STS-121 MCC Status Report #16
- From: "Jacques van Oene" <oene0072@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:16:23 +0200
STS-121 MCC Status Report #16
STS-121
Report #16
2 a.m. CDT, Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
The third and final spacewalk of the STS-121 space shuttle mission will be
the focus of today's space activities.
Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will test techniques to
inspect and repair damage to an orbiter's heat shield. The 6.5-hour
spacewalk from the Quest airlock is scheduled to start at 6:13 a.m. CDT.
Sellers and Fossum will set up tools and a foot restraint on the station
robotic arm. Sellers will position himself on the arm, operated by Mission
Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson. He will use an infrared camera
to record about 20 seconds of imagery as the arm, and Sellers, move along
the shuttle's wing leading edge.
Sellers, designated EV1 and wearing the spacesuit with red stripes, will
meet EV2 Fossum, in the all-white suit, in Discovery's payload bay. There
they will set up the worksite for the repair tasks. A pallet with 12
reinforced carbon-carbon panels is pre-positioned in the payload bay. Eight
are pre-damaged and will be the subject of the repair test. Two are blank,
to be used as a work palette, and the last two are for further imaging by
the infrared camera.
Sellers and Fossum will use a variety of tools and methods for the repair
work demonstration including a space-certified caulk gun and a variety of
spatulas to manipulate the test materials.
They hope to finish demonstrations on at least two of those samples. Then
they'll do a 60-second recording using the IR camera of two other damaged
tiles. The camera is designed to capture temperature gradients that will
indicate invisible damage.
If they have time, they may take additional photos of some shuttle panels
and move the fixed grapple bar in the shuttle payload bay.
The spacewalkers will clean up the worksite and inspect their spacesuits.
Then Fossum will ride the robotic arm back to the airlock, again taking
video of the wing leading edge as he passes it. Sellers will make his own
way back.
Pilot Mark Kelly will again serve as the intravehicular activities officer.
Commander Steve Lindsey will oversee the shuttle systems and spacewalk
operations.
While the shuttle crew is helping with the spacewalk, repacking of the
multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo will continue. The Expedition 13
crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and
Thomas Reiter, will put experiment results, unneeded equipment and garbage
into Leonardo.
The STS-121 crew woke this morning at 12:08 a.m. to "I Believe I Can Fly,"
played for Wilson. The Expedition 13 crew was awakened 30 minutes later.
The next STS-121 mission status report will be issued Wednesday evening, or
earlier if events warrant.
###
--
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Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.nl
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