good evening we begin nasa television
coverage of mission sts 79 here at the
john f kennedy space center in florida
we're just hours away from nasa's 79th
space shuttle launch and the 17th flight
of the orbiter atlantis with a crew of
six astronauts
liftoff is planned at 4 54 a.m eastern
daylight time
the window extends until 501 a.m today
the weather conditions are holding
steady looks like we've got a 70 percent
chance of having acceptable conditions
for launch time
launch pad 39a is the stage for the
79th shuttle launch
all countdown events are on schedule
and the launch team here in firing room
one is not tracking any technical issues
that would
preclude an on-time liftoff
countdown clock is at t-minus three
hours and holding we're in a standard
built-in hold at this point
this is a planned two-hour built-in hold
at this time the ice inspects the final
inspection team is surveying for any ice
that may have formed on the vehicle
measuring uh various
elements of the sts-79 vehicle stack
we've now got the sts-79
astronauts
having their lunch at the
crew quarters
mission specialist jay apt
light crew is in their suits they've
been up since about six pm
we've got pilot terry will cut
commander bill reedy
crew looks wide awake
mission specialist tom akers
mission specialist carl walls
and mission specialist john blaha got a
veteran shuttle astronaut crew today
john getting ready to uh
start his uh four-month stay on the mir
space station
as is through tradition we've got the
cake at the table with the
insignia for sts-79
we do have the flight crew members for
sts-79 getting strapped in
actually getting their
suits on
got commander bill reedy
he's making his third flight today he
has overall responsibility for
commanding the flight
he will become the fourth shuttle
commander to dock with the russian space
station
pilot terry will cut
he's will assist reading at the flight
controls he's making his second flight
today
he will assist in transferring logistics
to and from the mir station
he will also assist commander reedy in
the fly around of the station
after the undocking
we've got dr jay att ready to go today
he's
mission specialist one making his fourth
flight
you'll be involved in
activities and experiments aboard the
space hub
mission specialist tom akers who is also
the flight engineer
he will assist the commander and pilot
with the ascent re-entry checklist and
monitoring all the vehicle systems he's
making his fourth flight today
and here we have mission specialist john
blaha getting his flight to tested he's
making his fifth flight today
getting ready to embark on his
four-month stay aboard the mirror space
station where he will be
involved in scientific investigations
and we've got uh mission specialist
carl walls getting
ready he's
waving
ready for launch today
he is making his third flight today
this is shuttle launch control we've got
pictures now the flight crew walking
down the hall toward the elevator at
their crew quarters
jay eppt carl walls tom akers cannon
booster
good morning jen we read you loud and
clear
homie oh
hope you have a great stay up there and
please tell shannon hi when you see her
for me
i'll do that
and atlantis looks like we've got
everything coming together here bill so
you guys have a great trip and we'll see
you back here next week
a profile test of the orbiter's aero
services has started
the flight control surfaces are being
moved through a pre-programmed pattern
to verify they are ready for launch
the nozzles on the three main engines
are being gimbaled
and positioned for launch today
eleven t-minus ten
nine
eight
we have a go for engine start
ignition and liftoff of atlantis on the
fourth flight to dock with the russian
space station
houston now controlling
you start letting us complete
roger roll atlantis
and your mps h2 out message is a deucer
only no action
the role maneuver is complete aboard
atlantis the vehicle is now in a heads
down position on course for a 51.6
degree 160 nautical mile orbit
atlantis velocity is approaching 900
miles per hour the vehicle is already
two and a half miles downrange from the
launch site at an altitude of 6.6 miles
atlantis houston go at throttle up
one minute 25 seconds into the flight
the three liquid fueled engines are now
back at full throttle
about 35 seconds away now from burnout
and separation of the twin solid rocket
boosters aboard the orbiter atlantis is
12 and a half miles downrange from the
launch site current altitude 18 miles
traveling 2300 miles per hour
the hydraulic systems all three of those
apu's auxiliary power units are in good
shape as are the electricity producing
fuel cells standing by for srb
separation
srb separation is confirmed two minutes
15 seconds into the flight
atlantis houston reads you have a
nominal miko
no homes one required
copying nominal miko no homes one
required and you can pass along to the
mirror that the atlantis is underway
atlantis houston reads i've got a big
picture update for you
go ahead
okay reads
since you guys took some soup up there
with you obviously you've got us working
down here a bit
we have ap number two
as an unexplained shutdown
we're looking into the data on it and
we're also looking at ap1 and ap3
capabilities
and their impact on mission duration
we are currently evaluating both a
flight day 3 and a flight day 4
rendezvous
if we do a flight day 3 rendezvous
the approximate tig will be 2 hours and
56 minutes
if we do a flight day 4 rendezvous the
approximate take will be 3 hours and 40
minutes we're working both right now and
we will provide you with further updates
okay bill we copied it all and
we kind of figured as much
we'll switch now to uh mission control
uh coral yacht outside of moscow for an
update on activities uh in moscow since
atlantis's launch
this is mission control corelog
at about 3 pm moscow time
roughly a few minutes after the launch
of atlantis today at about 1 20 p.m
moscow time the mission control center
here conducted another communication
session with the crew on board mayor the
first order of business for that
communications session for nasa's mir
operations lead bill gerstenmaier was to
tell shannon lucid the status of atlanta
wow that's great we had a really good
launch everything looks clean normal
performance through miko they're working
a fuel cell 2 problem but that's all
everything else looks clean on the
vehicle
oh that sounds great well just keep us
informed because you know
it's not here and there's no opening
hatch
we understand and the only thing we're
working now is a fuel cell two problem
but everything else looks clean and
we'll keep you informed
okay i mean it's just one small step
okay well we're getting there um
at launch time mir was moving toward
central america on the ascending note of
sixth orbit of the day
coordination activities between the
control center here in the control
center in houston will move into high
gear over the next few days as both the
u.s and russian teams prepare for the
docking later this week
besides the science team a small
consulting team is here from houston for
the mission
this team consists of both orbiter and
systems orbiter systems and timelining
experts their job is to facilitate in
the flow of communications between
russia and the us
and until docking updates regarding
atlantis progress will continue to be
passed up to the crew waiting on a
mirror
this is mission control coreloft