at this time the ice team is at the pad
on the mobile launcher platform
conducting their final inspections of
the vehicle looking for any indications
of potential ice build ups following the
tanking of the 500,000 gallons or so of
cryogenic reactants
this is shuttle launch control at
t-minus three hours and holding with
just about ten minutes remaining in our
hold at this time it's about six minutes
after midnight Eastern Time and we have
live pictures of our crew for mission
STS 84 in their suit-up room our mission
commander Charles Precourt is on his
third flight having served as mission
specialist of STS 55 and then his pilot
of STS 71 that was the first space
shuttle mission to dock with the Russian
space station and now he'll serve as
commander of this the sixth mission to
dock with the space station Mir he is a
colonel in the Air Force and next to him
of course is our pilot Eileen Collins
she is preparing for her second shuttle
mission she has logged over 4,000 hours
and various aircraft and she was
selected as an astronaut in 1990 and
first flew aboard mission STS 63 and 95
as the first female to pilot the space
shuttle and this again will be here a
second piloting mission the crew members
are being assisted with their launch and
entry suits by suit technicians from KSC
and JSC Edward Lou is preparing for his
first mission into space and on the
other side of the room another one of
our mission specialists preparing for
his first flight Carlos Noriega
michael foale this is a special mission
for him he's flown three times before
but on this particular flight of course
he will be staying onboard the MIR space
station and elena kondakova Russian
Cosmo making her first trip in his place
aboard the shuttle however she has spent
nearly half a year in orbit aboard the
space station Mir kondakova represents
the Russian space agency she was
selected as a cosmonaut in 1989 and John
uhrin Francois Claire voir preparing for
his flight today this will be his second
mission aboard the space shuttle
again the crew waving and making the
final goodbyes to employees at Kennedy
Space Center mission commander charlie
pre port with pilot Eileen Collins
jean-francois fair warned Carlos Noriega
had with lou elena kondakova and michael
foale these launch pads are about four
miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building
and over the next few minutes engineers
will be making final checks of the sound
suppression water tank they'll be
verifying that the tank has topped off
to proper levels this particular tank
holds about 300,000 gallons of water and
on command just a few seconds before
liftoff the tank is completely emptied
as water flows to the sound suppression
system onto the mobile launcher platform
deck at a rate of about a hundred
thousand gallons every 10 seconds in
addition no other technical issues are
being addressed by the management team
at this time the engineers in the firing
room are Manning their consoles
maintaining a close watch on all aspects
of the vehicle again no problems being
discussed here we are at 12:35 a.m.
Eastern time and everything continues to
look good for a launch and just under
four hours
this picture is view as a shot taken
from the 195-foot level the crew have
the crew has arrived on this level and
BB taking turns getting into the vehicle
of course their next step is to cross
the orbiter access arm on this level
that leads over to the vehicle
the orbiter access arm of course can
support the weight of all the crew but
they'll be taking their time there's
only one crew member can enter the
vehicle at a time again everything is
progressing smoothly at this point in
the count there are no concerns whether
is going to be no issue for us no
technical issues are being addressed at
this time managers and engineers in the
firing room or relaxed and prepared to
allow the vehicle to perform those
launches copy that and Atlantis
everything has come together so we're
ready to go
you guys have a good flight good mission
with feedback here and Saturday a week
partners around the world already to go
and we thank you all your hard work at
MPD you cleared along topics
boom on my mark three two one what
t-minus five minutes ain't counting and
we're at t-minus nine minutes and
Counting and the ground launch sequencer
has been initiated NASA test director
John Guidi is about to call for the
transmittal of stored pre-launch
commands as Atlantis has less than nine
minutes away from launch on a mission to
the MIR Space Station to retrieve
astronaut Jerry Linenger
who has been in space now for the past
four months and the orbiter access arm
is now being retracted away from the
vehicle this is the walkway used by the
crew to gain entry into and out of the
