Live in orbit: 1st spacewalk on schedule

ISS Commander Peggy Whitson helped the spacewalkers suit up.








Spacewalkers

Rex Walheim (left) and Stanley Love are suiting up for the mission's first spacewalk.

They camped out in the Quest airlock last night, breathing pure oxygen to purge nitrogen from their blood so they won't get the bends during today's spacewalk, when the air pressure in their spacesuits will be about a third of normal.

After the pair suit up, the 6.5-hour spacewalk will start at 9:35 a.m. EST. Walheim and Love will prepare the Columbus module to be grappled by the space station's robot arm and moved to the starboard side of the International Space Station.

The pair will install a payload data grapple fixture, which is normally installed before liftoff. However, the module wouldn't have fit in the payload bay with the grapple fixture, said ISS flight director Ron Spencer.

Before the module is installed, Walheim will check the mating surfaces. He will carry special tape to remove any debris to prevent leaks. "We may have observed a small piece of debris," said Spencer.

Motorized bolts will connect the module to the space station.

The spacewalk was delayed 24 hours and Love replaced German astronaut Hans Schlegel, who briefly became ill. Schlegel will perform the mission's second spacewalk on Wednesday as originally planned.

Schlegel will assist the spacewalkers from inside the space station, while Leland Melvin operates the robot arm.

Love and Walheim will prepare a nitrogen tank for installation on Wednesday and perform several get-ahead tasks with the remaining time.

On the mission's third spacewalk, scheduled for Friday, Love and Walheim will install two experment packages outside the Columbus module. An inspection of a failed joint that turns the starboard solar arrays could be schedule if time remains.

"We're not sure we're going to do it," said Spencer.


Click for STS-122 fact sheet.

Click here for the flight day 5 execute package.

Click here for the NASA-TV schedule, which details mission events.
















The Columbus laboratory module weights 27,000 pounds and is about the size of a small bus. Scientists will produce results from experiments within two weeks. The module was built by the European Space Agency.














Columbus will be operated from a control room in Germany. French astronaut Leopold Eyharts will open the module and remain on the space station to operate it. Eyharts flew up on Atlantis and will replace U.S. flight engineer Dan Tani.