NASA STS-126 Report #12 Thursday, November 20, 2008 – 9:00 a.m. CST

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

The second spacewalk by Endeavour astronauts outside the International Space Station will be the focus of todays activities aboard the two spacecraft.

Endeavour crew members, Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Don Pettit, Steve Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Shane Kimbrough and Greg Chamitoff, were awakened at 7:55 a.m. CST. The song was Summertime, played for Pettit. It was recorded by Bandella. Members of that group include singer Michi Pettit, Don Pettits wife, and astronauts Steve Robinson, Chris Hadfield and Cady Coleman.

Spacewalkers Piper and Kimbrough are scheduled to leave the stations Quest airlock at 12:45 p.m. CST. Piper will wear the red-striped suit while Kimbrough will be in the suit with broken red stripes.

Spacewalk tasks include moving two of the small handcarts on the rails of the stations main truss and lubricating the Latching End Effector (LEE) of the orbiting laboratorys robotic Canadarm2. Much of the spacewalkers’ time will be devoted to the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint on the right side of the stations main truss.

They will continue cleaning and lubricating bearing race rings and the replacement of the joints trundle bearing assemblies. The use of the joint has been limited since September 2007 when flight controllers noticed increased power consumption and vibration. The handcarts will be moved to clear the tracks for future work. The LEE lubrication is being done after the snares showed some balkiness on opening and closing.

Boe will be the intravehicular officer or spacewalk choreographer, while Pettit and Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus will operate Canadarm2.

Moving of supplies and equipment between Endeavour and the International Space Station and installation in the station of equipment are on todays agenda for the 10 members of the spacecrafts crews. All the racks brought to the station in the Multi-purpose Logistics Module Leonardo have been installed in the station, though a considerable amount of equipment and supplies remains to be transferred.

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