orbiter and it can be returned to
position within seconds if need be
next the three main engines will be
gimballed as a final test before launch
and the gaseous oxygen vent hood is
being slowly retracted away from the top
of the external tank everything looks
good and we're cleared for launch today
no problems are being reported from the
vehicle or the crew
and t-minus two minutes and Counting
on your flight for the whole team
t-minus 15 10 9 8 7 we have a go for
main engine start four three two one we
have booster ignition and liftoff of the
space shuttle Atlantis maintaining
America's constant presence in space
echoing the words of year ago down on
his launch 36 years ago command with
Scully report puts Atlantis into the
roll heads down wings levels of the ADA
have been a ride to orbit Mike Solt
headed to the MIR space station the
throttle up call acknowledged by
Commander Charlie Precourt on the flight
deck of Atlantis joined by pilot Eileen
Collins flight engineer Carlos Noriega
and mission specialist John Francois
clear voix down on the mid-deck mission
specialist at lu elena kondakova and
mike foale beginning four months in
space one minute 40 seconds into the
flight atlantis traveling at 2300 miles
per hour already 17 miles downrange from
the launch site 20 miles in altitude 15
seconds away from solid rocket booster
separation that will be commanded by the
general-purpose computers to the master
events controller on board
booster officer confirms a good solid
rocket booster separation guidance since
converging on all three main engines now
gently stirring Atlantis for a precise
keyhole and space for main engine cutoff
booster officer confirms main engine
cutoff Lance we copy you ever go for the
et photo DTO after that
Atlanta Houston you'll have a great
first full day in orbit the planning
folks are going to hand it over to the
rendezvous pros who will start getting
you ready for tomorrow and that'll be
the orbit one team and the next voice
you hear will be Chris Hadfield okay
bill well we're sure to a great start
thanks to all your help down there and
we're looking forward to seeing to get
the bomb point we're all up and running
about getting things done things look
really great thanks for your help
Oh
now after this one with to remove
yes
this
the young module
I understand take a seat
and Atlanta Houston were on board
looking into the space hab hello Jean
Francois
okay Chris copy
can you see much with that
yes we do and I'll check with the pie
okay would you like me to hold off on
filling it in the incubator standby
Atlanta's space have for RMD the pea I
got a good look thanks you and says you
have a go to go ahead and place that in
the incubator Roger
now I put a question to the commander
Charles Precourt what's it like having a
British astronaut among you is he made
of the right stuff he's warning me that
I better say yesterday what Mike's a
great asset to the NASA program and he
brings a load of experience from a lot
of different areas to us and you know he
kind of hinted at the fact that the
benefits of an International Space
Station is that the fact that we bring
together the talents of many different
nations and in fact many different
cultures and new ideas bring new ways of
doing things and we discover new things
together so yeah Mike is a great asset
we're going to miss him when we close
the hatch but we're glad that he's
representing us when we do
okay well good morning bill but it
sounds of that it must be time to rock
and roll and go ahead with your comments
- houston we have a nice downlink of mir
all right Justin the binocs I could pick
out the solar arrays and anything
three point six in the first
I'll write it down manage Houston we're
back with you visually looking through
camera alpha Roger
you suggested updated our nav we're
still in reflector one on both PCs and
were within a foot on our handheld laser
our dot that's it perfectly and
Charlie's got a dead center in the
corridor and excellent comm with fear
sounds good all around thanks for the
update
the lighting condition should be good
unless we get delayed
this had a drop disparity Jesse rebooted
companies
didn't we have contact and capture
listen last contract on my time the
pressurization equalization is so bad
over you loud and clear charlie we see
that we're going to lose you to the co e
and a little under two minutes and we'll
have you again solid at 16 minutes past
Lana Houston were with you on the west
and we're looking at you and hatch
Charles I think that the video looks
good you were ready to open looks great
and sounds fine is all you have a you
have a go okay
right now come on in June we got Elena
coming in with the traditional
is going to bring up the patrol with
colors here he's going to show us how to
