NASA STS-126 Report #02 10:30 a.m. CST Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – It’s inspection day aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. Crew members will use the shuttle’s robotic arm and its extension to look at the spacecraft’s thermal protection system.

They also will prepare for Sunday afternoon’s docking with the station by installing the Orbiter Docking System centerline camera and extending the system’s docking ring. A checkout of the spacesuits to be used during the four spacewalks by Endeavour crewmembers outside the International Space Station also is on the agenda.

The seven members of shuttle Endeavour’s crew, Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Don Pettit, Steve Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Shane Kimbrough and Sandra Magnus, were awakened at 9:55 a.m. CST for their first full day in space. The wakeup music was Shelter by Xavier Rudd. It was played for Ferguson.

Boe, Pettit and Kimbrough will work together on the thermal protection system, using the Orbiter Boom Sensor system attached to the robotic arm to look at the starboard wing, then the nose cap and the port wing. Data from the survey will be analyzed by engineers on the ground.

While fellow spacewalker Kimbrough is working on the survey, Piper and Bowen will check out the spacesuits and subsequently prepare them for transfer to the station. Magnus, who will remain on the space station for three months, will work to prepare material on Endeavour’s middeck for transfer to her new home.

Toward the end of the crew’s day, Piper will set up the centerline camera and extend the docking ring. Boe and Pettit will check out rendezvous tools just before they begin their end-of-day activities.

The crew is scheduled to go to bed at 12:25 a.m. Sunday and be awakened at 8:25 a.m. The next shuttle status report will be issued at the end of the crew day, or earlier if events warrant.