Shuttle Makes Way for Rich Tourist at Space Station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The shuttle Endeavour undocked from the international space station Sunday, leaving the outpost behind with a partially repaired computer system and clearing the way for arrival of millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito early today.
With pilot Jeffrey Ashby at the controls, Endeavour pulled away from the 120-ton lab complex as the spacecraft sailed 240 miles above the central Pacific Ocean at 5 miles per second.
The shuttle had been scheduled to undock Saturday, but departure was delayed to give engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston more time to trouble-shoot glitches that shut down the lab’s central computer system. Ground controllers had brought all three of the station’s command-and-control computers back to life.
But only one computer’s hard drive was working. Agency managers, however, said the station could fly safely until a replacement hard drive can be launched aboard a Russian supply ship later this month.
During Endeavour’s extended mission, the astronauts installed a new Canadian-built robot arm and delivered three tons of supplies, equipment and scientific gear.
With Endeavour out of the way, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Tito, commander Talgat Musabayev and cosmonaut Yuri Baturin was cleared to dock just before 1 a.m. PDT today.
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