Shuttle blasts off, will stock station

By DAVID BALLINGRUD

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 9, 2000

CAPE CANAVERAL -- It's almost time for scientists to move into their new digs at the International Space Station. But first the moving vans have to be unloaded, and then comes the unpacking.

Friday's successful launch of the space shuttle Atlantis begins -- NASA fervently hopes -- a busy year in which the station will finally become the permanently manned space research platform it was intended to be.

Atlantis is packed with 2 tons of equipment -- from generators to Post-it notes to a toilet -- stuff that will be needed by the station's first live-aboard crew when it arrives later this year, probably in November.

With thunderstorms closing in from the east, Atlantis slipped through a very narrow launch window at 8:46 a.m. It climbed without incident to a circular orbit 205 miles above Earth, then began pursuit of the station, orbiting over Hungary some 6,600 miles away. By carefully controlling the time of launch, NASA can place the shuttle in an orbit that will allow a quick rendezvous with the space station without using a lot of fuel to maneuver.

In this mission, fuel savings might allow the Atlantis crew to stay an extra day in space, unloading and unpacking equipment. The shuttle crew members will have just four days to haul everything into the space station and put it away or set it up, unless they can conserve enough power for an extra day.

Shuttle officials are optimistic the flight will be extended, thanks to Atlantis' on-time launch. If the mission is extended, Atlantis' planned landing at Kennedy Space Center would be moved to about 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 20. If not, touchdown will remain scheduled for 3:54 a.m. Sept. 19.

The shuttle's approach of the station is to begin today, just before midnight. As Atlantis closes to within 9 miles of the station, the commander, Terrence Wilcutt, will fire the spaceship's jets to begin the final approach. At a point about 500 feet below the 13-story outpost, Wilcutt will loop the shuttle to a spot directly overhead. From there, he will inch downward at a speed of about one-tenth-foot per second until the ships are mated.

"It's not a difficult thing, but it is very delicate," Wilcutt said before the launch. "When you've got space vehicles that weigh 200,000 pounds apiece and you're going to bump them together, then you have to do that very carefully."

If the flight proceeds according to plan, the shuttle will dock with the uninhabited space station at 1:52 a.m. Sunday.

Wilcutt and his crew will arrive at a space station that's nearly twice as big as it was the last time astronauts visited in May. The reason is Russia's Zvezda control module, which flew in July after more than two years of delay.

Because of its heft, Zvezda (Russian for "star") had to be launched without most of its contents. All that went up on a Russian supply ship that docked in August. So the crew of five Americans and two Russians will have to unload the supply ship as well as the shuttle.

Included in the tons of gear: an oxygen generator, a carbon-dioxide removal system, a color TV monitor, ham radio, exercise machine, batteries, wrenches, sockets, flashlights and a toilet.

There are also American and Russian meals, a food warmer, gas masks, paper and pens, Russian-to-English and English-to-Russian dictionaries, towels, toothpaste, soap, sunblock and no-rinse shampoo.

Before anyone ventures inside, two of the crew will go out on a spacewalk.

Astronaut Edward Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko will hook up power and data cables between Zvezda and the rest of the Russian segment on Monday, and install a 61/2-foot boom for an instrument that measures Earth's magnetic field.

They will have to climb 110 feet up the 140-foot space station, hand over hand, to do the job. No one has ever ventured so far from the shuttle while tethered.

Even more spacewalks, four, are planned for the next shuttle visit, by Discovery next month. That's when the real construction work begins; astronauts will attach the first piece of truss, or framework, to the complex.

Eight more shuttle flights are planned in the next 12 months. Seven are headed to the $95-billion space station. NASA expects construction to last into 2006.

- Information from Times wires was used in this report.

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