Two spacewalks down, and two to go for Endeavour's crew, which launched a week ago from Kennedy Space Center. Today on the International Space Station, tests of a urine processor are up and running after an alarm halted activation overnight.
Crews will also continue to transfer and install cargo from the shuttle and the Leonardo moving van, and begin testing a berthing mechanism on the Japanese Kibo lab, which is supposed to receive an addition.
Around 3 p.m., the crews will participate in a 40-minute news conference in the station's Harmony node, taking questions from reporters at NASA centers including Kennedy Space Center.
As usual, you can watch all of the action in space live here at The Flame Trench. Just click on the NASA TV still picture above to launch a viewer. Click here to review today's broadcast schedule today.
The day's activities also include a "reboost" using shuttle engines that will increase the station's velocity by about three feet per second and raise its altitude by about two nautical miles. That will put in proper posititon to dock with a Russian Progress cargo ship scheduled to launch from Kazakhstan on Nov. 26, and dock with the station Nov. 30.
A TV camera is also being assembled that will be deployed during the fourth and final planned spacewalk on Monday.
NASA managers say they are still researching the possibility that one of the shuttle's two caulking guns used for repairs of wing leading edges could be adapted for use during the third spacewalk planned Saturday, for cleaning and lubricating the starboard rotary joint.
Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen will review procedures for the spacewalk tonight, and begin to "camp out" in a lower-pressure airlock around 11:20 p.m. The procedure begins to purge nitrogen from their bodies so they don't suffer "the bends," or decompression sickness, during the spacewalk.
This morning's wake-up tune had a more international flavor, appropriately, since it was selected by the family of Stefanyshyn-Piper.
The daughter of a Ukrainian father and German mother, Stefanyshyn-Piper is fluent in Ukrainian and German, proficient in Russian and can get by in French and Spanish.
The song was "Unharness Your Horses, Boys," sung in Ukrainian by - who else? - The Ukrainians.
"I'd like to thank my family and all my friends for that lively song to awaken us and get us ready for another fun day up in orbit today," said Stefanyshyn-Piper.
The crew's detailed timeline and messages from Mission Control can be found here: Flight Day 8 Execute Package.
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