STS-49 MCC Status Report #16 

                      MISSION CONTROL CENTER
                     STS-49 Status Report #16


Wednesday, May 13, 1992, 8 a.m.

While the crew of Endeavour slept 198 nautical miles above, flight
controllers in the Mission Control Center worked busily overnight
to put together a detailed plan for Wednesday's unprecedented
three-person space walk to capture Intelsat VI.

Working from broad-brush plans developed the day before by the
Endeavour crew and a tiger team on the ground, the shuttle support
team put together a plan that starts with a maneuver at 10:36 a.m.
CDT to adjust the height of the shuttle's orbit.

At 11:10 a.m., Pierre Thuot, Rick Hieb and Tom Akers will begin
preparing for their space walk.

At 11:22 a.m., Commander Dan Brandenstein will maneuver the
shuttle again, this time to adjust the phasing of the orbits of
the two spacecraft.  At 1:46 p.m., Brandenstein wil make the first
on-board target burn of the rendezvous.  At 2:10 p.m., with three
crew members squeezed inside, airlock depressurization will begin.

The final phase of the rendezvous will begin at 2:25 p.m., about
the same time the astronauts step out into the payload bay and
begin building the base triangle of the Assembly of Station by EVA
Methods payload, attaching it to three payload retention latches
on the payload bay longerons.  Portable foot restraints will be
attached to two of the three ASEM trusses and a third to the robot
arm.  Standing about 120 degrees apart, the space walkers will
wait as Brandenstein manually maneuvers the shuttle until Intelsat
is floating just above them in the payload bay.  About 5:10 p.m.,
they will grab Intelsat, first slowing and then stopping its
rotation.

At 5:20 p.m., two of the space walkers will move the pre-
positioned capture bar under the satellite until its automatic
latches engage.  Mission Specialist Bruce Melnick will then move
the arm so that Thuot is under the satellite and can use an EVA
power tool to tighten the latches and hard dock the satellite to
the capture bar.  After grappling the capture bar/satellite
combination and attaching the satellite to its new perigee kick
motor, the EVA crew members will clean up the payload bay and
return to Endeavour's crew cabin.

Deployment of Intelsat is scheduled for 10:09 p.m.

Endeavour currently is in a 198 by 190 nautical mile orbit, with
all systems performing well. The crew is expected to review the
plans and discuss any suggested changes once they are awakened
about 8:40 a.m.