this is shuttle launch control at
t-minus four hours 43 minutes in the
counting all continuing to go well in
our tanking operation with the shuttle
Discovery getting ready for the STS 41
launch 7:35 a.m. Eastern Time this
morning
Discovery's carrying the Ulysses payload
and several mid-deck experiments this
shuttle launch control at t-minus three
hours and holding or during the flight
group rest has 41 in the crew quarters
its mission specialist Booth's Melnick
he's making his first flight today
the shuttle Discovery Richards
today
members are boarding the Ovid insisted
right now is commander Richards the
commander the flight today now climbing
aboard and we'll be getting strapped
into his seat shortly pilot Robert
Cabana is now being assisted by members
of the closeout crew at the final items
of the air of you will need or launch
today he's a lieutenant colonel in the
United States Marine Corps we're in a
Minneapolis Minnesota he was selected
into the NASA asked a lot of 1985 and is
making his first trip aboard the Space
Shuttle today which is specialist Tom
Akers
he's been assisted with his equipment in
half to get into the schools cooking
Ivan he's making his first trip into
space today aboard the shuttle discovery
and the closeout crew is now assisting
mission specialist Bruce knowledge with
the rest of his psychic equipment not
only was a commander in the United
States Coast Guard born in New York City
but considers Clearwater Florida to be
his hometown
to begin we have a go for retracting
orbiter approve access all the way to
the launch configuration
engineer light like SPC's are on board
coming up on t-minus four minutes and
Counting AP news have been started and
you're over heaters have been turned on
for long a final purge of the main
engines is underway to prepare the
engines or start and the one minute
point in the count and engine ready
indication will be given
protection of the gaseous oxygen vent
hood is now underway just a few minutes
away now from the launch of discovery
and the four day mission the five crew
members coming up 199's two-minute mark
we have a go to auto sequence start
function
t-minus 15 seconds two minutes to nine
we had a go for main engine start
six five four three two one ignition and
liftoff of discovery and the university
facepack bound for the polar regions of
its own
guidance officer confirms a good roll
maneuver engines now throttling down in
preparation the polar Discovery's
passage through the air maximum
aerodynamic loads area auxiliary power
units all free looking be discovered
velocity now 2,300 feet per second
discovery you go at throttle up then you
go at throttle up call means that
everything is working well for discovery
all engines now back I'm gonna do four
percent performance velocity is now
3,300 feet per second
discovering Hannum 14 nautical miles
downrange from the Kennedy at a velocity
of 5,000 feet per second
and again separation of the solid rocket
boosters velocity now 5,400 feet per
second and discovery 31 nautical miles
downrange I was in repairing still for
minimum all three engines at a hundred
cool percent no systems problems for
discovery
discovery performance now this is
Mission Control Houston discovery that's
correct
crew has just been given the go for the
payload bay door operations they will
begin opening the payload bay doors
aboard discovery and will be is standing
by for a status on that in the next few
minutes this is Mission Control
this is mission better the crew confirms
payload bay doors were open and the
motors go properly max officer had given
that fat confirmation just a couple of
moments earlier
you send every vector pass for complete
that five hours 23 minutes
and the good reporting that they're
about to move into the release of the
payload retention latches and the
elevation of the tilt table the 29
degrees or with one motor operating the
nominal time for that to take place is
about 40 seconds and with two motors
going the tilt table will go up 29
degrees in about 20 seconds it will
stand off the word on that talk table
raises up in two stages first 29 degrees
and then to the deploy elevation 58
degrees
we
that's a great job
while Ulysses took place right on time
six hours and 59 seconds into the fight
that's off one second from the pre
mission prediction for the
through winding down after a long day
miss Nicole sent them to bed with a
couple of final asking details and or
anything that comes up in the next hour
or so we don't intend to talk to them
we'll let them get some sleep and enjoy
anything about the window
this is Mission Control discovery is
just about to cross the eastern coast of
Australia going out across the Great
Barrier Reef on the frontal part of the
descending node of orbit 12
just reduced and good morning okay but I
have to cut this thing at Tiesto's
expose new and there's a little
and what they're doing there I was
setting this thing up to park it for the
in Asansol or a coupon
experiment that we're doing now with an
honor to the mission next year - well
after the Innosight satellite that was
stranded in low earth a little bit
earlier this year
the idea is to study some of the same
materials that are on the inset and get
a view of the kind of degradation from
on our particles near Earth that that
satellite might experience the gaps were
seen here again produced by telemetry
coming down from Discovery and after
they passed through the computer system
here on the ground show up on this
screen in Mission Control at the PBRs
console
and here's what we recorded on board
with the fiber spoke just a few minutes
ago okay we're like you are camera
number twos
discovering our passing out over the
coast of South America actually this
looks like Brazil not over the southern
island
following completion of this SSP new
vinny for review day to take crew will
begin to perform the calibration a
number of calibrations throughout the
flight both in the early phases of SSB
UV data takes and in the middle of the
process of the data takes and then later
in the flight also the SS bu the
instruments are calibrated with sure the
accuracy of the measurements taken both
in the direct Sun pointing and as well
as the back scatter measurements from
the Earth's atmosphere that particular
process will take just about 45 to 50
minutes
this is Mission Control discovery is now
over the South Pacific going seeing one
of its many Sun sets
the crew currently has about four hours
