STS 124 Report #15 - Saturday June 7th 08

STS-124 Report #15

Saturday, June 7, 2008 Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – Shuttle astronauts expanded the robotics capabilities on the stationtoday, with the first tests and motions of the Japanese robotic arm.

After heating up the arm yesterday and setting up its control console, today,mission specialists Akihiko Hoshide and Karen Nyberg sent commands to activate theKibo robotic arm system's hold and release mechanism. About an hour later, the twoinitiated the first motion of the arm. At 11:39 a.m. they commanded a slight pitchdown motion to validate the arm's operability. The move also ensured there would besufficient space for the removal of launch locks and insulation from the arm's wristand elbow cameras, a task scheduled for tomorrow’s spacewalk to be conducted by MikeFossum and Ron Garan.

Now, at the halfway point of the mission, the ten crewmembers gathered for an interview with reporters with CNN, WCBS-TV in New York and WDAY-TV in Fargo, N.D.

Later, shuttle Commander Mark Kelly was joined by Hoshide for a special call fromthe Japanese dignitaries. Participants included Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda;Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Kisaburo Tokai;Director of Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) and NASAAstronaut Mamoru Mohri. U.S. Ambassador in Japan J. Thomas Shieffer and studentsalso participated in the call to congratulate Hoshide and Kelly on the mission andthe successful addition of the Kibo Laboratory.

The crew continued internal outfitting of the new laboratory and transfer work andended the day with a review of the procedures for tomorrow’s spacewalk. Thatextravehicular activity, or EVA will now include a possible get-ahead task tocollect samples of some of the powder-like substance Fossum observed on the leftSolar Alpha Rotary Joint during the last spacewalk.The shuttle crew is scheduled to go to sleep at 8:32 p.m., thirty minutes after their space station counterparts. Both crews are scheduled to awaken at 4:32 a.m.Sunday.

Nick.