ISS Spacewalk preparations

HOUSTON – Spacewalk preparations and water recovery system maintenance highlight the work schedule for the first full day of joint docked operations by the astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station.


The shuttle crew’s wake up song, at 3:19 p.m. CST, was “Also sprach Zarathustra” by Richard Strauss, played for Mission Specialist Nicholas Patrick. The song is most widely known as the theme from the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

First up for Patrick and Mission Specialist Bob Behnken will be time to configure tools they’ll take outside on the first spacewalk of the mission Thursday evening. Shuttle Commander George Zamka and station Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi will resize a spare spacesuit for Behnken after a power harness on his original suit failed. The harness provides power to the wireless video system and glove heaters.

Station Commander Jeff Williams began his day by beginning the installation of a new Distillation Assembly and Flow Control Pump Assembly in the station’s Water Recovery System as part of the plan to reactivate the equipment that processes urine into drinking water for station crews. Flight Engineers Max Suraev and Oleg Kotov will continue to pack items in a Progress supply ship and T.J. Creamer is scheduled to be monitoring several scientific payloads. Shuttle Pilot Terry Virts and Mission Specialists Kay Hire and Steve Robinson will continue moving new equipment and supplies from Endeavour onto the station.

At 10:49 p.m. – after both crews break for lunch – Williams and Creamer will join the six shuttle crew members to discuss the mission in interviews with KXTV-TV in Sacramento, Calif. (Robinson’s home town), WKRG-TV in Mobile, Ala. (Hire’s home town), and KMOX Radio in St. Louis, Mo. (Behnken’s home town).

All 11 crew members are scheduled for some off duty time in the latter portion of their day before a spacewalk procedures review at 3:09 a.m. Thursday. Behnken and Patrick will end their day preparing for Thursday night’s spacewalk by camping overnight in the Quest airlock at a reduced atmospheric pressure. That will facilitate the purge of nitrogen from their bloodstreams as a measure against suffering from decompression sickness during the spacewalk, which is scheduled to begin at 8:09 p.m. Thursday.

Visit the Spaceboosters Online store for STS-130 Collectables!