STS-112 MCC Status Report #19 
Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2002 – 5 p.m. CDT 
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 

Following an emotional farewell, the crews of Atlantis and the
International Space Station closed the hatches of their spacecraft
concluding a week of joint operations, that saw the transfer of about
1,800 pounds of supplies and hardware to the station, and the addition of
the 15 ton, 45-foot long Starboard One (S1) truss segment continuing the
station's expansion. 

Following undocking, Pilot Pam Melroy flew Atlantis a partial lap around
the station, as her crewmates used cameras to document its latest
addition and overall condition. At 10 a.m., she fired Atlantis' engines
in a final separation maneuver, leaving the Expedition Five crew -
Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and
Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - to continue stowing away many of the
items that were transferred over the past week and preparing for the
early November arrival of a new Soyuz return vehicle, and its visiting
crew. 

Flying solo, the focus on board Atlantis is on preparing for a return
trip to Earth on Friday. Commander Jeff Ashby, Melroy and flight engineer
Sandy Magnus will check out Atlantis' flight control systems and test
fire its reaction control system jets in preparation for re-entry and
landing. The entire crew also will begin packing up the cameras,
equipment and hardware they've used over the course of the past 10 days
in space. 

The Atlantis crew will be awakened at 2:16 a.m. to begin what should be
its final full day in orbit with landing scheduled for 10:44 a.m. CDT
Friday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Expedition Five crew
will awaken at 3:30 a.m., settling into a slightly later than normal
shift to support the upcoming visits of the Soyuz taxi crew and Space
Shuttle Endeavour. 

The next STS-112 status report will be issued Thursday morning, or sooner
if events warrant.