DATE=9/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SHUTTLE-SUNDAY (L)
NUMBER=2-266617
BYLINE=DAVID MCALARY
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
INTERNET=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The U-S and Russian crew of the space shuttle
Atlantis sealed up the International Space Station
after outfitting it for permanent residence later this
year. Science Correspondent David McAlary tells us
the shuttle will undock in several hours.
TEXT: The seven shuttle astronauts and cosmonauts
have turned out the lights and closed the hatch doors
on the new home in space, following a week of work as
movers, cleaners, plumbers, electricians, and cable
installers.
Because of the Atlantis visit, the space station is
stocked with nearly three-thousand kilograms of new
hardware and supplies the first long-duration crew
will need to survive four months starting in November.
Several maintenance tasks to improve station function
are complete.
The Russian Progress cargo ship on which many of the
goods arrived is filled with the packing material they
came in and other trash. It will be destroyed later
when Russian ground controllers detach the rocket from
the Zvezda command module and send it to burn up
during a fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
Flight Director Wayne Hale says shuttle managers are
ecstatic about the accomplishments of this mission.
/// HALE ACT ///
I hope that the rest of the assembly flights
will be 50-percent as successful as this flight
has been. We have not only done everything we
set out to do, but we had to scramble around and
find even more things to do because everything
went so well and we got way ahead - went above
and beyond the call of duty in preparing the
station for the first expedition crew. It has
just gone beyond everybody's expectations.
/// END ACT ///
Atlantis will undock from the station early Monday
Universal Time [11:44 p.m. EDT Sunday]. The shuttle
will fly around the station twice to make a
photographic survey for inspection by U-S and Russian
engineers on the ground.
The shuttle is scheduled to land Wednesday at Kennedy
Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida [3:56 a.m.
EDT]. U-S government weather forecasters say
Hurricane Gordon - which is expected to hit the
Florida coast in hours -will not interfere with the
landing.
Flight Director Hale says, despite the storm,
technicians have not moved the next shuttle to visit
the space station - Discovery - into its hangar.
/// HALE ACT ///
The storm track from the National Weather
Service is projected to go through north
Florida, miss the Cape, so they will not have
the high winds that you would associate with a
hurricane, but we will have some moderate winds.
So the decision that was made earlier this
morning by Kennedy Space Center officials was
not to roll Discovery off the launch pad.
/// END ACT ///
Discovery is due to visit the space station in about
three-weeks to continue construction work. Its crew
is to deliver a connecting tunnel for future modules
and add an exterior truss support for a large
communications antenna, U-S solar panels, and fuel-
saving gyroscopes. (SIGNED)
NEB/DEM/
17-Sep-2000 11:50 AM EDT (17-Sep-2000 1550 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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