, the Expedition Four crew of Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz, now in their fourth month in orbit aboard the International Space Station. With the aid of Mission Control, the two spacecraft crews conversed as Columbia flew 350 statute miles above the Atlantic Ocean and the station flew 240 miles above the South Pacific.

Columbia's crew begins a sleep period at 11:22 a.m. CST and will awaken for what is planned to be their final full day in orbit at 7:22 p.m. CST. That day will be devoted to the standard shuttle checkouts conducted prior to landing, testing the flight controls and steering jets needed for the return to Earth.

Columbia remains in good condition, with no systems problems of concern to flight controllers. Tuesday's primary landing opportunity to Kennedy would begin with a deorbit engine firing by Columbia at 2:25 a.m. CST leading to the 3:32 a.m. CST touchdown. A second landing opportunity also is available for Kennedy on Tuesday, beginning with an engine firing at 4:07 a.m. CST leading to a touchdown at 5:13 a.m. CST.

Although opportunities do exist for landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Ca., shuttle managers plan to focus Tuesday only on a landing in Florida.

The first plant tissue samples were taken from the Advanced Astroculture experiment inside the U.S. laboratory Destiny. Air, water, soil and plant samples will be brought back to Earth for scientists to study and will be compared to crops grown on Earth. The EarthKAM experiment completed its observations for this expedition and was deactivated Saturday after the digital camera took 425 pictures last week. The experiment has allowed middle school students on the ground to remotely take about 2,271 pictures of the Earth's geographical features from a vantage point 240 statute miles high. The last reading for the Hoffmann Reflex experiment was taken this week. This experiment measures the ability of the spinal cord to respond to a stimulus after being exposed to microgravity and may provide input to improve exercise during long spaceflight missions. Eight crewmembers from expedition crews have participated in this experiment. Only post-flight observations remain for the current station crew.

The crew began packing used and unneeded equipment into the Progress resupply vehicle docked to the aft end of the Zvezda service module. The Progress spacecraft will be jettisoned from the station Tuesday and will burn up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. A new Progress resupply vehicle will launch from the Baikanour Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan March 21 and will arrive at the station three days later.

An audit is taking place on board the station in preparation for the next space shuttle visit in April. Using an electronic inventory management system, station crewmembers are organizing equipment to enhance efficiency. When the space shuttle Atlantis docks to the space station next month, there will be a total of 10 crewmembers working throughout the spacecraft, now the size of a three-bedroom house, for almost a week.

Walz and Bursch also operated the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2, to observe the exterior of the station via cameras located on the arm. The cameras focused on the claw-like latch cradle assembly mounted on the Destiny module. The crew also used the cameras to inspect the station's radiators and solar arrays. During STS-110 next month, Canadarm2 will be used to move the S-zero truss segment from the shuttle's payload bay to the latch assembly on Destiny to be installed during four planned spacewalks. Flight controllers on the ground continue to monitor the arm's operation after it experienced difficulties with the primary avionics system last week. The arm functioned successfully on the secondary system this week.

On command from Russian flight controllers, the Progress 6 vehicle undocked from the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at 11:43 a.m. CST (1743 GMT). Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko watched the undocking from the Pirs Docking Compartment and Flight Engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz monitored the departure from the Destiny Lab's robotics workstation.

The Progress' engines performed the first of two separation maneuvers within minutes of undocking. Flight controllers plan to deploy a small Russian student science satellite from the Progress later today before the resupply craft is commanded to deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere.

At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, preparations are complete for Thursday's launch of the new Progress 7 spacecraft, which will carry several tons of food, fuel and supplies to the ISS. The Progress 7 craft will link up to the ISS on Sunday afternoon.

The Progress 7 spacecraft lifted off on a Soyuz booster rocket at 2:13 p.m. CST (2013 GMT) and less than 10 minutes later safely settled into orbit. Automatic programmed commands enabled its solar arrays and navigational antennas to deploy. At the time of launch, the ISS and the Expedition Four crew, Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch, were traveling over Africa out of the line of sight of the launch itself.

A series of rendezvous burns from the new Progress' engines over the next three days will result in a docking by the craft to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module on Sunday at 2:55 p.m. CST (2055 GMT) over Central Asia. That port was vacated on Tuesday when the previous Progress resupply vehicle undocked and was deorbited to a destructive re-entry back into Earth's atmosphere.

The Progress 7 spacecraft gently linked up to the aft docking port of the station's Zvezda Service Module at 2:58 p.m. CST (2058 GMT) as the two craft sailed over Central Asia at an altitude of 240 statute miles. Within minutes, hooks and latches engaged between the Progress's docking probe and Zvezda's capture mechanism to form a tight seal.

Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch, were scheduled to perform leak checks of the interface between the Progress and Zvezda later today before opening up the hatches to the newly arrived vehicle. The crew will begin to unload its cargo on Monday.

The successful docking sets the stage for the launch of Atlantis in less than two weeks on the next station assembly flight --- to deliver the S0 (S-zero) centerpiece truss structure for the station that will be mated and outfitted to the Destiny Laboratory during four spacewalks. Launch of the STS-110 mission is tentatively set for April 4. A firm launch date is expected to be set this week following the traditional Flight Readiness Review by NASA managers at the Kennedy Space Center.

While engineers on the ground will continue to study results of the exercise, it was a major step in proving redundancy in the arm, validating the backup operating string. The prime string was successfully tested on Thursday.

The tests were in preparation for STS-110, to be launched on April 4. The arm will be used to lift the S0 Truss from the shuttle's payload bay and install it on the station's U.S. laboratory Destiny. Atlantis crewmembers will do four spacewalks to complete installation.

