STS-87 Day 7 Highlights
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- On Tuesday, November 25, 1997, 6:00 a.m. CST, STS-87 MCC Status Report # 12
reports:
- The six-person crew aboard Space Shuttle Columbia turned in for a
well-deserved rest at 5:46 a.m. this morning following a busy night
that saw two crewmembers perform a spacewalk to capture a wayward
satellite and evaluate equipment and procedures that will be used with
future International Space Station operations.
- Winston Scott and Takao Doi began their spacewalk at 6:02 p.m. CST
Monday evening and quickly moved into position on a support structure
in Columbia's payload bay as Commander Kevin Kregel piloted the
Shuttle towards the Spartan solar satellite.
- After Kregel maneuvered Columbia into close proximity with Spartan,
Scott and Doi captured the satellite by hand at 8:09 p.m. CST. The
two spacewalkers then carefully lowered Spartan down onto its support
structure, and the free-flyer unit was latched in place at 9:23 p.m.
- With the retrieval of Spartan completed, Scott and Doi then turned
their efforts towards setting up and testing a crane device which will
be used to move large Orbital Replacement Units (ORUs) during the
assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station.
- After the crane was positioned in its holder on the port side of the
payload bay, Doi conducted evaluation tests of the crane operating
characteristics while Scott removed a large battery unit and its
carrier device located on the starboard wall. The 500-pound
battery/carrier unit was then placed on the end of the crane to
evaluate the unit's ability to move with a large mass attached to it.
- Doi and Scott then stowed the battery unit and the crane device.
Towards the end of their spacewalk, Doi took a few moments to send a
message home in Japanese just before re-entering Columbia's airlock.
After Scott joined him, the external hatch was closed and the airlock
was repressurized bringing to an end a 7-hour, 43-minute spacewalk at
1:45 a.m. CST. Including the spacewalk he did during a Shuttle
mission in January 1996, Scott now has 14 hours, 36 minutes of
spacewalking time. Doi, who is on his first spaceflight, has the
distinction of being the first Japanese person to perform a spacewalk.
- The STS-87 crew will receive a wake up call from Mission Control at
1:46 p.m. this afternoon to begin Flight Day Seven activities.
- Columbia continues to perform flawlessly with no systems problems.
The next STS-87 status report will be issued at approximately 6
p.m. Tuesday.
- On Tuesday, November 25, 1997, 6:00 p.m. CST, STS-87 MCC Status Report # 13
reports:
- Fresh from their successful manual retrieval of the SPARTAN science
satellite, Columbia's six astronauts were awakened at 1:46
p.m. Central time this afternoon to begin their seventh day in orbit,
a day focused on experiments inside the crew cabin.
- Mission Control played the traditional Indian song,."Mishra Piloo"
by Indian musician Ravi Shankar, in honor of Mission Specialist
Kalpana Chawla. Chawla used the shuttle's robot arm to berth the
SPARTAN satellite after it has grabbed out of orbit by crewmates
Winston Scott and Takao Doi during their 7-hour, 43-minute spacewalk
yesterday.
- Today, the crew will turn its attention to a variety of experiments
inside the Shuttle cabin. Chawla will process several samples of
materials in the glovebox facility in Columbia's middeck designed to
investigate the characteristics of creating composite materials in
weightlessness. The experiment , called PEP, involves heating samples
and then recording the mixture as it resolidifies. It is hoped to
provide scientists with insight that could lead to new developments in
composite materials on Earth. Ukrainian Payload Specialist Leonid
Kadenyuk will continue studies of plant growth in space with the
Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment, spending much of his day
harvesting and preserving soybean seedlings for analysis after
Columbia's return home.
- Meanwhile, Scott and Doi will finish stowing the tools and equipment
they used during yesterday's spacewalk and fill out questionnaires
designed to capture their early thoughts on the evaluations they
performed. The insights they provide will help engineers as they
finalize the designs of tools planned for use during assembly of the
International Space Station.
- Doi will receive congratulations on his work and mission at 2:51
a.m. CST Wednesday in a special call to Columbia from Sadakazu
Tanigaki, Minister of Japan's Science and Technology Agency, and
Tomifumi Godai, vice president of the National Space Development
Agency of Japan.
- Columbia remains in excellent condition with no mechanical
problems. The shuttle is in an orbit of 175 by 170 statute miles.
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