Space Station Spacewalkers to Inspect SARJ, BGA on Tuesday

Station Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani will perform the 100th spacewalk in support of International Space Station assembly on Tuesday, Dec. 18. They will inspect the starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) and the Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA). The SARJ and BGA have been temporarily locked in place while the solar arrays still produce power.

Whitson and Tani completed a procedure review on Friday and held a tagup with the lead spacewalk officer on the ground.

Kirk Shireman, station program deputy manager called the spacewalk a fact-finding mission. The spacewalkers will report back to ground controllers what they find and return a trundle assembly back inside the station. Specialists on the ground will use the results to determine how to restore the starboard solar array’s sun-tracking capability.

A move of the Mobile Transporter to worksite 4 in the center of the station’s truss today from worksite 7 to provide its usual micrometeoroid debris protection was postponed Friday after station cameras detected what appeared to be a piece of insulation on the truss track. Flight controllers continue to analyze the situation.

Upcoming missions to the International Space Station include the launch of STS-122 and the delivery of the Columbus laboratory no earlier than Jan. 10. Europes Automated Transfer Vehicle, also known as Jules Verne, is targeted for launch to the station in mid-February. Also, the first part of Japans laboratory, Kibo, is scheduled for launch on space shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-123 in February.