NASA STS-118 Report #07 Saturday, Aug. 11, 2007 – 7 a.m. CDT

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

The day after they entered the International Space Station, two members of the Space Shuttle Endeavour crew will go out again, this time for a spacewalk.

The crew, Commander Scott Kelly, Pilot Charles Hobaugh, and Mission Specialists Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Dave Williams, Barbara Morgan and Alvin Drew, was awakened at 6:38 a.m. CDT by “Gravity,” performed by John Mayer. It was played for Hobaugh.

The spacewalk by Mastracchio and Williams, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, is to begin at 11:31 a.m. Major tasks are installation of the Starboard 5 (S5) truss and to help with retraction of the forward radiator of the Port 6 (P6) truss. Intravehicular officer Caldwell will advise and guide spacewalkers.

The spacewalkers will help guide Canadarm2 operator Hobaugh as he carefully moves the S5, sometimes with less than three inches of clearance, to its new home. Then Mastracchio and Williams will bolt it into place and hook it up. Then, they will move to the P6 truss to secure the radiator after its retraction. The spacewalk is scheduled to end at 6:01 p.m.

The new Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System will be shut down during the spacewalk as a precaution. It functioned well through the crew’s night and will be turned on again after the spacewalk. By providing station power to Endeavour, the system may enable a longer stay by the shuttle and permit a fourth spacewalk.

The transfer of thousands of pounds of equipment and supplies from Endeavour to the station began shortly after docking. The pressurized Spacehab module in the cargo bay has a capacity of about 6,000 pounds. It will return about 3,000 pounds of science samples, equipment and unneeded items to Earth. Morgan oversees the transfer operations.

The next status report will be issued Saturday evening or earlier if events warrant.