There are 2 messages totalling 84 lines in this issue

Topics of the day:

1. STS-129 MCC Status Report #10
2. STS-129 MCC Status Report #11

Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:50:12 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: STS-129 MCC Status Report #10

STS-129 Report #10 Saturday, November 21, 2009 - 3:30 a m CST Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – An overnight interruption in their preparations will mean that Mission Specialists Mike Foreman and Randy Bresnik will head out the station’s hatch on the second spacewalk of the STS-129 mission a little later than planned

The International Space Station again experienced a false depressurization alarm that originated from the new Poisk Mini-Research Module overnight The station’s automatic response resulted in a shutdown of ventilation systems, which led to two smoke detectors issuing a false alarm, as well – one in the Columbus European laboratory and one in the Quest Airlock, where Foreman and Bresnik were camping out as part of the pre-breathe protocol that precedes spacewalks

The alarm sounded at 8:53 p m , more than two hours after Atlantis’ crew went to sleep for the night Emergency procedures required the spacewalkers to move out of the airlock while teams on the ground verified that the alarms were false Although flight controllers in Houston were quickly able to determine that was the case, it was decided that it would take too long to get the airlock back in its normal configuration for it to be feasible for Bresnik and Foreman to spend the night there Instead, they were instructed to stop their pre-breathe protocol and sleep elsewhere

In order to flush nitrogen from their blood steams – the job their campout in Quest would have accomplished – Bresnik and Foreman will instead be going through an exercise protocol, which requires them to spend 10 minutes on the station’s exercise bike while breathing pure oxygen from an air mask They’ll spend a total of two hours and 20 minutes breathing the pure oxygen, which, when combined with the exercise, will help them avoid getting decompression sickness when they exit the station

They are scheduled to exit the station at 8:38 a m With 30 extra minutes in their sleep period to make up for sleep lost due to the alarms, the crew’s wakeup call came today at 2:58 a m The wakeup song, “Voyage to Atlantis” by The Isley Brothers, was played for Mission Specialist Bobby Satcher

Even though they’re starting late, the spacewalkers plan to get all the scheduled tasks complete during what will now be a six-hour-long spacewalk That’s 30 minutes shorter than was originally planned, which means that they will not have extra time in the schedule for get ahead work

Foreman and Bresnik still intend to install the Grappling Adaptor to On-Orbit Railing assembly (or GATOR) on the Columbus module, relocate a floating potential measurement unit to the P1 truss segment, set up a cargo attachment system on the zenith face of the S3 truss segment and install a wireless video system external transceiver assembly

The other major task on the crew’s agenda today is the transfer of the second cargo pallet delivered by Atlantis to the space station – EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 2, or ELC2 That work is scheduled to get underway just before 6:45 a m The pallet contains 9,900 pounds of spare equipment for the station, including a control moment gyroscope, a nitrogen tank assembly, a pump module, a high pressure gas tank, a cargo transport container that holds 10 remote power control modules and a reel assembly for the station’s mobile transporter

ELC2 will be installed on the S3 segment of the station’s truss by the space station’s robotic arm, which will be driven by Mission Specialists Leland Melvin and Nicole Stott

The next shuttle status report will be issued at the end of the crew’s workday or earlier if events warrant The crew is due to go to sleep just before 6 p m

-end-

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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: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:38:42 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: STS-129 MCC Status Report #11

STS-129 Report #11 Saturday, Nov 21, 2009 - 4:30 p m CST Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – It’s two down and one to go for Atlantis’ spacewalkers

Mike Foreman and Randy Bresnik wound up a successful 6-hour, 8-minute outing after completing their scheduled tasks ahead of schedule and get-ahead jobs The official end of the spacewalk was at 2:39 p m CST It was the second of the three scheduled during Atlantis’ visit to the International Space Station

The start was a little later than planned, about 8:30 a m , because a false depressurization alarm had sounded on the station at 8:53 p m Friday, interrupting the crews’ sleep and the spacewalkers’ campout in the Quest airlock The spacewalkers completed the process of reducing the nitrogen in their blood by doing exercise while breathing oxygen

The first job was installing an antenna assembly called GATOR on a Columbus module handrail The assembly includes an antenna for a ship identification system and another for ham radio With support from intravehicular officer Robert Satcher Jr , they completed that task about 40 minutes ahead of schedule

Then they relocated the station’s floating potential measurement unit to the Port 1 Truss The device, which measures electrical potential of the station, was moved to make way for an alpha magnetic spectrometer to be delivered next year

Next, after a trip back to the airlock to recharge the spacesuits’ oxygen, was deployment of a payload attachment system on the upper part of the Starboard 3 (S3) Truss The first PAS was deployed ahead of schedule during the Thursday spacewalk, so installation of the second, which had been scheduled for Monday’s spacewalk, was moved up to today

The PAS is a stowage system for spare parts To set it up, the spacewalkers had to remove two braces, swing out the PAS from the truss on which it was launched, and then reattach the braces to support it in its new position

The final scheduled task of the spacewalk was installation of a wireless video system on S3 The system transmits video from the cameras on spacewalkers’ helmets They finished that chore more than an hour ahead of schedule

Flight controllers added get-head tasks The major one was deployment of a third PAS, this one on the Earth-facing side of S3 Most recently that job had been added to the third spacewalk, but the crew was so far ahead, they were told to do it Saturday The task was accomplished smoothly and quickly

The crew also disconnected, examined, photographed and reconnected the troublesome antenna cable Discovery astronauts on STS-128 had been unable to hook up Thursday spacewalkers had succeeded in mating the cable, but instrument readings were not as expected

Finally, the spacewalkers moved a tool stanchion on Pressurized Mating Adaptor 1, which links the U S and Russian segments of the station, and relocated an articulated portable foot restraint

Just before the beginning of the Saturday spacewalk, Express Logistics Carrier 2 was installed on S3 by the station’s robotic arm, operated by Leland Melvin and Nicole Stott It holds almost 10,000 pounds of large spares for the station, including an attitude-control gyroscope, a high-pressure oxygen tank and a pump module

A sister cargo carrier, ELC 1, also came to the station on Atlantis and was installed at about the time the first spacewalk began on Thursday

The next shuttle status report will be issued Sunday after crew wake-up

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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

End of HSFNEWS Digest - 21 Nov 2009 to 22 Nov 2009 (#2009-129)

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