NASA STS-122 Report #04 5 a.m. CST Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008

NASA STS-122 Report #04 5 a.m. CST Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008

STATUS REPORT
Date Released: Saturday, February 9, 2008
Source: Johnson Space Center

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

The International Space Station's newest scientific laboratory, the European Space Agency's Columbus research module, is just hours from completing its journey to the station.

Space shuttle Atlantis will deliver the new module and a new crew member to the station when it docks at 11:25 a.m. CST to begin 6 days of docked operations.

Today's wakeup song, played for Commander Steve Frick, at 3:45 a.m. CST was the theme song from Garrison Keillor's radio variety show "A Prairie Home Companion." The song is the Spencer Williams composition "Tishomingo Blues," but with lyrics written especially for the show.

Frick and his shuttle crewmates begin rendezvous operations at 5:30 a.m. CST. At 10:23 a.m., at a range of 600 feet below the station, Frick will command Atlantis to perform a back flip so ISS Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko can photograph the thermal tiles on the shuttle's underside. Those digital images will be sent to Mission Control for analysis.

With the pitch maneuver complete, Frick will then fly the shuttle ahead of the station and slowly ease the orbiter back to a docking with the space station.

After hatch opening, the crew members will begin moving spacewalking equipment into the Quest airlock to prepare for the first excursion on Sunday. Mission Specialists Rex Walheim and Hans Schlegel will go outside to prepare the Columbus module to be grappled by the station's robotic arm, lifted from Atlantis' payload bay, and installed on the starboard side of Harmony.

The official exchange of Atlantis crewmember Leopold Eyharts with space station Flight Engineer Dan Tani, who arrived at the station in October, is planned for 6 a.m. CST Sunday. The transfer becomes official with the installation of Eyharts' customized seat liner in the Soyuz.

The STS-122 crew is on an 11-day mission to install and activate Columbus. The new laboratory is Europe's largest contribution to the construction of the station, adding 2,648 cubic feet of pressurized volume, four science experiment racks and one storage rack to the orbiting complex.

The next STS-122 status report will be issued Saturday evening or earlier if events warrant.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Mercury - Venus - The Moon - Mars - Jupiter - Saturn - Pluto

RADWIN empowers service providers so they can deliver high speed Wireless broadband Access services.

Find hose reels and watering systems

Quality leather chairs in a variety of styles.

News from Commercial Space Watch

- NASA Awards $350,000 to Winning Astronaut Glove Designers

- Recovery Act: Water Management in California: Cyber Infrastructure for Irrigation Optimization

- Former Shuttle Astronaut-Astronomer, Sam Durrance, Joins the CSF Suborbital Researchers Group

- Satellite-Based Earth Observation Market Entering Phase of Impressive Growth

- NASA and Lighting Science Sign Agreement to Develop Lighting for Space Exploration

- Sky No Longer the Limit for Digital Magazines

- NASA Develops Algae Bioreactor as a Sustainable Energy Source

- Aerojet Engines Support Space Shuttle Atlantis' Re-stocking Mission to International Space Station

- Suborbital Applications Researchers Group Meets in Washington

- NewSpace Is Under Attack

- Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Successfully Tests Thruster for Unmanned Lunar Lander

- bacus Technology Corporation Awarded NASA Kennedy Space Center Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year - 2009

- NASA ARC Memo; Procurement Sensitivity of the Competition of Aeronautics and Exploration Mission Modeling and Simulation Request for Proposal NNA09274979R

- Lockheed Martin Tests Carbon Nanotube-Based Memory Devices on NASA Shuttle Mission

- Leonid Meteor Shower to Perform Late Tonight

- Decorate your home with nautical decor

- Dieses Portal stellt Ihnen die besten online Casino Bonus und Pokerr�ume im Internet vor.

- Play free bingo games and black out bingo.

- 220Marketing specializes in providing mortgage marketing for mortgage companies and managers.

- Take your time to tour our site and check out all the fun games we operate. In addition to the 20 online bingo rooms we operate, we also have online keno.

- TV Stands