NASA STS-117 Status
Report #24
(20 June 2007) Seven astronauts on
space shuttle Atlantis are preparing themselves and their orbiter for a planned
Thursday landing to wrap up the year's first International Space Station
assembly mission.
The astronauts' wakeup call came at 5:08 a.m.
with "If I Had US$ 1000000" by Barenaked Ladies, played for Mission Specialist
Suni Williams, who's in the 193rd day of her spaceflight.
The entire
crew will be involved in routine deorbit preparations by 8:10 a.m., starting by
stowing items in the crew cabin.
At 8:58 a.m. Commander Rick Sturckow,
Pilot Lee Archambault, and Mission Specialist and Flight Engineer Steven
Swanson will power up one of the auxiliary power units and conduct a checkout
of the orbiter's flight control surfaces, and at 10:08 a.m. begin a test firing
of each of Atlantis' reaction control system jets to ensure that both systems
are ready for deorbit and landing. All seven crew members gather for a deorbit
briefing at 11:28 a.m.
The shuttle astronauts take a break from packing
at 2:03 p.m. to talk about the flight in interviews with NBC News, ABC News and
CNN Live, then return to packing up for landing. The schedule calls for stowage
of the Ku-band communications antenna at 5:58 p.m., just before Mission
Specialist Jim Reilly and Williams set up a recumbent seat on the middeck for
Williams to use during entry and landing.
The International Space
Station's crew is enjoying a day off duty as they shift their sleep cycle.
Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and
Clay Anderson are scheduled to go to sleep at 4:30 p.m. and get up at 1 a.m.
tomorrow, returning to the normal station wakeup time.
The next STS-117
status report will be issued Wednesday evening or earlier if events
warrant.
(source: NASA Johnson Space Center)