10 a.m. CST Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
STS-126 MCC Status Report #18
Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke will continue work Sunday on a system in the International Space Station's Destiny lab that converts urine and condensate into potable water. Endeavour and station crew members also will transfer equipment and supplies between the station and the shuttle and prepare for Monday’s final planned spacewalk.
Endeavour crew members, Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Don Pettit, Steve Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Shane Kimbrough and Greg Chamitoff, and the Expedition 18 crew, Fincke and flight engineers Yury Lonchakov and Sandra Magnus, got their wakeup music at 8:05 a.m. CST. The music was “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” performed by Frankie Valli. It was for Ferguson. It was his 23rd wedding anniversary.
Endeavour crew members will have as much as four hours of free time beginning a little after 11 a.m. Fincke is scheduled to spend some of that time on the Urine Processer Assembly. The UPA is part of the Water Recovery System, which recycles condensate and urine. The UPA has experienced several shutdowns during testing. Engineers believe vibration caused physical interference with the UPA’s centrifuge, resulting in increased current draw and temperatures and causing the shutdowns. They believe Fincke can fix the problem.
Transfer activities continue to go well, with crew members a little ahead of schedule. At 3:05 p.m. Ferguson, Boe, Fincke and Magnus will gather in the station’s Harmony node to talk with media representatives. They’ll take questions from ABC News, CBS News and NBC News. Today’s spacewalk preparations include tool assembly, an hour-long spacewalk procedures review and the beginning of the campout in the Quest airlock for the spacewalkers.
Bowen and Kimbrough are scheduled to leave the station’s Quest airlock at 12:45 p.m. Monday on the mission’s fourth spacewalk. During Monday's spacewalk, Bowen and Kimbrough will install a multi-layer insulation blanket from the station's Kibo module and complete other maintenance tasks. Bowen will install a final trundle bearing assembly on the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) on the right side of the station while Kimbrough lubricates the SARJ on the left side.
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