STS-88 Day 7 Highlights
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- On Wednesday, December 9, 1998, 2:00 p.m. CST, STS-88 MCC Status Report # 14
reports:
- After enjoying a half day of rest yesterday, Endeavour's crew was
awakened at 10:36 a.m. Central time to begin preparations for a second
spacewalk. The crew awoke to the tune "Floating in the Bathtub,"
selected for Mission Specialist Jim Newman by his wife, Mary Lee.
- Today's s 6-1/2-hour space walk by Newman and Mission Specialist
Jerry Ross is scheduled to begin about 3 p.m. Central time, but may
start earlier if the astronauts are ready to depressurize Endeavour's
ahead of schedule. Ross and Newman will install two box-like antennas
on the outside of the Unity module that are part of the S-band early
communications system. The antennas will allow U.S. flight controllers
to monitor Unity's systems. Additional S-band electronics gear will be
set up inside Unity on Thursday after astronauts enter the module for
the first time. The spacewalkers also will connect an external video
cable between Zarya and the S-band system. This cable will support
early communications videoconferencing from Zarya. The system's
ideoconferencing capability will be tested after Thursday's
installation. Newman, positioned on the end of Endeavour's robot arm,
then will install a sunshade over one of Unity's externally mounted
computers.
- Ross and Newman will remove launch restraints over four hatchways on
the Unity module to which future station modules, an early exterior
framework and a cupola will attach. The hatchways, or Common Berthing
Mechanisms, serve as docking ports for new hardware that will be
delivered to the station during the next 18 months. Then Newman will
install insulating covers on the trunnion pins that held Unity in the
Shuttle's cargo bay.
- If time allows toward the end of today's spacewalk, and pending
final approval from U.S. and Russian managers, Ross and Newman may
try to free one of two balky antennas on the TORU system, Zarya's
backup rendezvous navigation system. Still attached to the robot arm,
Newman would use an extendable, 10-foot-long grappling hook in an
attempt to unfurl the antenna. Flight controllers believe that stiff
cabling or interference from thermal blankets on Zarya may be
preventing the antennas from fully extending, even though pyrotechnic
pins have fired to enable the antennas to roll free from their
spools. If Newman is successful, the same procedure may be used to
free the second antenna on Saturday during the third and final
spacewalk.
- The last task for today will be to disconnect and stow cables that
were used by Endeavour's crew to control the docking mechanism, called
the Androgynous Peripheral Attach System (APAS), that docked Zarya to
Unity earlier in the mission. With that system never again to be
opened, the cable used by Endeavour to control it, which runs along
Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA 2), will be disconnected on this
spacewalk as a "get-ahead task" for future assembly missions when PMA
2, currently the adapter to which Endeavour is docked, will be
moved. Ross and Newman also will spend some time bundling umbilicals
on the exterior of Zarya and ensuring that the markings used by the
Space Vision System robotic arm alignment aid are not obstructed by
any cables.
- After the spacewalk is complete, Currie will use Endeavour's robot
arm to survey the payload bay and videotape all of the Space Vision
System targets on Unity and Zarya.
- Systems on board Endeavour and the International Space Station
continue to operate smoothly.
- On Thursday, December 10, 1998, 2:00 a.m. CST, STS-88 MCC Status Report # 15
reports:
- Endeavour's astronauts installed antennas for an International
Space Station communications system and helped free a jammed antenna
on the station's Russian module, achieving all the objectives planned
for the seven-hour space walk.
- Jerry Ross and Jim Newman began the second of three planned space
walks for the STS-88 mission at 2:33 p.m. Central time Wednesday, and
immediately set out to install two boxy antennas on the side of the
Unity module that will enable U.S. flight controllers to monitor that
component's systems and provide basic videoconferencing for the first
permanent occupants of the station in January 2000. The so-called
"early" S-band communications system will be completed later today
when the astronauts install hardware inside Unity. The system will
provide more capability to retrieve data and telemetry from Unity,
which otherwise would be available only as the new International Space
Station passed over Russian ground stations.
- Ross and Newman pressed ahead with the removal of launch restraint
pins on the four hatchways on the body of Unity to which additional
station modules and truss structures will be mated on future assembly
missions. The two space walkers also installed a sunshade over Unity's
two data relay boxes to ensure that they will be protected against
harsh sunlight as the station circles the Earth.
- Near the end of the space walk, Newman was hoisted to the Zarya
control module on the end of Endeavour's robot arm so that he could
use a grappling hook to free a backup rendezvous system antenna. After
nudging the antenna with the grappling device, the pole popped out to
its fully extended position as the shuttle passed over the northeast
coast of Australia. The astronauts will attempt to free a duplicate
antenna that is jammed on the other side of Zarya during their final
space walk Saturday.
- Ross and Newman returned to Endeavour's external airlock and began
to repressurize it at 9:35 p.m., completing a 7 hour, 2 minute
excursion. So far, they have worked outside Endeavour a total of 14
hours and 23 minutes. This was the third space walk for Newman and the
sixth for Ross, who now has spent 37 hours, 10 minutes in the void of
space -- a U.S. record.
- Later today, the astronauts will enter the International Space
Station for the first time as they open hatches to Unity and Zarya. If
all goes as planned, the astronauts will climb aboard Unity around
1:15 p.m. Central time to complete installation of the S-band
communication system in the U.S. component, and float into Zarya about
an hour and a half later to unstow hardware that will be used by
visiting astronauts on future assembly missions.
- After arriving in Zarya, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev will install a
new battery charging unit in the Russian module. One of Zarya's six
batteries has experienced a problem discharging stored energy in its
automatic configuration. Krikalev has swapped out an identical
component during two previous flights on the Russian Space Station
Mir.
- The astronauts will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 2:36
a.m. Central time and be awakened at 10:36 a.m. to begin their eighth
day of work in orbit.
- Endeavour and the International Space Station are flying at an
altitude of 248 statute miles with all of their systems in excellent
shape.
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