Mission extended by another day
NASA managers announced Wednesday that the mission would be extended by a second day. After 13 days in space, Atlantis is scheduled to land Feb. 20 at 9:06 a.m. EST at Kennedy Space Center.
Light duty day for Atlantis crew
Some off-duty time is scheduled for the Atlantis crew today.
However, media interviews and a 9:55 a.m. EST conversation with the German chancellor are planned.
"We're going to finish outfitting the biolab payload," said ISS flight director Ron Spencer. It will be ready to perform experiments as soon as the shuttle leaves.
During Friday's spacewalk, several get ahead tasks have been scheduled, including getting a look at the damaged solar alpha rotary joint, which turns the starboard solar array.
"What we've seen is another damage point we want to get a look at," said Spencer.
Also on Friday, a spacewalker will rub a swatch of cloth against a bit of damage on a handrail to see if it is the source of glove damage that several astronauts have experienced.
Later a Houston CAPCOM had a chilling message about the port SARJ: "We had an unexpected SARJ shutdown ... and we are working to recover it."
A mission controller from Germany added some good news: "We are really happy and proud because we can tell you the final activation of Columbus was successful last night."
He added that the module's video cameras would be turned on.
At 6 p.m. EST, Rex Walheim and Stanley Love will enter the crew airlock to begin breathing pure oxygen to purge nitrogen from their blood, so they won't get the bends when they enter spacesuits that have air pressure at only a third of normal.
Click for interactive graphic on Columbus installation.
Click for flight day 8 execute package.
Click for STS-122 fact sheet.
Click for NASA-TV schedule, which details mission events.
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