fly through the mirror go ahead you take
a logjam up ahead
welcome everybody back in Houston a
great day of the shuttle crew aboard
great to see you cheering
system owner in the base book and
confirm their that setup thank you
this thing that Billy says he can hardly
believe what they were
we've got just about everybody Sasha's
going to come join us in the table here
and say hello to the folks at the soup
also I think Jerry might want to say
something to you guys they're in a
control center good job
we should you didn't crew up here like
you did and Charlie just water right in
steady as can be was great to see them
and it's going to be a great celebration
here Jerry it's great to see you and
we're looking forward to having you back
Atlantis Mir Houston if someone just
wants to push and hold the button it's a
pretty good area Mike okay Chris we're
doing that and we've got one other gifts
of session Vasily we're making them
honorary 84 members with a little hat
that shows our patch a little symbol on
the Hat meant that he was an admiral but
we prefer general in the Air Force of
course since watching I have both Air
Force types we'll just go with that and
for Jolly Rogers pretzels aligned
twon I give you a little tour of mirror
on Jerry Linenger of course and I'm in
the base block where you see most of
pictures that come out of mirror the
table where we all gather to eat when
the times available got quite a bit of
gear Avalos sleep cabin over this way
this has happens to be the commander
sleep station and you've got a little
mirror he's got some personal pictures
pens patches near 23 patch for example
decorating his walls got a CD player
little tape players to relax and take
life easy sit one of the air generating
systems is here and also the co2 clean
system is here as long we'd say with a
blot reading fantasy which takes out
contaminants in the air and all those
run in this module and this Walsall
module where we're having some cooling
leak problems than we did some repairs
where we cut to and basically block them
off with some plugs and it said you can
see it's very difficult to work the area
has to get cleared we had to totally
cleared for about four weeks looking for
the leaks and it's very very difficult
to work back here
on one label certain problem so uh
Mike's going to have his hands full
working back here finding the leak is
one thing and then getting access to the
leak is a different ballgame and it back
back out by the way to fire I guess it's
kind of interesting people heard about
the fire the fire was basically in this
region here with the plane shooting
across this way and their players you
can see where the camera is is basically
where I was at and we had one other body
in front of me I was passing a fire
extinguisher but we can only get one
person in here like the player because
of the claimed location and at that time
the other Soyuz was on the other side
where progress is now dot so you feel it
have been very difficult to get through
the flame itself to get to the one of
the rescue vehicles and it was very
difficult to fight the player because
you could only give one body close
enough to the player itself commander's
post right here which is of course
interesting and commander Vasilis here
just hoping you and facility says hello
to everybody doing a little work at the
command post that is scope down here a
couple CRT tubes and there's a lot of
different commands in this area and over
here is actually your signal of that
yeah or your panel that gives you all to
your caution and warning alarms okay
this table very nice soft velcro and I
found this the most effective place to
do work if I head surface sampling or
air sampling I'd organize my work right
here put everything in Nice order and as
fly to the place where I had to do
sampling
we're about out of time I just want to
thank you all for your attention and I
hope you've got a feel for the space
station as we flew you through it all
it's a pretty pleasant place to live
when you can get a space to look like
this
plus three
Charlie all five kits are still stowed
into a s01 okay
the fourth row for the half of it and
only the first as I work all up and then
only the first column for the second two
rows on window B they go into the second
window all the way across and on see
it's all the way across for maybe one
half declares and on D it's about a half
a square across and I'll try to show you
the image here but it doesn't look like
it'll need anymore
freestyle
great
looks like the one I think
they can go ahead Elena
they're all if the stairs location given
it's a checklist
except for item number 52 the cartridge
assembly which is Shirley and Leslie and
I don't know / 40 though which is it