and 35 minutes left in its sleep here in
their sleep period and all remains
together quite smoothly here in the
flight control room as controllers
preparing messages for uplink - good
morning discovered more than isn't good
morning
see how it's been working for short
hours our that's crew down there some
stuff state better put together a system
that allows us to control the cameras
without using our hands we can just use
voice commands off their cameras here's
this quick demonstration
meet the latest NASA computer nantan
engineers have come up with a computer
and how onboard discovery it's a
computer that talks and listens and
controls the shuttles television cameras
fresque airfoils is one of the engineers
who designed a computer to respond to
the system is in the orbiters light
dinner and it's very easy to operate
with a flip of a switch the system's
ready to go and that's the only time the
astronaut we use his hands the computer
actually tells the astronaut what to do
next
by using this monitor STS 41 mission
specialists bill Shepard and boost
Melnick will be using the system for 20
minutes each during 3 flight days
they tell the computer to move the
camera in payload Bay the astronauts use
this mock-up at the Johnson Space Center
to learn how to use the system right now
Lincoln Shepard began training on the
system last spring the vocabulary it's
made up of 40 simple words the
astronauts used to control the cameras
words like zoom in the computer had to
learn to understand those words that's
done by first letting the the astronauts
must match the one the computer
remembers sounds simple here on earth
but up in space
so the astronauts can make a new set of
templates in a matter of minutes if
their voice is altering space gerhard's
summers and project manager Jorge
Salazar are excited about the future
applications of this field to see their
project
Casey ibmp as the generals experiment
sir that we were activating since joint
investigation characteristics over a
polymer membrane so filters that
microgravity
for reward the vehicle will begin test
objective 1206 which is the birth
control device evaluation bill shepherd
mission specialist number two we'll be
evaluating a virtual control device that
has a potential of affecting design and
pushing control devices for a crewed
computer workstation aboard the space
station
thanks for that playback we are a couple
minutes now Louis we'll see you on the
other side at 5:51 this is Mission
Control discovery which is orbiting
about 178 by 160 not a
it was currently in crossing Malaysia
heading into the South China Sea
this is Mission Control where admission
reps time of two days 11 hours 55
minutes the crew has just over 6 hours
remaining in their sleep period
currently Discovery's payload fake
cameras are once again catching some
lightning and activity as discovery
passes overhead or in previous night's
we've seen quite a bit of lightning
activity
we don't
this is Mission Control Houston at two
days 22 hours 26 minutes all quiet here
in the flight control room as the crew
aboard discovery continues to work
through their flight control systems
check out that's a check out to verify
that all flight control systems aboard
discovery are in good health and ready
to support the orbit entry and landing
operations tomorrow discovery just about
to cross the equator and begin the orbit
number 48
submission control all continuing to go
smoothly in the checkout of Discovery's
reaction control system Jeff there's but
second visuals of the reaction control
system Jets as they are put through
their paces and tested for tomorrow's
intrigue and landing meanwhile aboard
discovery this is a while canister King
job these lithium hydroxide canisters
are used to cleanse the breathing air
and that's part of the nightly routine
before putting off the ship and getting
ready for that this is Mission Control
genius pictures taken from discovery and
an altitude of that 162 nautical miles
shows the Saudi Arabian Peninsula
in the lower right hand corner of the
screen one can see a small circle that
is the patch that in that the astronauts
go to them from the orbiter and their
Danny on earth and the large panels
extending up to the left-hand corner of
the screen are the pair of a doors
we're looking down on South America now
one has to presume that's the Andes
discovery coming up on the coastline and
it's big
okay my control team here has declared
themselves go for a payload bay door
closure normal and we don't need numbers
and you got to go to close the doors
this is Mission Control Houston at three
days 22 hours 35 minutes a chemical
systems officer here in the control
center confirming that the other guys
are returning then the payload bay doors
are being driven to close
we're now 58 minutes and 30 seconds away
from ignition of Discovery's twin
orbital maneuvering system engines for
the deorbit burn the burn that will drop
discovery and crew out of orbit and
begin the entry and landing phase the
deorbit burn should be underway about 22
23 seconds into the burn this is Mission
Control Houston discovery beginning to
encounter the first effects of the
Earth's atmosphere onboard navigation
aids beginning to produce altitude data
showing discovery or an altitude of
three hundred eighty nine thousand feet
traveling at Mach twenty four point four
and descending into the atmosphere at a
rate of 518 feet per second we're now
taking live scenes onassis a live
television of the edwards air force base
area and as the Sun has begun around
when out taking our first live views of
Discovery on our way to network lending
this is from the Vanderburgh long range
backer
all systems continuing to work well
discovery right on the ground track
w10 like a state vector transfer to BFS
we've stopped booms announcing
Discovery's arrival overhead at the
words landing field
discovery headed for the hitting
alignment cone
every Houston looking good on the hack
no change for the winter weather
discovery sinking at 174 feet per second
discovering under manual control of the
cool commander dick Richards now
performing the freeform maneuver some of
this deep take a lot of folks down here
on tech and those gear touchdown
official landing times are as follows
main gear touchdown at four days two
hours ten minutes and four seconds those
gear down to 10 minutes in 16 seconds we
will stop for days 2 hours 10 minutes
and 54 seconds
you