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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