NASA STS-134 Report #18 Tuesday, May 24, 2011 – 9:30 p.m. CDT

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

Another day of spacewalk activity is on tap for the combined space shuttle and International Space Station crews today.

The Endeavour and Expedition 28 crews woke at 6:56 p.m. CDT to the song “Real World” by Matchbox 20 for shuttle Pilot Greg Johnson.

Shortly after wake-up, the focus will turn to spacewalk preparations. Mission Specialists Drew Feustel and Mike Fincke will try a new procedure before their extravehicular venture. Normally, the spacewalkers spend the night before their spacewalk sleeping in a secluded module at a reduced atmosphere.

The new procedure, In-Suit Light Exercise (ISLE), allows for the crew members to sleep in the normal configuration. After wake-up, the participants breathe pure oxygen for one hour as air pressure in the module is lowered to 10.2 pounds per square inch. They then don their spacesuits and perform light exercise, such as small leg motions, for 50 minutes to increase their metabolic rate and purge nitrogen from their bloodstream.

The spacewalk will begin shortly before 1 a.m. when the two leave the Quest Airlock. The spacewalk is primarily focused on maintenance and installation tasks, many on the Russian segment. They will install a power and data grapple fixture, a video signal converter and various cables onto the Zarya module. They also will install an antenna, perform imagery documentation and time permitting the crew will tuck in a small piece of insulation on a Cargo Transport Container.

STS-134 Commander Mark Kelly and Mission Specialist Greg Chamitoff will again support the spacewalk activities, with Chamitoff serving as the intravehicular officer. Johnson and Mission Specialist Roberto Vittori will work on stowage and packing. Expedition 28 Flight Engineer Ron Garan will support some of the post-spacewalk activities, and station Commander Andrey Borisenko and Flight Engineer Alexander Samokutyaev will work on station maintenance.

The next status report will be issued Wednesday, or earlier if warranted.