Friday, February 15, 2008

Live in orbit: Love off the station arm














The view from the payload bay








Walheim and Love

Love steps out of foot restraint

After about five hours riding the station robot arm, Stan Love climbed down into the shuttle's payload bay

Also, Walheim was told he was the first person to make three spacewalks in five days with overgloves, which spacewalkers began using after several astronauts found slight damage to their gloves.

"I can feel it," said Walheim. "The overgloves make it considerably more challenging."

Walheim and Love installed two science payloads on the Columbus module and stowed a 1,200-pound gyroscope in the shuttle payload bay for return to Earth.

The European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF) carries nine space exposure experiments. Earlier they installed a three-function solar observatory.

Love's glove was slightly damaged, but he was given permission to continue working.

The spacewalk officially began when the pair switched their spacesuits to battery power at 8:07 a.m. EST. Walheim's helmet camera is No. 18, while his spacesuit has an unbroken line. Love's camera is No. 16, while his spacesuit has a broken line.

If the 6.5-hour spacewalk runs ahead of schedule, Walheim and Love will have several additional tasks: inspecting the starboard solar alpha rotary joint and inspecting damage to a handrail that might be causing glove damage.

Atlantis is scheduled to land at 9:06 a.m. Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center, shortly before the Navy shoots down a low-orbiting, non-functioning spy satellite that carries a toxic half-ton of hydrazine rocket fuel.

Click for interactive graphic on Columbus installation.

Click for flight day 9 execute package.

Click for STS-122 fact sheet.

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















The SOLAR and EuTEF modules sit on a rack in the shuttle's payload bay.

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