The seven-member STS-89 crew of Endeavour -- Commander Terry Wilcutt, Pilot Joe Edwards and Mission Specialists Jim Reilly, Mike Anderson, Bonnie Dunbar, Salizhan Sharipov and Andy Thomas -- will begin its first full day of on-orbit activities Friday morning with a wake-up call from Mission Control at 9:48 a.m. CST.

At 6 a.m. CST, Endeavour was approximately 2000 nautical miles from Mir closing the distance between the two spacecraft by about 250 nautical miles each orbit.

Most of Friday’s activities will focus on preparations for Saturday afternoon’s planned docking between the two spacecraft. Wilcutt and Edwards will conduct additional planned engine firings to refine Endeavour’s approach to the Mir Space Station. The crew will install the centerline camera in the Orbiter Docking System which will provide views of docking targets and the docking module during the final phase of the rendezvous activities. They will also verify the health of tools to be used during the rendezvous activities. Docking is still targeted for 2:12 p.m. CST on Saturday.

One of Endeavour’s General Purpose Computers (GPCs) remains down early this morning following an apparently unintended shutdown following ascent. The crew reported a problem with the switch that normally takes the computer down in stages, with the computer going from run directly to halt, missing the normal "standby" stage. Flight controllers plan to bring the computer back up, dump its data and put it back in use. No flight impact is anticipated.

Several crew members will take time this evening to discuss their mission and Thomas’ transfer to the Mir Space Station with radio station KNX of Los Angeles and the "PowerPoint" program heard on National Public Radio stations in a pair of interviews scheduled for 7:03 p.m. central time.

Endeavour is currently in a 196 x 163 n.m. orbit, circling the Earth once every 91 minutes.

The next STS-89 status report will be issued at 6 p.m. Central time Friday.

- end -

text-only version of this release