Status Report

NASA STS-128 MCC Status Report #13 2 a.m. CDT Friday, Sept. 4, 2009

By SpaceRef Editor
September 4, 2009
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NASA STS-128 MCC Status Report #13 2 a.m. CDT Friday, Sept. 4, 2009
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Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – The International Space Station has about 600 pounds of fresh ammonia circulating through its port cooling system, thanks to the work today of spacewalkers Danny Olivas and Christer Fuglesang.

Olivas and Fuglesang spent 6 hours and 39 minutes outside the station during the second spacewalk of Discovery’s mission, primarily working to install a new ammonia tank assembly, which pushes ammonia through loops on the space station’s truss to get rid of excess heat generated by the station’s systems. The spacewalk began at 5:12 p.m. CDT Thursday, and ended at 11:51 p.m.

In addition, the spacewalkers prepared the empty ammonia tank assembly that they’d removed on Tuesday for return to Earth by bolting it down inside the shuttle’s cargo bay. By that point in the spacewalk, Olivas and Fuglesang were ahead of their timeline, and so were able to move into get-ahead work.

They installed protective lens covers on the cameras of the station’s robotic arm, which will shield them from contamination when the arm is used to dock the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle to the station later this month. And they installed a portable foot restraint on the station’s truss system for use during upcoming missions.

Meanwhile, inside the space station, Mission Specialist Jose Hernandez and station Flight Engineers Michael Barratt, Frank De Winne and Robert Thrisk continued the work of unloading the Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module of the 8 tons of cargo it carried into space and filling it back up with items to be returned home. The crew has finished about half the transfer work to be done, and has until Monday to do the rest.

Discovery’s crew is scheduled to go to sleep around 3 a.m. and wake up at 10:59 a.m. The next shuttle status report will be issued after the crew gets its wakeup call or earlier if events warrant.

SpaceRef staff editor.