Today's test of the arm completed a busy workweek for the crew, Commander Yury Onufrienko, Walz and Bursch. It began with the Sunday arrival of the unpiloted Russian Progress 7 resupply vehicle and concluded with the successful arm operations, completed ahead of schedule. Today's test was to have been done next Monday.

Science activities continued. Work today involved the ARIS-ICE vibration characterization experiment, the EVA Radiation Monitor and the Advanced Astroculture experiment.

Major systems aboard the ISS continue to function well as the station orbits at an average altitude of about 242 statute miles.

Commander Mike Bloomfield, Pilot Steve Frick, Flight Engineer Ellen Ochoa and spacewalkers Steve Smith, Rex Walheim, Jerry Ross and Lee Morin rocketed away from Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:44 p.m. Central time as the ISS orbited over the Atlantic Ocean due east of the northeastern United States at an altitude of 240 statute miles.

Launch occurred with only 12 seconds left in the 5-minute launch window due to a brief delay caused by a momentary ground launch system software glitch at the Launch Control Center at the Florida spaceport which paused the countdown at the T-minus 5-minute mark. Once the problem was solved, the countdown resumed.

Atlantis' launch marked a milestone as Ross became the first human to fly in space seven times, breaking a record of six flights previously held by Ross and fellow American astronauts John Young, Story Musgrave, Franklin Chang-Diaz and Curt Brown. No Russian cosmonaut has flown in space more than five times.

Now in their fifth month in orbit, Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch were able to watch Atlantis' launch through a video uplink from flight controllers in Houston. Atlantis' arrival will mark the first visitors for the Expedition Four crewmembers since their launch back in December.

Less than nine minutes later, Atlantis and its crewmembers settled into orbit as work began to prepare the shuttle for its planned 11-day mission and for a series of rendezvous maneuvers to reach the station on Wednesday morning. Atlantis will actually have to lap the ISS as a result of those maneuvers before its scheduled docking with the outpost Wednesday.

After Atlantis' payload bay doors are opened and approval is given for the start of orbital operations, the seven crewmembers will unstow computers and other gear required for the mission.

If all goes as planned, Atlantis will link up to the station Wednesday just after 11 a.m. Central time, setting the stage for the installation of the S0 (S-Zero) Truss on Thursday morning on the Destiny Laboratory and the first of four spacewalks to mate and activate the new component to Destiny. The S-Zero Truss will serve as a platform upon which other trusses will be attached and additional solar arrays will be mounted in future assembly flights to form a structure longer than the length of a football field. The new truss will also serve as a primary electrical switching station to route power from the stations' arrays to various modules and components.

The shuttle crew will begin its first sleep period at 8:44 p.m. Central time and will be awakened at 4:44 Tuesday morning to begin its first full day in orbit, designed to test the ship's robot arm, spacesuits and rendezvous equipment which will be used over the next few days.

With docking scheduled at 11:06 a.m. Central time (1606 GMT) tomorrow, Commander Mike Bloomfield, Pilot Steve Frick and Mission Specialists Rex Walheim, Ellen Ochoa, Lee Morin, Jerry Ross and Steve Smith verified all of Atlantis' equipment, setting the stage for the orbiter's linkup to a docking port at the forward end of the station's Destiny Laboratory.

Docking is planned over south central China, southwest of Shanghai. The crew will be up early Wednesday to complete preparations and to execute a number of engine firings to draw Atlantis close to the ISS for its eventual docking.

Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch tidied up their orbital home and completed routine maintenance on the eve of the arrival of their first visitors since they were launched to the ISS back in December. After docking and hatch opening tomorrow, the two crews will run through a dress rehearsal of procedures which will be used on Thursday to maneuver the large S0 (S-Zero) Truss structure from Atlantis' cargo bay for mating to a capture device at the top of Destiny.

Four spacewalks will be conducted by two teams of spacewalkers to electrically and structurally connect the new truss to the ISS. The 13 and a half-ton S-Zero is the mainframe for a series of trusses to follow which will expand the station to a length of a football field.

Late today, Bloomfield and Frick executed a rendezvous maneuver by firing Atlantis' reaction control system jets to refine the shuttle's path to the space station. Several larger engine firings will be conducted Wednesday morning to slow Atlantis' approach to the station, setting up its final path for linkup to the ISS.

With all of its systems functioning in excellent shape, Atlantis orbits the Earth at an altitude of around 220 statute miles. The crew began an eight-hour sleep period at 7:44 Central time this evening and will be awakened at 3:44 Wednesday morning.

On board the station, the Expedition 4 crew, Commander Yury Onufrienko and flight engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch, also awoke at 3:44 a.m. to an alarm-clock-like tone. They have synchronized their sleep schedule to match that of the Atlantis crew to prepare for docked operations.

About two hours after Atlantis docks to the station, the hatches between the two spacecraft will open and Onufrienko, Bursch and Walz will greet their first visitors since beginning their stay aboard the orbiting laboratory last December. After a welcome and safety briefing, all 10 astronauts and cosmonauts will begin transferring equipment and supplies between the two vehicles.

Both crews will jointly review plans for installation of the S-Zero (S0) Truss, including procedures for Thursday's scheduled spacewalk, the first of four during this mission. Ochoa and Bursh will maneuver the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2, through a rehearsal of the motions it will use Thursday to pluck the 44-foot, 27,000 pound truss segment from the shuttle's cargo bay and install it atop the station's U.S. laboratory Destiny.

Major systems aboard Atlantis and the space station continue to function well.