STS-49 Mission Control Center Status Report #4

                         MISSION CONTROL CENTER
                            Status Report #4

STS-49, May 8, 1992, 11:30 p.m. CDT

Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour spent their first full
day in space conducting key preparations for their feature performance
on Sunday - the capture and repair of the Intelsat VI satellite.

While Intelsat controllers in Washington, D.C. have had great success
in lowering their stranded satellite to the final capture altitude,
Endeavour's relative position and closing rate was also tweaked with a
height adjust maneuver this afternoon.  The remainder of the
rendezvous maneuvers prior to the close encounter on Sunday, will
involve small precision burns to enhance lighting condition and
approach angle at the time of capture.

Early in the day the crew depressurized the cabin atmosphere to 10.2
pounds per square inch from 14.7 psi in preparation for the three
spacewalks on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  This lower cabin pressure
will serve to allow nitrogen in the crew's bloodstream to outgas,
lowering the overall content of nitrogen in their blood.  This will
eliminate the need for a lengthy prebreathe of pure oxygen prior to
beginning the space walks.  The intent is to eliminate nitrogen which
can expand in bloodstream when the crew is exposed to the decreased
pressure of the suits - about 4.5 ppsi - which could cause the bends.
Using this protocol, each space walker will need to prebreathe in
their suits for only 30-40 minutes.

A complete and thorough checkout of the space walkers' suits was
conducted to make sure they are in proper working order.  All four
suits checked out and appear to be in excellent condition.

Endeavour's robot arm was also flexed as mission specialist Bruce
Melnick put it through a complete checkout also.  The arm plays a
significant role in all three planned spacewalks as it will be used to
transport astronauts and payload equipment in and out of the payload
bay.  The robot arm checked out and is in good shape.

Just prior to sleep tonight, the crew will trim Endeavour's orbital
perigee from 147 to 148 nautical miles to further refine the closing
rate between Endeavour and the Intelsat.  Just about the same time,
Brandenstein becomes the astronaut with the most time in space aboard
the Space Shuttle.  Norm Thagard held the previous Shuttle record with
604 hours 45 minutes 6 seconds.  Brandenstein began the mission with
575:49:18.