LIVE: STS-122 Flight Day 13/14 - De-orbit Preps

• LIVE: STS-122 Flight Day 13/14 - De-orbit Preps by jmjawors on 19 Feb, 2008 05:40

• (copied from Chris' FD 12 post)
  
  Flight Day 13 coverage of STS-122.
  
  First post to be updated as and when needed.
  
  Timing of different events today can be found here
  
  Rules:
  Only relevant updates should go in here.
  Only 2 snapshots per post.
  
  If you want to add a snapshot to your post, tick the box in front of "attach a file after posting" above the submit button.

  Crew wakeup was almost an hour ago.  Sorry I missed the wake up music and opening words... 

• #1 by collectSPACE on 19 Feb, 2008 05:58
• Quote

  jmjawors - 19/2/2008  12:40 AM
  
  Sorry I missed the wake up music and opening words...

  Wake-up music was Monty Pyton's ('Spamalot' version of) "Always Look at the Bright Side of Life" for Steve Frick by his wife.
  
  Shortly thereafter, capcom Shannon Lucid provided the 'big picture' regarding the aft VRCS:
  
  

  Quote

  The investigations that we had overnight indicate that a hybrid driver may have failed resulting in the loss of the heater power to the aft vernier thrusters. So the remainder of the mission will be conducted loss of verns. The propellant margin support all the activities and all planned deorbit opportunities through end of mission plus two. Now, there is a potential to perform some unplanned maneuvers and attitude hold in an effort to maintain the aft vernier jets above their non-operating limits.

  Frick replied:
  
  

  Quote

  Okay Shannon, thanks a lot for those words. We kind of figured we would be down verns from now on but it is good to hear we don't have any power or prop concerns. I'm glad we have enough prop to fly those attitudes to keep the jets from being a turnaround concern.
• #2 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 11:33
• MCC's gone to the blue entry screen (a while ago, but no one's done a screenshot):

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• #3 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 11:37

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• #4 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 12:22
• To round up:
  
  Cabin stow activities.
  Flight Control Surfaces (FCS) checkout - complete and nominal.
  Reaction Control System hot-fire - complete and nominal
  Launch/entry suit checkout - to come.
• #5 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 12:23
• Weather looking very good for the first opportunity at KSC. Winds slightly up (but within limits) for opportunity two at KSC.

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• #6 by rdale on 19 Feb, 2008 12:28
• Quote

  Chris Bergin - 19/2/2008  8:23 AM
  
  Weather looking very good for the first opportunity at KSC.

  
  I can't find any reason for any concern tomorrow -- so not seeing the need for a separate wx thread...
• #7 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 12:29
• Concur. We can keep it all in one place. Might even make this a one stop shop all the way through to landing.
• #8 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 12:36
• PAO Event in five minutes.
• #9 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 12:43
• ABC News, CNN and some Virginia station...

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• #10 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 12:46
• Fluffy questions from ABC.
  
  "It's a great vehicle to fly in space." Frick on Atlantis.
• #11 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 12:50
• CNN on.
  
  Frick confirms they are going to go for landing on Wednesday so they can kill USA 193 on Thursday.
• #12 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 12:51
• Whoever this CNN lady is, she's good!
  
  Atlantis' concern is going through the debris field. ISS is too high for a concern.
  
  Plus on MMOD for ISS, is always a big concern (MMOD in general).
• #13 by ETEE on 19 Feb, 2008 13:11
• I have a question about yesterday's MM briefing when it was said that there was not enough oxygen left on Atlantis to support a Friday landing.  Only 8 hours available after Thursday.  Does this mean that too much oxygen was transferred to ISS so that Atlantis cannot support 2 weather waive off days?  Seems against flight rules to me.  Was the Friday no-landing decision done deliberately or have they unwittingly transferred too much oxygen?
• #14 by johng on 19 Feb, 2008 13:19
• Are the close in ground tracks available somewhere? The nasa/shuttle page doesn't show them yet.  Preferred runway??
• #15 by bish48 on 19 Feb, 2008 13:26
• Quote

  johng - 19/2/2008  8:19 AM
  
  
  Are the close in ground tracks available somewhere? The nasa/shuttle page doesn't show them yet.  Preferred runway??

  
  NTV earlier said that 33 was the preffered runway at KSC.
• #16 by Chris Bergin on 19 Feb, 2008 13:40
• Playbacks of ISS robotics:

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• #17 by daj24 on 19 Feb, 2008 13:45
• Are the ISS and Shuttle still only about 40 NM apart?  I uploaded todays TLE for Orbitron and it appears that they are still very close.
• #18 by rdale on 19 Feb, 2008 13:46
• Mission Status Briefing is at 12:30pm EST
• #19 by tdrb6115 on 19 Feb, 2008 13:49
• Ground tracks are already there: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts122/news/landing.html