STS-102 Status Report #11 – 13 Mar 2001 – 7:30 AM CST
Astronauts Paul
Richards and Andy Thomas spent six and a half hours outside the International
Space Station this morning, continuing work to outfit the station and
prepare for delivery of its own robotic arm next month.
With help from
shuttle robotic arm operator Jim Kelly and space walk choreographer
Susan Helms, Richards and Thomas installed a stowage platform for spare
station parts and attached a spare ammonia coolant pump to the platform.
They also finished connecting several cables put in place by Astronauts
Jim Voss and Susan Helms during their nearly nine-hour-long space walk
Sunday. The cables, on the exterior of the Destiny laboratory module,
will provide power and control of the station’s Canadian-built robotic
arm. Known as the Space Station Remote Manipulator System, the arm will
be delivered and installed by the STS-100 crew in April.
Commander Jim Wetherbee
deactivated and then reactivated Leonardo’s DC-to-DC power converters
and checked out the Lab Cradle Assembly, installed during the first
space walk, which eventually will be used to connect the station’s
large truss structure to Destiny’s hull.
Richards and Thomas
also scaled the station to the top of its 240-foot-wide solar arrays
and were successful in engaging a fourth latch for the port-side array’s
structural brace. Several other get-ahead tasks also were accomplished
during the space walk, including a check of a Unity module heater connection
and inspection of an exterior experiment called the Floating Potential
Probe that has been operating intermittently. The space walkers reported
they did not see any status lights on the probe; investigators on the
ground will use that information to continue troubleshooting.
“Well, Andy,
we were on top of the world there for a while,” Richards said as
the pair began returning to the airlock. “Yes, we were,” Thomas
replied.
The second and
final planned space walk of the mission began at 11:23 p.m. Monday,
and concluded at 5:44 a.m. Tuesday. The 6-hour, 21-minute space walk
brings the total exterior construction time on the station to 124 hours
over the course of 18 space walks, and the total EVA time in shuttle
program history to 392 hours, 36 minutes over 62 separate space walks.
As Richards and
Thomas worked outside the station, returning Expedition One Cosmonauts
Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev – now members of the Discovery
crew – exercised inside the shuttle to help prepare their bodies
for the return to Earth after four and a half months in orbit.
Inside the station,
Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, and Expedition Two Commander
Yury Usachev and Flight Engineer Jim Voss continued to unload the Leonardo
logistics module. Among the five tons of gear being transferred is the
first station research rack, the Human Research Facility, which will
be installed inside Destiny this evening.
Discovery’s
crew will go to bed at 9:42 a.m. CST, and will get an extra half-hour
of sleep before being awakened at 6:12 p.m. All station and shuttle
systems are working well. The next Mission Control Center status report
will be issued Tuesday evening.
