 |
| STS-116 and Expedition 14 crew members
participate in a joint news conference. Image Credit: NASA TV |
•
Watch NASA TV
Spacewalkers to complete ISS re-wire on Saturday
The STS-116 and Expedition 14 crews continued cargo transfers and spacewalk
preparations Friday aboard Space Shuttle Discovery and the ISS.
The crews also held their tradition joint news conference. Meanwhile,
flight controllers continue to troubleshoot a problem with the retraction
of a solar array on the station’s P6 truss.
The crews continued to transfer items between the shuttle and station.
Discovery delivered 5,200 pounds of supplies and equipment to the station.
About 4,100 pounds made the trip in the SPACEHAB Logistics Single Module.
SPACEHAB is a pressurized module located in the shuttle payload bay. It
also will carry items from the station back to Earth.
The STS-116 and the Expedition 14 crews took a break from their transfer
activities to hold a joint news conference. All 10 shuttle and station
crew members gathered Friday afternoon in the U.S. Destiny Laboratory
to field questions from U.S. and European media. STS-116 Commander Mark
Polansky answered a question about commanding a mission with five first-time
space travelers. “It has been pretty fantastic,” he said.
“They are just doing great.”
STS-116 Mission Specialists Thomas Reiter, DF4TR,and Christer Fuglesang,
KE5CGR, had a discussion with Swedish dignitaries. Fuglesang is the first
Swede to fly in space. Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria,
KE5GTK, and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, RZ3FT, talked with KNX Radio,
Los Angeles, and National Public Radio.
The spacewalk preparations include a review of the timeline, and the
spacewalking duo camping out over night in the Quest airlock. During the
campout, the pressure will be lowered in the airlock to the pressure normally
found on at Earth 10,000 feet above sea level. The procedure protects
against decompression sickness as Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam and
Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, go to the even
lower pressure of spacesuits on Saturday.
Curbeam and Williams will complete the rewiring of the station power
systems during the spacewalk slated to begin at 2:37 p.m. EST Saturday.
Flight controllers have conducted several types of tests in their efforts
to find a way to fold the partially retracted solar array. Early Friday
morning, they commanded the array through a series of "wiggle"
tests, swiveling the wing 10 degrees at a time repeatedly to see if that
would help the situation. Then about 1 p.m. EST, they collected data on
array movement while Reiter exercised on station equipment.
Flight controllers continue to analyze the situation and search for a
solution.
|
