Endeavour Spacewalk Preparations

STS-130 MCC Status Report #07

Endeavour and International Space Station crew members worked on spacewalk preparations, did some long-awaited repairs on a water recycling system and transferred equipment and supplies between the shuttle and station.

Endeavour’s crew members, Commander George Zamka, Pilot Terry Virts and Mission Specialists Kathryn Hire, Stephen Robinson, Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken, got some afternoon time off and the welcome news that a more detailed focused inspection of the shuttle’s heat shield system would not be needed.

Backdropped by Earth's horizon and the blackness of space, the Japanese Kibo complex of the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-130 crew member while space shuttle Endeavour remains docked with the station.

The morning included installation of the Water Recovery System’s refurbished Distillation Assembly and replacement of the system’s Fluids Control Pump Assembly by station Commander Jeff Williams. The system processes urine into drinking water. Zamka, Hire and Robinson worked to transfer equipment and supplies.

Patrick and Behnken began their overnight campout in the station’s Quest airlock a little before 7 a.m. CST in preparation for today’s first of three spacewalks during space shuttle Endeavour’s visit to the orbiting laboratory. They are sleeping in the reduced 10.2 psi pressure of the airlock to avoid decompression sickness, or the bends.

An earlier checkout of Behnken’s spacesuit revealed a problem with a power harness that provides power to its wireless video system and glove heaters. Zamka and station Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi changed out the suit’s upper torso to resolve the issue.

The crews wrapped up their workday with an hour-long review of spacewalk procedures beginning about 3:10 a.m. Williams and Flight Engineers Noguchi and T.J. Creamer also participated.

The spacewalk, set to begin at 8:09 p.m. and scheduled for 6.5 hours, will prepare Tranquility for its move from Endeavour’s cargo bay. After it is installed on the station’s Unity node by station robotic arm operators Virts and Hire, the spacewalkers will begin hooking it up to the station’s infrastructure. They also will move a temporary platform from the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or DEXTRE, to the station’s port truss and install two handles on the robot.

After the crews’ hour-long lunch break beginning a little before 10 p.m., the six shuttle astronauts, Williams and Creamer talked with reporters from KXTV-TV in Sacramento, Calif., WKRG-TV in Mobile, Ala., and KMOX Radio in St. Louis. Robinson is from Sacramento, Hire from Mobile and Behnken from St. Louis. After those interviews, crew members enjoyed most of their afternoon off duty.

The next shuttle status report will be issued after the crew’s 3:14 p.m. wakeup call, or earlier if warranted.