STS-88 Day 5 Highlights
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- On Monday, December 7, 1998, 12:00 p.m. CST, STS-88 MCC Status Report # 10
reports:
- Following a wake-up call from Mission Control at 11:41
a.m. CST today, Endeavour's six astronauts began preparing for the
first of three scheduled space walks. The wake-up song, "Jerry the
Rigger," was in honor of Mission Specialist Jerry Ross, who with
fellow Mission Specialist Jim Newman, will conduct more than 18 hours
of space walks during this flight.
- Today's space walk, scheduled to begin about 4:30 p.m. Central
time, may begin earlier if Ross and Newman are ready to depressurize
Endeavour's external airlock ahead of schedule. This space walk, which
will last 6-1/2 hours, will focus on connecting computer and
electrical cables between Unity, the two mating adapters attached to
either end of Unity, and Zarya. In all, Ross and Newman will make
about 40 connections during the spacewalk. This will enable power to
flow to Unity for the first time in orbit and will permit Unity's
avionics, computers and heaters to be activated.
- Ross and Newman will begin today's space walk by readying
Endeavour's payload bay for their activities. Then, as Ross rides on
the shuttle's robot arm, he will install mating plugs and jumper
cables to reroute power through Unity while Newman releases cables
from where they were secured for launch on the mating adapter between
Unity and Endeavour, called Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA 2). Ross
and Newman will begin "plugging in" the cables and locking them into
place, and then pull a thermal cover over each connector. The space
walkers will next install a safety slidewire that will hold their
tethers as they connect cables between the modules.
- They will repeat the cable connection process again as they make
connections between Unity, Zarya and the mating adapter that attaches
Unity to Zarya, labeled Pressurized Mating Adapter 1 (PMA 1). Finally,
they will remove thermal covers from Unity's two exterior computers,
known as multiplexer-demultiplexers (MDMs), which are mounted on PMA
1. Once the cables are connected, Russian ground controllers will
send commands to Zarya to begin providing power to Unity, powering up
Unity's exterior computers. At that point, Commander Bob Cabana and
Mission Specialist Sergei Krikalev will send commands to the exterior
computers to prepare them to accept ground commands that will activate
systems aboard Unity.
- Before reentering Endeavour's airlock at the conclusion of the
space walk, Ross and Newman may, if time allows, perform a close-up
inspection of the Telerobotically Operated Rendezvous System (TORU) on
the Zarya module. Although flight controllers are confident the
pyrotechnic pins holding the TORU antennas did deploy as expected, the
two antennas did not unfurl as planned following Zarya's launch on
Nov. 20. The antennas are part of a backup rendezvous system and are
emitting signal strength in their current position and pose no problem
for future station operations. At this point, there are no plans for
Ross and Newman to attempt to manually deploy the antennas on a future
space walk.
- Early this morning, Russian and American flight controllers decided
to have Krikalev replace a battery current converter unit in Zarya
suspected of not working properly. A spare unit is carried aboard
Endeavour. Krikalev has performed a similar activity in the past
during stays on the Mir space station and will perform the task during
the time the crew is inside Zarya on Thursday. Endeavour and the
International Space Station are orbiting the Earth at an altitude of
about 240 statute miles with all systems in excellent shape.
- On Tuesday, December 8, 1998, 5:00 a.m. CST, STS-88 MCC Status Report # 11
reports:
- The first U.S. segment of the International Space Station came to
life Monday night as the Unity module was activated for the first
time. Activation followed the connection of electrical and data cables
by Astronauts Jerry Ross and Jim Newman during a 7-hour, 21-minute
space walk.
- Working smoothly and ahead of schedule, Ross and Newman mated 40
cables and connectors running 76 feet from the Zarya control module to
Unity as the 35-ton station towered over the cargo bay of the shuttle
Endeavour.
- The two veteran space walkers began their excursion at 4:10
p.m. Central time, quickly pressing ahead with the connection of
crucial data and power cables between Zarya and Unity. Ross and Newman
also installed handrails and other hardware that will help space
walkers move around the station on upcoming assembly missions,
completing all of the connections within three hours. At various
times, robot arm operator Nancy Currie moved Ross and Newman around
the station modules on the end of the shuttle's manipulator system to
conduct their work.
- As Endeavour and the International Space Station passed over
Russian ground stations, commands were sent from the Russian flight
control team to activate a pair of Russian-American voltage
converters, enabling power to flow from Zarya to Unity for the first
time. International Space Station flight controllers in Houston saw
Unity's systems come to life at 9:49 p.m., confirming perfect
electrical continuity between the two modules. Unity's systems were
then activated, including a pair of data relay boxes serving as the
brain and nervous system for the U.S.-built component. Near the end of
the space walk, Ross removed thermal covers from the relay boxes after
Unity's heaters began to control the module's temperature.
- With Pilot Rick Sturckow serving as the space walk choreographer,
Newman was raised on the robot arm to the Zarya module to take a close
look at a pair of Russian rendezvous antennas that did not fully
deploy following the module's launch on Nov. 20. The so-called TORU
system serves as a backup to the automatic Kurs system on Zarya,
providing navigational data for spacecraft approaching the Russian
component for docking. Russian flight controllers say the TORU
antennas are emitting signal strength, but space station managers
wanted additional engineering data so they can decide on a course of
action for deploying the antennas.
- Shortly before the space walk ended, Ross broke the record for most
cumulative extravehicular activity time by a U.S. astronaut of 29
hours and 41 minutes previously held by former astronaut Tom Akers
during five space walks on STS-49 and STS-61. Ross, who completed his
fifth space walk tonight, now has 30 hours and 8 minutes of time spent
in the void of space.
- About an hour after Endeavour's astronauts were scheduled begin an
eight-hour sleep period at 3:36 a.m. Central time, Cabana asked if the
wake-up time could be postponed. Mission Control agreed, and the crew
now will be awakened at 12:06 p.m. to begin its sixth day in
orbit. The astronauts plan to raise the altitude of the International
Space Station by about 3 1/2 statute miles Tuesday by firing
Endeavour's jets in the first of two planned reboost maneuvers. The
crew also will take half a day off to relax and enjoy the view from
orbit after a busy start to the first International Space Station
assembly flight.
- Endeavour and the station are orbiting at an altitude of 242 statute
miles with all systems in excellent shape.
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