(Editor's note: Updated with comments from 3 a.m. mission status briefing.) The first of three spacewalks planned during shuttle Discovery's 13-day mission to the International Space Station has ended right on schedule. Lead spacewalker Danny Olivas and partner Nicole Stott have returned inside the Quest airlock and plugged their spacesuits back into the station's power supply, and the airlock is being pressurized.
The duo completed all of their scheduled tasks, but didn't have time to complete some "get aheads" that were considered.
But Olivas did catalogue and photograph what appeared to him to be a large number of space debris strikes on a toolbox on the Z1 truss segment above the Unity node and on parts of the nearby Quest airlock.
"I could do this all day," he said at one point.
NASA says some strikes are expected when the station changes its position for maneuvers such as the docking of a Russian Progress spacecraft, exposing some typically shielded areas."Danny did think they were debris hits, and I think he was surprised as well by the number of hits out there," said Heather Rarick, lead station flight director. "We do our best to track debris and we do our best to protect the vehicle, so this is something that we have to just analyze and make sure that we take the right precautions."
The spacewalk lasted 6 hours and 35 minutes, starting at 5:59 p.m. EDT Tuesday and ending at 12:24 a.m. Wednesday.
It was the third spacewalk for Olivas, who now has a total of 20 hours and 48 minutes of spacewalking time.
It was Stott's first spacewalk. Her family watched from inside NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.
And it was the 131st spacewalk supporting space station assembly and maintenance. They all add up to 817 hours and 11 minutes.
Later today, Olivas will begin preparations for a second spacewalk on Thursday, when he'll pair up with European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang, of Sweden.
They'll install a new pair of coolant tanks and stow the ones removed earlier tonight in Discovery's payload bay.
Olivas and Fuglesang will conduct the third and final planned spacewalk on Saturday.
Lead Spacewalk Officer Zeb Scoville said after the first spacewalk that managers did not believe Olivas' right spacesuit glove had a torn stitch, as feared early in the spacewalk.
He said what appeared to be frayed fabric was likely residue from a material used to apply the glove's tactile gray rubber palms and fingers during manufacturing. But the glove will be inspected further, and a back-up is available if needed.
In addition to today's preparations for the next spacewalk, shuttle and station crews will be focused on unloading, installing and activating more cargo, inclduing new science racks.
"It is a big day," said Rarick.
Here's a look at some highlights of the day ahead in space:
++ 12:29 p.m.: Discovery and station crews awake.
++ 3:44 p.m.: Fluids research rack installed in Destiny lab.
++ 3:54 p.m.: Cargo transferred from Leonardo module.
++ 3:49 p.m.: New crew quarters outfitted.
++ 4:44 p.m.: Materials research rack installed in Destiny lab.
++ 5:44 p.m.: Experiment sample freezer installed in Destiny lab.
++ 8:29 p.m.: Training for docking of Japanese cargo craft and crew quarters activation.
++ 9:55 p.m.: Twitter/YouTube public affairs event.
++ 12:24 a.m. (Thursday): Review of procedures for second spacewalk.
++ 2:54 a.m.: Pre-spacewalk “campout” begins.
++ 3:59 a.m.: Station crew sleeps.
++ 4:29 a.m.: Discovery crew sleeps.
As with all the mission's action, you can watch it live here. Just click on the NASA TV still image on the right side of the page to launch our viewer.
You can see what's coming up throughout the rest of the mission in this NASA TV schedule.
This Flight Day 5 Execute Package shows detailed timelines and notes that were sent to Discovery's crew earlier today.
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