Mir rendezvous, ODERACS

Walter Nissen (dk058@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Sun, 5 Feb 1995 14:38:53 -0500

I picked up these excerpts from spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov, in hot topics.

Cheers.

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MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-63 Status Report #4
Saturday, February 4, 1995, 4:30 p.m. CST

Space shuttle Discovery continues to close in on the Mir space station in
anticipation of a planned rendezvous between the two orbiting spacecraft
on Monday morning.

On the ground, flight controllers are assessing plans for up-close
maneuvers with Mir after a forward reaction control system thruster on
Discovery began leaking during a hot fire test earlier today. The
thruster's oxidizer supply line has been closed and Discovery has been
maneuvered to a nose-toward-the-sun attitude to warm the thruster. Flight
controllers report they are seeing a gradual increase in temperature on
the forward jet.

Discovery currently is approximately 4,000 nautical miles behind Mir,
closing that distance by about 190 nautical miles per orbit.

The six astronauts on board Discovery spent a successful Flight Day 2 on
orbit using the shuttle's robot arm to lift the SPARTAN-204 satellite from
the cargo bay shortly after midnight for several hours studying the
shuttle glow phenomenon and shuttle steering jet firings. Crew members
also observed the successful deployment of several spheres and poles of
varying sizes that will be used to calibrate orbital debris-tracking
radars on the Earth.


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MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-63 Status Report #5


Sunday, February 5, 1995, 10 a.m. CST

Flight control teams in Houston and Kaliningrad, Russia, are busy putting
the final touches on plans for Monday's rendezvous of the Space Shuttle
Discovery and the Space Station Mir.

Discovery is expected to catch up with the Russian space station Monday
morning, but mission managers are still discussing how close the orbiter
will come to the Mir. The original plan calls for Discovery to come within
33 feet of the Mir complex, but because of a leaking steering thruster,
controllers also are looking at back-up plans for having the shuttle fly
around Mir at a distance of 400 feet. Mission managers in both countries
are continuing to work toward a consensus.

In an attempt to stop the leak, Commander Jim Wetherbee and Pilot Eileen
Collins closed and reopened the manifold of the leaky thruster several
times. The same procedure was used to clear a leak in a thruster on the
nose of the orbiter earlier in the day, but the procedure was not as
successful for this one. The crew will attempt to stop the leak one more
time later today.

Discovery, which is in a 200 by 182 nautical mile orbit, is less than
2,000 nautical miles behind Mir and is closing that distance by about 190
nautical miles per orbit.


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