STS-134 Shuttle Mission to the International Space Station Launches Monday 16th @ 13:56 BST

Cosimo · 21 May 2011 at 08:15

Flight Day 5 highlights:

The wakeup call for today was In View by the Canadian band The Tragically Hip and the plan is:

Flight Day 6

• Inspection of a damaged heat shield tile
• Orbiter boom sensor system (OBSS) grapple by Canadarm2 and handoff to shuttle robotic arm
• Crew off-duty period
• Spacewalk 2 procedure review
• Spacewalk 2 campout and prebreathe by Feustel and Fincke

PermaBanned · 21 May 2011 at 15:04

Amazing view of Earth through the helmet cam there. Can't imagine what that must be like...

Berserker · 21 May 2011 at 16:50

Danfoss2011 said:
I wana see some space walking, only stuff i see was back in 98 with the encarta cd

Tomorrow morning.

PermaBanned · 21 May 2011 at 20:33

I wish they'd tour the world with one of the shuttles to celebrate the Shuttle programme when it's over...

Berserker · 21 May 2011 at 20:48

Superewza said:
I wish they'd tour the world with one of the shuttles to celebrate the Shuttle programme when it's over...

Too expensive for modern budget-stretched NASA. The only way to do it is on the back of the SCA and that takes a lot of fuel and planning.

Although they did do a limited PR tour with Enterprise in the 80s (flew to the UK, for example).

PermaBanned · 21 May 2011 at 21:07

I can't imagine it would be all that expensive in the grand scale of things. The SCA is essentially just a 747.

PermaBanned · 22 May 2011 at 03:25

I may have missed a couple but i'm sure you can find them - there's a great tour of the Shuttle/ISS/Soyuz/Progress stack in this one. Shame about that old dude in drag

Cosimo · 22 May 2011 at 07:40

Cosimo · 22 May 2011 at 07:42

Today's plan:

Flight Day 7

• Spacewalk 2 by Feustel and Fincke (Port Solar Alpha Rotary Joint cover removal and lubrication, Starboard 1 truss radiator grapple bar stowage, early ammonia servicer venting, refill of the Port 1 Ammonia Tank Assembly, Dextre robot latching end effector lubrication)

Spacewalk two starts at 07:05 (BST).

Cosimo · 22 May 2011 at 18:11

A look at the newly installed Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 at centre of the ISS starboard truss:

A simulation of tomorrow’s Soyuz undocking and fly around which will give us a historic first and only view of the shuttle together with the station:

PermaBanned · 22 May 2011 at 23:33

How many Soyuz's are actually docked at the minute? From the tour yesterday it looked like three plus one Progress, but i don't know how well that was edited...

Cosimo · 23 May 2011 at 08:06

Superewza said:
How many Soyuz's are actually docked at the minute? From the tour yesterday it looked like three plus one Progress, but i don't know how well that was edited...

I thought there were two Soyuz (TMA-20 and TMA-21) craft with TMA-20 returning today and one Progress (42P) cargo ship.

There is also the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-2) up there due to undock in June.

EDIT: ISS after STS-133 undocked showing remaining docked craft:

Cosimo · 23 May 2011 at 08:09

The wakeup call for today was Times Like These by the Foo Fighters and the plan is:

Flight Day 8

• Crew off-duty period
• Spacewalk 3 procedure review

Cosimo · 23 May 2011 at 08:44

Yesterday's spacewalk:

Cosimo · 23 May 2011 at 19:05

Tonight’s timeline (BST) for Soyuz (TMA-20) departure is:

21:52 ..159...01...42...35...ISS maneuver to undocking attitude
22:24 ..159...02...15...11...Sunrise
22:29 ..159...02...20...07...Daily orbit 13 Russian ground station AOS
22:31 ..159...02...21...35...ISS to free drift
22:32 ..159...02...22...35...Nominal separation command
22:35 ..159...02...25...35...Physical separation/hooks open
22:36 ..159...02...27...15...ISS to LVLH snap-and-hold
22:38 ..159...02...28...35...Soyuz manual separation burn #1
22:41 ..159...02...31...35...Arrival at stationkeeping (590-650 feet)
22:41 ..159...02...31...35...Habitation module ingress
22:43 ..159...02...33...55...ISS return to undocking attitude
22:44 ..159...02...35...08...Daily orbit 13 Russian ground station LOS
22:50 ..159...02...40...35...Begin ISS photography
22:52 ..159...02...43...03...Noon
22:55 ..159...02...45...35...ISS maneuver to photography attitude
23:06 ..159...02...56...35...ISS in photo attitude
23:15 ..159...03...05...35...Soyuz manual separation burn #2
23:20 ..159...03...10...35...Habitation module egress; start leak checks
23:20 ..159...03...10...55...Sunset -- photography complete
23:21 ..159...03...11...35...ISS maneuver to duty attitude
23:56 ..159...03...46...36...Sunrise

Berserker · 23 May 2011 at 22:37

Love the way the Russians do de-orbit. Undock, leave, de-orbit, land. No messing about in orbit for 2-3 days checking every system and hoping for good weather (the last one landed in freezing snow).

And the ISS crew get 20 hours 'sleep' tomorrow. How about they attend my meetings and I have their sleep. Seems like a fair swap to me!

Cosimo · 23 May 2011 at 22:53

Fantastic pictures:

Cosimo · 23 May 2011 at 22:54

Now ready for the historic photoshoot.

PermaBanned · 23 May 2011 at 23:11

Berserker said:
Love the way the Russians do de-orbit. Undock, leave, de-orbit, land. No messing about in orbit for 2-3 days checking every system and hoping for good weather (the last one landed in freezing snow).

And the ISS crew get 20 hours 'sleep' tomorrow. How about they attend my meetings and I have their sleep. Seems like a fair swap to me!

To be fair though they don't have thermal tiles to worry about

And yeah, amazing pictures. Can't wait for more

Berserker · 23 May 2011 at 23:13

Tried to grab the second image to post here but wasn't quick enough. I've got it all on disk for posterity.

Can hear Paolo snapping away like mad in the background. He's had quite a lot of photography on this mission - what with First Orbit, shuttle imagery, and now this.

Both the cameras being used are scheduled to burn up. Don't forget to take the cards out! :eek:

Guess a few grand's worth of hardware doesn't much matter to anyone (the Soyuz habitation module did cost rather a lot more).