Spacewalker Rick Mastracchio tore a glove during a spacewalk Wednesday, cutting the spacewalk short for the first time in NASA history. On Saturday, Dave Williams and Clay Anderson will spacewalk to perform construction tasks on the space station.
The crew woke at 5:08 a.m EDT to the rowdy acoustic sound of "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" by KT Tunstall.
"With a special, 'Good morning' to Tracy this morning," said capsule communicator Shannon Lucid.
"I have a good feeling my good friends in Max-Q had something to do with that one," replied astronaut Tracy Caldwell, a singer in the astronaut band Max-Q.
The Endeavour crew will prepare for Saturday's regularly scheduled spacewalk to ready the space station for future construction missions.
The crew earned late Thursday they would not repair a 3-inch divot in the thermal tile. NASA engineers are certain the damage does not threaten the safety of the crew. And they are nearly certain that re-entry without the repair will not damage Endeavour, which could delay its next flight.
"This is not expected to be even a turnaround issue," said deputy shuttle program manager John Shannon, who is also chairman of the Mission Management Team.
Some 30 engineering groups agreed with not making the repair, while a single engineering group from Johnson Space Center felt the safety margin of making the repair was worth the risk of the spacewalk, which would have required two astronauts to ride below the shuttle on a 100-foot remote arm.
"It was not unanimous, but it was pretty overwhelming," said Shannon.
Computer analysis and arc-jet tests showed that the divot would not cause overheating and damage of the shuttle's aluminum skin, which lies below the divot.
Endeavour's crew will spend much of today getting ready for Saturday's spacewalk.
Canadian astronaut David Williams and space station flight engineer Clay Anderson will install a wireless antenna and install a stand for the shuttle robotic arm extension, which can be left at the space station to provide more room for cargo on a future shuttle flight.
They will bolt down debris shields on the station's Unity node and the Destiny module. The shields were tethered in place and must be attached.
The spacewalkers will retrieve the final two of five experiments that have exposed 1,500 materials to the harsh environment of space to find better materials for spacecraft construction.
The crew will devote considerable time to moving the final part of 5,000 pounds of cargo from the Spacehab module to the space station. About 3,000 pounds of material will be packed for return to earth.
Look for coverage of a 1:34 p.m. EDT joint crew news conference in The Flame Trench.
Click here to see a fact sheet on the STS-118 mission.
Click here to see the updated NASA-TV schedule for Friday.
Click here to view the flight day 10 execute package.
No comments:
Post a Comment