NASA STS-133 Report #07 4 p.m. CST Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
HOUSTON – Moving equipment and supplies between Discovery and the International Space Station, robotics activities and preparation for Monday’s 6.5-hour spacewalk kept shuttle astronauts busy much of Sunday.
Transfer activities began during the crews’ morning. About 2,000 pounds of cargo was brought to the station on Discovery’s mid-deck, and about 2,600 pounds is to be returned to Earth by the shuttle.
One early activity for the shuttle crew, Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Steve Bowen, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott, involved robotics. The station’s Canadarm2 arm, operated by Barratt and Stott, grasped the orbiter boom sensor system from the left sill of Discovery’s cargo bay.
It handed the boom off to the shuttle’s arm, which could not reach it with the spacecraft docked at the station. The shuttle’s arm held it to await a decision on whether a focused inspection of its thermal protection system would be necessary.
It wasn’t. Experts completed their analysis of 302 photos (155 using an 800 mm lens, 147 with a 400 mm lens) of the heat shield taken by station Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman during Discovery’s backflip before docking to check for damage. The Mission Management Team met Sunday afternoon and decided that no focused inspection of the heat shield would be necessary.
Spacewalkers Drew and Bowen configured tools for their Monday spacewalk. All shuttle crew members along with station Commander Scott Kelly and Nespoli were scheduled for an hour-long procedures review. A little before 8 p.m. CST the spacewalkers will begin the standard campout in the low pressure of the station’s Quest airlock.
The shuttle crew with Kelly and Coleman also talked with media representatives during the afternoon. Asking the questions were reporters from The Weather Channel, Boston’s WBZ Radio, WSB-TV of Atlanta and WTVT-TV of Tampa, Fla.
The next shuttle status report will be issued after crew wakeup or earlier if warranted. The crew is scheduled to be awakened 5:23 a.m.
