 This is shuttle launch control at t-minus three hours and holding and we are standing by to Have live TV of the crew and they're suiting They make preparations for launch this evening At this time everything continues to go back on schedule. We were a little late in getting Our cryogenics loaded into the external tank due to some software problems in the firing room But that's been resolved and tanking began About an hour late, but it has also just now completed also at the pad or the close-out teams for the Astronauts, they'll be configuring the cockpit switches and making sure that everything is ready for the crew to Eat to ingress the vehicle crew the seven members of our flight team are In their crew quarters making last-minute preparations being suited for this mission Jim whether be is is being Attended to he has his helmet on he of course is preparing for his Having served as pilot of mission sts-32 and commander of mission sts-52 and 63 That was the first special mission to rendezvous with the Russian space station and His pilot is Mike Bloomfield and he is preparing for his first shuttle mission He is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy Science degree Assigned to NASA as an astronaut candidate in 1995 a mission specialist Wendy Lawrence The only female aboard this flight making her second trip in the space aboard the shuttle space suit She was deemed too small and had to be had to settle for the round trip Looking at another mission specialist This looks like Scott Parazinski he too was at one point considered to be a member of the mirror team, but He has since now been assigned to this flight as a member of the flight crew to make the round trip the the member of the team who will be going up and staying on mirror is Mission specialist Dave Wolf and this will be his second trip on the shuttle of Vladimir T toff It also is a member of this crew he will be Making his second flight on the shuttle, but this is his fifth flight overall He became a cosmonaut and back in 1976 and served as commander of the Soyuz t8 and t10 He first flew on the shuttle and night on mission sts-63 in February of 1995 With his current commander and Jim Wetherby of this mission And it's hard to tell who these astronauts are with their helmets on but that looked like it was Jean-Luc Cretien a member of our flight crew actually a He is a chief of the French astronaut office witnessing the crew departure our number of KSC employees who have Finished up their day and decided to stick around for a couple hours to take some photographs of the seven members of the STSA 6 crew being led by Jim Wetherby Followed by pilot Michael Bloomfield mission specialist Vladimir T toff Scott Parazinski Jean-Luc Cretien Winnie Lawrence and David Wolf Remain in orbit over 11 years I think is a testimony to how well the Russians understand what it takes to operate in orbit And we need to be very mindful of that It looks like the pad has been cleared of of all inappropriate personnel as well as the Personnel who are on the pad have been OTC OBCC Go ahead and this to end at this time copy. Let's do a contract first matter ground one Atlantis OTC air the ground one How do you read PLT loud and clear and that's not allowed camp and that's too loud and clear MS Raid item here That's not loud and clear. I'll be going to the ground to last Houston for the CDR and PLT come check on air the ground to clear Last Houston have you loud and clear configure for air-to-air This is shuttle launch control that T minus one hour two minutes and counting and this is a Unique view of our vehicle on pad 39a with the lights of pad 39b behind it pad 39b is currently undergoing a number of renovations and modifications and will be used In the next several months From his standpoint several thousand feet Over the pad that everything continues to look good from a weather standpoint Based on that this is shuttle launch control at T minus 20 minutes and holding with about 20 seconds remaining in our hold As we come out of the hold Atlantis is on board computers will transition into the terminal phase of the countdown configuration Inside Atlantis is payload bay is the pressurized space have double module Which was is being used to carry more than 6,000 pounds of science equipment and experiments into orbit Also food clothing batteries and water is being transferred from Atlantis to the mirror And that equipment is being carried up in the space have and we are T minus 19 minutes and counting Roger that Entity you're clear to loss The OAA or the orbiter access arm is being retracted away This is the walkway used by the crew to gain injury into and out of the vehicle And it can be returned to position within seconds if need be Forecast broken deck your new town site will be maroon that site number three Nominally in point nominal speed break Yeah, there's two nine or what for and we are receiving the signal from mission control in Houston to start the orbiter's flight recorders These recorders collect measurements of shuttle system performance during flight T minus two minutes 30 seconds and counting And everything continues to look good and we are cleared for launch tonight No problems being reported from the vehicle or the crew t-minus two minutes and counting And we have a go for auto sequence start Atlantis on board computers have primary control of all the vehicles critical functions T minus 20 seconds T minus 15 12 11 10 9 8 7 we have a go from any 5 4 3 2 1 Booster ignition and liftoff of the spatial to Atlantis extending America's presence in space while opening new chapters in exploration Program initiated to place a plan us on its heads down track over the Atlantic Throttling down now since it's 67 moving at 1,000 miles per hour now Altitude 8.8 miles down range 5.8 miles Three engines back at 104 percent now Atlantis moving at 1,600 miles per hour Atlanta that is a do-sir copy and concur three good fuel fuel cells three good APU three engines running at 104 percent Atlantis now moving at over 2,000 miles per hour 18.4 miles in altitude down range 16 miles about 15 seconds away from solid rocket booster separation Atlantis moving at 2,800 miles per hour have solid rocket booster separation confirmed Guidance converging Confirmed main engine cutoff et separation confirmed Good morning, Atlantis. It's time to do that delicate dance in the dark and dock with me 2292 this is first we're getting attitude. Okay. It looks like we're in attitude