he said we are over Florida of course as
you see it we have the reflection of a
full moon and the Everglades and the
clouds down over Florida it is a
gorgeous Bank Florida we have the entire
peninsula view as we head out over the
Atlantic wish we were there Charlie
we're back with you now we just had tea
dress handover did you call yeah I just
saying not only is for having a
beautiful night tonight but all of these
turn us we've still got the tip of
Florida peninsula and say well we're
over New York we see New York washed all
the way over to st. Louis down to
Atlanta Memphis all the cities stand out
just nice and clear at the gorgeous out
there you're our window
Eileen's up here secondly green ones
when we copy
well Robert just like to say that this
is a great day for us
it's a little bit sad of course because
the thrilling flight is coming to an end
and we're going to have to separate the
vehicles here tomorrow morning and that
will be a bittersweet memory for us
we've had a great time getting that mic
ready to take over the place set and
fill the big shoes that Jerry's left
behind here with a lot of progress being
made on board this picture on the screen
right here is really heartwarming for
everybody goes done a fantastic job up
there
Cecilia Sasha who become our wonderful
friends they've got to showed a
wonderful home and we thank them very
much for that and with that in mind we'd
like to leave them a small gift from us
it's a t-shirt one for each of them
with our name of our shuttle and our per
pack silly
thank you very much and also one for
Sasha a momento you can remember our
plight and also from phase 1 the phase 1
folks would like to leave their thanks
also with the our crew up there with the
face once your representing our program
has been so successful Kristin Rossi is
ready to close the hatch and we wish
them well at a great fight and it's kind
of sorry to see them
close the hatch on ourselves here but
we're sure they're gonna do great
okay guys we've got the hatch closed in
the staircase to the side
we copy Thanks
seven
I'll be laying back here Justin we have
separation copy
bring your opinion
13 carries caribou that might say 35
feet point 3 3
cause their attitude look I'm still dark
important
by
and Atlanta Houston
let's reconfigure back to normal air two
grounds Jerry are onboard with you
Charlie has called them before time
somebody Frankie talks a lot that's
expressing soon
I've already bumped that out of work
somebody's breaking box a lot Messier
scratchy stuff I think it's me starting
to get a pretty good light show look out
the tail and you can if you guys got
murdered looking up with the little
camera here I can see the tail out there
about the tail but I can see the plastic
over the tail the overheads quick joke
you said nice sunrise see the sunrise
yeah I see it
Suns gonna overpower the glow here so we
didn't get a very long glow show can I
see how much 12,000 feet I'm not gonna
say nominal chute deployed Roger that a
thousand feet okay any clips trail keeps
flying the instruments 8,000 feet
there's a runway tab looks really good
yes it does it's dead-on better than
anything 7,000 feet 6,000 feet to
Pappy's nominally radar looks good radar
looks good here forecast
listen good real good
yes 3,000 feet 35 briefly on the gear
okay I see the pre-clear and the gears
arms constancy naturally was 305 900
South Poldark
hey Bo you're on time piggy right I'm
here those gear the gear moving I hear
coming down Twitter feet father her on
the ball bar 100 feet skiers down
seventy sixty two hundred and thirty
nine point five me you for coming down
to 20 into 10 looking good eight six
five four three two two and two
touchdowns opening D rotations coming
down one and a half with Atlantis's
speed now down to thirty thirty two
hundred miles per hour the rudder on the
tail of the orbiter is now active twin
sonic booms announcing Atlantis's
arrival in the landing area time to
touchdown three minutes 25 seconds
Atlantis now on glide slope and on
centerline setting up for the final
approach and landing to runway 3/3
the landing gear is now down and luck
main gear touchdown and nose gear
touchdown
Atlantis rolling out on runway three
three at the Kennedy Space Center
completing 145 orbits of the earth and a
3.6 million mile journey to deliver mike
foale to the MIR space station and also
to return Jerry Linenger to earth after
four and a half months in space
Houston Atlanta Fed will stop Colonel
eCopy will stop and we'd like to offer
congratulations on a flawless flight and
a special welcome home welcome home for
Jerry it would go for our post landing
procedures on page five - three well we
thank y'all you guys did a super job
putting a great mission together for us
get to the office