There are 2 messages totalling 66 lines in this issue

Topics of the day:

1. STS-126 MCC Status Report #12
2. STS-126 MCC Status Report #13

Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:02:06 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: STS-126 MCC Status Report #12

STS-126 Report #12 Thursday, November 20, 2008 - 9:00 a m CST Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

The second spacewalk by Endeavour astronauts outside the International Space Station will be the focus of today’s activities aboard the two spacecraft

Endeavour crew members, Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Don Pettit, Steve Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Shane Kimbrough and Greg Chamitoff, were awakened at 7:55 a m CST The song was “Summertime,” played for Pettit It was recorded by Bandella Members of that group include singer Michi Pettit, Don Pettit’s wife, and astronauts Steve Robinson, Chris Hadfield and Cady Coleman

Spacewalkers Piper and Kimbrough are scheduled to leave the station’s Quest airlock at 12:45 p m CST Piper will wear the red-striped suit while Kimbrough will be in the suit with broken red stripes

Spacewalk tasks include moving two of the small handcarts on the rails of the station’s main truss and lubricating the Latching End Effector (LEE) of the orbiting laboratory’s robotic Canadarm2 Much of the spacewalkers' time will be devoted to the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint on the right side of the station’s main truss

They will continue cleaning and lubricating bearing race rings and the replacement of the joint’s trundle bearing assemblies The use of the joint has been limited since September 2007 when flight controllers noticed increased power consumption and vibration The handcarts will be moved to clear the tracks for future work The LEE lubrication is being done after the snares showed some balkiness on opening and closing

Boe will be the intravehicular officer or spacewalk choreographer, while Pettit and Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus will operate Canadarm2

Moving of supplies and equipment between Endeavour and the International Space Station and installation in the station of equipment are on today’s agenda for the 10 members of the spacecraft’s crews All the racks brought to the station in the Multi-purpose Logistics Module Leonardo have been installed in the station, though a considerable amount of equipment and supplies remains to be transferred

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

#

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: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:28:12 -0600 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: STS-126 MCC Status Report #13

STS-126 Report #13 Thursday, November 20, 2008 - 10 p m CST Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – Two down, two to go

Building on Tuesday’s spacewalk experience, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Shane Kimbrough headed out of the International Space Station’s Quest Airlock at 11:58 a m CST to continue the process of removing debris around the starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) and applying lubrication in an effort to eventually restore it to full functionality The EVA ended at 6:43 p m for a total time of six hours and 45 minutes As the spacewalkers were finishing up their activities, ground controllers noticed that Kimbrough’s carbon dioxide levels were increasing, so he made his way back to the airlock a few minutes ahead of Piper

Piper and Kimbrough began the second spacewalk by relocating two equipment carts in preparation for February’s installation of the final pair of solar arrays Once that task was completed, the two applied lubrication to a balky snare on the end of the station’s robotic arm before concentrating on repair of the rotary joint designed to automatically track the sun as the station circles the Earth The balance of the spacewalk was focused on replacing four more of the 12 trundle bearing assemblies (TBA) One of them was over-torqued during installation, so Piper installed one of the two back-up TBAs instead

The 116th spacewalk dedicated to station assembly and maintenance was the second of the four planned during space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-126 mission It set the stage for Saturday’s third excursion to complete the cleaning and lubricating process Station flight controllers plan to briefly test the repair early Sunday morning by commanding the solar array into “auto track” mode to evaluate its performance

On the 10th anniversary since station construction began with launch of the Zarya Control Module atop a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the station worked inside and outside to increase the capability and performance of systems to eventually support doubling the crew size from three to six

Friday at 11:10 a m , shuttle Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and Flight Engineer Steve Bowen will oversee a small reboost of the station’s altitude using spare propellant aboard Endeavour

At 2:05 p m , both the crews will hold their traditional news conference before reviewing procedures for the third spacewalk scheduled for Saturday afternoon

Mission Control will wake both crews up at 7:55 a m Friday to begin Flight Day 8, and the next mission status report will be issued Friday morning or sooner 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 - 20 Nov 2008 to 21 Nov 2008 (#2008-124)

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/plugins/dada_bridge pl/u/[list]/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:[list_owner_email]>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

[physical_address]