NASA STS-126 Report #10 Wednesday, November 19, 2008 – 9:00 a.m. CST

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

Moving of supplies and equipment between Endeavour and the International Space Station and installation in the station of equipment are on today’s agenda for the 10 members of the spacecraft’s crews.

They also will begin preparations for the second of four mission spacewalks, this one to start at 12:45 p.m. CST Thursday. The preparations include a spacewalk procedure review for shuttle astronauts and station Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus. Subsequently spacewalkers Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Shane Kimbrough will begin the standard pre-spacewalk campout in the station’s Quest airlock.

Endeavour crew members, Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Don Pettit, Steve Bowen, Piper, Kimbrough and Greg Chamitoff, were awakened at 7:55 a.m. CST. The song was “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Aaron Copeland. It was played for Boe.

The Waste and Hygiene Rack, which includes a new toilet, was moved into the station Tuesday and installed in the U.S. laboratory Destiny. To be moved to the station today and installed in the Harmony node are the port and starboard crew quarters. That job will be handled by Chamitoff and Magnus.

The Multi-purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Leonardo will be on the receiving end for some of the equipment moved. A resupply stowage rack is scheduled to be moved from the Harmony node to the MPLM by Chamitoff and Magnus after the crew quarters installation.

The campout by spacewalkers Piper and Kimbrough is to begin at 10:20 p.m., immediately after the procedure review. They will be in Quest overnight, with its pressure at 10.2 psi compared to the station’s 14.7 psi, to reduce their systems’ nitrogen content. That is to avoid the possibility of decompression sickness.

Piper and Bowen will talk with reporters from Associated Press, KSMP-TV in Minneapolis and WCVB-TV in Boston. That 20-minute chat is to begin at 2:50 p.m.

Endeavour’s crew is scheduled to go to bed at 11:55 p.m. today and be awakened at 7:55 a.m. Thursday. The next shuttle status report will be issued at the end of the crew day, or earlier if events warrant.