I'm showing four degrees out four degrees. Yeah, I Show for my dmi on our popper And I went back to a did you want to be in B? Doesn't matter. Okay. Okay. That's right out of three guys. Let me look here point two Let's just fly point two of the rest of the way in And try and stay on the fast side of point two in other words Let it bleed down to point two and then pump it up to like point two four And I'll bleed down to point two and then when we get in closer like a hundred seventy feet or so then we can start playing the game I might go point one seven to point two and got One point nine. See ya The point two until we get down to 110 feet Jim Yes, no right now if you didn't do any more polka you would stop in 30 Oh That's when the window open that's that's two minutes into it right that is One forty forty nine bump it up Jim Now we're gonna do the the depth closure here Just don't touch me. Yeah, you can hold me a little bit. Oh, yeah Nice Oh now you all you can see is the ring. This is a need Okay, 75 feet closing point oh wait come for happening good What do you think flood lights leave the lights the way they are You're sure not gonna turn that off or down Oh Excellent waiting for damping to come on That was just awesome It's huge Three and a half Okay, what are we looking on the base there now? At seven percent we should see ready to hook like 16 Atlanta Spear Houston, we're five minutes to hand over to Tiedras East We expect to be in blockage for the East Pass and air to ground will be unreliable up until we come AOS Tiedras West We have other presents for you too Oh Houston you cannot believe the number of times that Several of us on board said unbelievable on our way up here either with the scene the views The procedures we had that just the fact that we were doing this None of us can can still believe it And I just had a shock when I looked out the window over here and saw Atlantis It took us a while to get to the mere core module here And I didn't realize how far away Atlantis was We'd like to thank all of the people down on the earth who it's a Tremendous amount of teamwork required to put something like this together And we had discussions all the way up when we were in cook quarters and quarantine just before coming up Regarding the procedures and what do we do? If we have failures and just both sides of the ocean worked on this flight For a long time And we want to thank everybody who worked on it We think this is a great crew With 10 of us there was a lot of discussion about the risk We are here to tell you all 10 of us that we think the benefit far outweighs the risk And that's why we're here and We're really enjoying it. And this is a great ship. I can't believe it I saw it two years ago from 30 feet, which is not very far away But it turns out it was really far away compared to The last 30 feet and then coming all the way in to the mere base block They're already hot these please and this is really good stuff. This is the best stuff you get They are great. I can only do it for the first time, but I wouldn't go here for nothing He's out. Yes, thank you. Thank you Tim's trying to get to the back to the flagdecker thing. Yeah, they have the wrong way. So we'll go this way Now let's head up to mirror This is the docking module here It's the creestyle module credible view down Planet earth and then velodja to go outside and have a good look at that wonderful world themselves So now Right, hey, wendy. We'll take a look at that Six right like it's probably okay, velodja Like that Okay, uh This is mission control houston again this sequential still video being provided through the s-band communication system on atlanta showing astronauts scott parasinski and vladimir teetov hauling up to and now of fixing the 121 pound solar array cap to the side of the docking module How about if I come up to the floor and bolt out take your time Okay, you guys are out four and a half hours right now. Yeah, it's the it's the antenna So look at that A little flop. Yeah Okay, I would like to open it and thank commander anatoly soloviev The provovina gradoff for inviting us us into their home for the last several days. They have been very gracious They're a tremendous team. They work well together. They have taught us a lot and we thank them for being so gracious It requires an awful lot of teamwork to pull one of these missions together Uh The part with the cluster rendezvous is not just the pilots or the crews, but all the folks on the ground Uh and the tracking stations are on the world to get the precise navigation required By the way, I feel very confident that has the mere lost attitude control We still would have been able to dock with uh the teamwork that we have and that we've developed over the last several years Brace somehow You get hurt down there and he talk and he talk a little chap to be a talker David Thanks for all the help I can't say You guys have been super I I From the time you give a go to the mirror crew To uh put the pressure pulse Inside the spectrum module, uh, it it takes about a minute and a half for that pressure to ramp up So it may be uh that period of time before you would be able to see anything Six 32 It's a 220 The window opens at my first undock 14 colon 5 4 and closes at 1503 He didn't say Yeah, but that's what we have but he didn't say one We were supposed to We were supposed to uh try and get We go look Yeah, let's review what we have to do Yeah The tapes a little bit earlier than blue Misha Okay Okay Great Are they looking symmetric? Yeah Okay Okay Okay Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed Speed I'm getting it Jim, don't worry. First time to the 64. Not do it for Jots, I guess. Don't talk about Mike. Don't talk about me. He's tough, he's not. Are you in there, Rosas? Oh, please. Smile while you're into your water. Okay. Air data probes on Atlantis have now been deployed. Long range cameras now picking up view of Atlantis as it continues to make its approach towards the Kennedy Space Center. Is that going in? There's a person land thing on the HSI. There's a runway in sight. I'm not going to call it though. And I have two white ones and two red ones, Wex. Okay, awesome. That was good. I'll show you a little bit right, there you go. For Bloomer, they all looked perfect. Good to go. Okay, de-rotate 185. I'll show you going down it. One and a half, one and a half, one and a half, two, and you're a little bit right of ceremony. Here comes the shoot.