07.12.11

6 p.m. CDT Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Mission Control Center, Houston, TexasSTATUS REPORT: STS-135-09

STS-135 MCC STATUS REPORT #09

HOUSTON – Two International Space Station astronauts completed a
six-hour, 31-minute spacewalk at 2:53 p.m. CDT Tuesday, retrieving a
failed pump module for return to Earth, installing two experiments
and repairing a new base for the station’s robotic arm.

Flight Engineers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan used that arm, Canadarm2,
in their first and most lengthy task, retrieval of the failed
1,400-pound pump module from the station’s cooling system that failed
last year. Garan rode the arm to the pump module’s stowage rack where
he and Fossum removed it.

Still on the arm, operated by Atlantis Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission
Specialist Sandra Magnus in the station’s cupola, Garan took the pump
module to a carrier in Atlantis’ cargo bay. There Fossum bolted it
into place for the ride home.

Coached by intravehicular officer and Atlantis Mission Specialist Rex
Walheim, with help from spacewalk capcom and astronaut Steve Bowen in
the station flight control room, the spacewalkers moved on to their
next task, installation of the Robotic Refueling Mission experiment.
The experiment is designed to help in development of ways to
robotically refuel satellites in space.

Fossum was making his seventh spacewalk and Garan his fourth (all with
Fossum). They removed the refueling experiment from the cargo bay.
Fossum, now on the arm, carried the experiment to a platform on
Dextre, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator.

Fossum removed the foot restraint he and Garan had used at the end of
the Canadarm2, then moved to the front of the Zarya module. There he
freed a wire stuck in one latch door at a data grapple fixture
installed during the STS-134 mission in May. The fixture can serve as
a base for Canadaram2, considerably extending its range of operation.


Meanwhile, Garan deployed a materials experiment also installed during
STS-134, on a carrier on the station’s starboard truss. The eighth in
a series of station materials experiments, it focuses on optical
reflector materials. It was not deployed during the previous flight
because of concerns about outgasing from insulation on the nearby
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment, also installed during the
earlier mission.

Back together again, the two spacewalkers moved on to Pressurized
Mating Adaptor 3 on the Tranquility node. They installed an
insulating cover on the end of the PMA, an area exposed to
considerable sunshine.

Inside the shuttle-station complex, transfer of material from the
Raffaello multipurpose logistics module began. The work to unload the
more than 9,400 pounds of supplies and equipment brought up by
Raffaello and then repack it with 5,700 pounds of equipment, supplies
and trash to return home will continue for much of Atlantis stay at
the station.

The next status report will be issued after crew wakeup or earlier if
warranted. The crew is scheduled to awaken just before 1:30 a.m.
Wednesday.