Spacewalk and Transfers Ahead for ISS and Shuttle Crews

The STS-128 crew’s day started about 1:00 p.m. EDT with “Indiana, Our Indiana,” performed by the Indiana University Band, for Pilot Kevin Ford, born in Indiana and on his first spaceflight.

Mission Specialist Danny Olivas and Expedition 20 Flight Engineer Nicole Stott will venture out the station door at 5:49 p.m. to remove an Ammonia Tank Assembly from the station’s truss.

Flight Engineer Nicole Stott and Mission Specialist Danny Olivas spent the night inside the Quest airlock at a lower air pressure to force nitrogen out their bloodstream. This prevents astronauts from getting decompression sickness during a spacewalk. Stott and Olivas are set to begin the first STS-128 spacewalk Tuesday at 5:49 p.m. EDT.

Mission Specialist Christer Fuglesang and Flight Engineer Frank DeWinne, both of the European Space Agency, became the first crew members to venture inside the newly installed Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. The shuttle and station astronauts prepared the cargo module for several days of transfer work.