HOUSTON – Atlantis crew members spent part of Thanksgiving Day preparing for their scheduled Friday landing.
The shuttle and its seven-astronaut crew, Commander Charles Hobaugh, Pilot Barry Wilmore and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman, Robert Satcher Jr. and Nicole Stott also had a Thanksgiving meal and talked with media representatives.
Hobaugh, Wilmore and Melvin tested Atlantis’ flight control system, the flaps and rudders that will guide it through the atmosphere, and test fired the thruster jets that control its orientation in space and during early re-entry.
All crew members spent time stowing items in the shuttle’s cabin in preparation for the return to Earth. Landing is scheduled for 8:44 a.m. CST at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
They all gathered for a deorbit briefing a little after 6 a.m., just before their midday meal.
The Thanksgiving dinner aboard Atlantis was more traditional than expected. The International Space Station Expedition 21 crew members, Commander Jeffrey Williams, and Flight Engineers Maxim Suraev, Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk and Frank De Winne, had smoked turkey, green beans, mushrooms, cornbread dressing and candied yams available for their Thanksgiving. Apparently some of that fare found its way to the shuttle before the Wednesday undocking.
At about 8:15 a.m. Atlantis crew members talked with media representatives from ABC Radio, WTVT-TV in Tampa and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.
The next shuttle status report will be issued after crew wakeup, or earlier if events warrant.
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Noon CST Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas