Thursday, November 19, 2009

The spacewalk began

Astronauts Busy Inside and Outside Station Today
Atlantis’ crew was awakened at 4:28 a.m. EST to the sound of The Newsboys’ song “In Wonder.” It was played for Mission Specialist Randy Bresnik, who is choreographing today’s spacewalk from inside the station.

The spacewalk began at 9:24 a.m. and is scheduled to last 6.5 hours. Mission Specialists Mike Foreman and Robert Satcher installed a spare S-band antenna structural assembly brought up in Atlantis’ cargo bay. The equipment is being stored on the Z1 segment of the station’s truss system, and to get it there Satcher rode the station’s robotic arm, driven by Mission Specialist Leland Melvin, Commander Charles Hobaugh and Pilot Barry Wilmore.

Meanwhile, inside the station, further work is going on to prepare the station for the arrival of the Tranquility node. Station Commander Frank De Winne and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams will be working at the port hatch of the Harmony node to rewire data, power and cooling lines and air flow connections that will be connected to Tranquility. Their task is also scheduled to take about 6.5 hours today. De Winne and Williams will continue working on the project over several days during the STS-129 mission.

No comments:

Post a Comment