STS-100 Status Report #10 – 24 Apr 2001 – 4 AM CDT

Unpacking a space-based moving van and taking a second walk in space is the
order of business today for astronauts and cosmonauts orbiting in the
International Space Station and aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour.

The Raffaello logistics module, now open for business following yesterday’s
berthing to the side of the station’s Unity module, will be unloaded over
the course of the next five days and then reloaded with unneeded cargo from
the station for return to Earth.

While the Expedition Two crew of Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers
Jim Voss and Susan Helms begin to transfer goods from Raffaello, on the
other side of the hatch aboard Endeavour, Scott Parazynski and Chris
Hadfield planned to conduct the second Extravehicular Activity beginning
about 8 a.m.

The first order of business for the veteran spacewalkers will be to connect
power, computer and video cables to the Power and Data Grapple Fixture on
the side of the station’s Destiny laboratory. An antenna on Unity will be
removed, as it is no longer needed. Cables on the pallet that carried the
new robot arm to the station will be disconnected. Once those cables are
removed, the Canadian-built Canadarm2 will be receiving power and
communicating with the station’s Robotics Work Station inside Destiny.

Near the end of the planned 6-* hour spacewalk, Helms will command the
station’s new robotic arm to pick up the 3,000-pound pallet that delivered
it to space. She then will maneuver the pallet through various positions to
test the arm with a load. Helms will finish today’s tests by maneuvering the
pallet over Endeavour’s payload bay where it will remain parked overnight,
still attached to the high-tech robotic arm.

The day began for the astronauts and cosmonauts with the dolcit tones of
Louis Armstrong singing “What A Wonderful World.” The song was played for
Parazynski in honor of today’s spacewalk.

Included in the nearly two tons of equipment being off-loaded from the
Italian-built Raffaello are two new experiment racks that soon will be
filled with science experiments currently in Endeavour’s middeck, and other
experiments that will be brought to the station on future shuttle missions.
Once the hatches are open late this afternoon after the spacewalk, European
Space Agency astronaut Umberto Guidoni will take the lead in assisting the
station crewmembers in the unloading of Raffaello and the repacking of
discarded items in the module for return to Earth.

Both spacecraft are in excellent shape orbiting the Earth every 92 minutes
at an altitude of 237 statute miles. The next status report will be issued
this evening after the crew goes to sleep, or when events warrant.