There are 2 messages totalling 64 lines in this issue

Topics of the day:

1. STS-126 MCC Status Report #08
2. STS-126 MCC Status Report #09

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:02:49 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: STS-126 MCC Status Report #08

STS-126 Report #08 Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 9:00 a m CST Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

The first of four spacewalks scheduled for Endeavour crew members at the International Space Station will highlight today’s activities in orbit

Much of the work by Endeavour crew members, Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Don Pettit, Steve Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Shane Kimbrough and Greg Chamitoff, will involve the spacewalk and transfer of equipment and supplies between the station and Endeavour

The crew got its wakeup call at 7:55 a m CST The song was “City of Blinding Lights,” by U2 It was played for Kimbrough

Piper, in a red-striped suit, and Bowen, in the all-white suit, will leave the Quest airlock at 12:45 p m for the 6 5-hour spacewalk Their tasks, like most of those on the remaining three spacewalks, will focus on the station’s Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJ)

The joints are designed to rotate the station’s 240-foot solar arrays, to keep them facing the sun for maximum production of electricity Last year flight controllers noted an increase in power consumption by the starboard SARJ, and it has seen limited use The port SARJ is working fine, but it will be lubricated during the fourth spacewalk

Today’s spacewalkers also will take a depleted nitrogen tank from a station stowage platform to Endeavour’s cargo bay and move a flex hose rotary coupler from the shuttle to that station stowage platform Additionally, they will remove an insulation blanket on the Japanese laboratory Kibo

Kimbrough, who will participate in the second and fourth spacewalks, will be today’s intravehicular officer, the spacewalk choreographer Pettit and Expedition 18’s Sandra Magnus will operate the Canadarm2 robotic arm during the spacewalk, while Boe also will provide support

Chamitoff and Ferguson will help with spacewalk preparations in the airlock, where the spacewalkers spent the night in lower air pressure to remove nitrogen from their systems Station Commander Mike Fincke and others also will transfer cargo

Endeavour’s crew is scheduled to go to bed at 11:55 p m today and be awakened at 7:55 a m Wednesday The next shuttle status report will be issued at the end of the crew day, or earlier if events warrant

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NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Status Reports and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to listserv@listserver jsc nasa gov In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes) This will add the e-mail address that sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:59:13 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: STS-126 MCC Status Report #09

STS-126 Report #09 Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 10:00 p m CST Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – Astronauts Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen completed the first of four spacewalks scheduled for Endeavour’s mission to the International Space Station today The spacewalk was the 115th in support of ISS construction

Piper and Bowen began the spacewalk at 12:09 p m CST and ended it at 7:01 p m They spent six hours and 52 minutes outside the station working on several tasks, including removing a depleted nitrogen tank from a stowage platform on the outside of the complex and moving it into Endeavour’s cargo bay They also moved a flex hose rotary coupler from the shuttle to the station stowage platform, as well as removing some insulation blankets from the common berthing mechanism on the Kibo laboratory

The majority of the spacewalk was spent focusing on one of the station’s Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJ) These joints are the large, circular devices that allow the complex’s solar arrays to automatically rotate and track the sun as the station orbits the Earth Piper and Bowen worked to clean and lubricate part of the joint and to remove two of the joint’s 12 trundle bearing assemblies This work will continue during the rest of the mission’s scheduled spacewalks

About halfway into the spacewalk, one of the grease guns that Piper was preparing to use on the SARJ released some Braycote grease into her crew lock bag, which is the tool bag the spacewalkers use during their activities As she was cleaning the inside of the bag, it drifted away from her and toward the aft and starboard portion of the International Space Station Inside the bag were two grease guns, scrapers, several wipes and tethers and some tool caddies Piper and Bowen spent the remainder of the spacewalk sharing a duplicate set of tools from the other crew lock bag they had with them The next spacewalk of the mission will take place on Thursday, which will be the 10th anniversary of the launch of the first element of the station, the Zarya module

Inside the station, Endeavour’s crew and the Expedition 18 crew worked to continue moving items out of the Leonardo Multipurpose Logistics Module (MPLM) that was docked with the station yesterday The crew is ahead of its transfer timeline and focused on moving two water recovery system (WRS) racks and one of the new sleep stations into the ISS The transfer tasks will continue on throughout Endeavour’s visit to the station, when the MPLM will be undocked and placed back into Endeavour’s payload bay for return to Earth

The crew is due to go to sleep tonight at 11:55 p m CST and will wake up at 7:55 a m tomorrow The next shuttle status report will be issued after crew wake-up or earlier if events warrant

-end-

#

NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Status Reports and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to listserv@listserver jsc nasa gov In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes) This will add the e-mail address that sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail

End of HSFNEWS Digest - 18 Nov 2008 to 19 Nov 2008 (#2008-122)

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