NASA STS-135 Report #08 Tuesday, July 12, 2011 – 2 a.m. CDT

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – Transfer work will be going on inside and outside of the International Space Station today, as the crew performs the first and only spacewalk of the STS-135 mission.

Space shuttle Atlantis, crew was awakened at 1:59 a.m. by the song “More” by Matthew West. It was played for Mission Specialist Rex Walheim.

Walheim today will be choreographing from inside the space station the spacewalk being done outside by Expedition 28 Flight Engineers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan. Fossum and Garan will be packing a pump module that failed in 2010 into the shuttle’s cargo bay. It was moved into a temporary storage location on external stowage platform-2 during the STS-133 mission earlier this year. Returning it to Earth will allow engineers to look into what caused its failure and then refurbish it for use as a spare.

Fossum and Garan will also be installing the Robotic Refueling Mission experiment on a platform used by the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre, to hold spare parts. The Robotic Refueling Mission will demonstrate and test the tools, technologies and techniques needed to robotically refuel and repair satellites in space.

The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 7:44 a.m., and last six and a half hours.

Meanwhile, inside the space station, every member of the shuttle crew and many of the station crew will be working to unload the newly installed Raffaello multipurpose logistics module. It brought up 9,400 pounds of cargo to the space station, all of which must be unloaded and replaced with 5,700 pounds of trash and used equipment to return home.

The next status report will be issued at the end of the crew’s day or earlier if warranted. The crew is scheduled to go to sleep just before 6 p.m.