Status Report

NASA STS-118 Status Report #10 Monday, August 13, 2007 – 6:00 a.m. CDT

By SpaceRef Editor
August 13, 2007
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NASA STS-118 Status Report #10  Monday, August 13, 2007 – 6:00 a.m. CDT
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Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

The International Space Station will get a new control moment gyroscope today, courtesy of the space shuttle Endeavour and spacewalking astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Dave Williams.

The second spacewalk of Endeavour’s flight to the station is scheduled to begin just after 10:30 a.m. CDT.

The Endeavour crew, Commander Scott Kelly, Pilot Charles Hobaugh, and Mission Specialists Tracy Caldwell, Mastracchio, Williams, Barbara Morgan and Alvin Drew, and station crew members, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson, were awakened for spacewalk day at 5:46 a.m. CDT by “Outta Space” performed by Billy Preston. It was played for Drew.

The four control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) in the station’s Z1 truss control the station’s attitude, or orientation, in space. Each weighs 600 pounds and spins at 6,600 revolutions per minute. CMG 3 failed last October.

With help from the station’s Canadarm2, operated by Hobaugh and Anderson, Mastracchio and Williams will remove the failed CMG and temporarily stow it. Then they’ll bring the new one to Z1 and install it. Finally they’ll take the failed CMG to External Stowage Platform 2 and attach it there. Total spacewalk time should be about 6½ hours.

Crew members will continue transfer activities, moving equipment and supplies between Endeavour and the station. With three days added yesterday to Endeavour’s stay at the station, that work should be finished with time to spare.

This afternoon Yurchikhin and Kotov will do a computer panel inspection after considerable work on Russian computers in the Zvezda service module.

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

SpaceRef staff editor.