On the Bottom Half

Mission Update

The first spacewalk is complete, Harmony has been attached to it's temporary location on the Unity node and the hatch has been opened! It's final position will be at the end of the US Destiny Laboratory, but Discovery is in the way at the moment, so the move will come after Discovery departs.

After attaching Harmony, the ventilation system was activated and the module opened for speeches and ceremony to commission the new 'space'. The press conference was interesting: Harmony looks surprisingly voluminous and the 7 members of the STS-120 crew arrayed themselves like wheel spokes around the entrance corridor. What a sweet way to talk to the press! Check it out at NASA:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Today's spacewalk (starring Dan Tani and Scott Parazynski) focuses on the repositioning of the P6 truss element, which supports one of the solar arrays; in fact it's the oldest of the solar array segments having been in space somewhere around 7 years. Both robotic arms will be used for the operation, which will take place over two space walks. The Station's CanadArm2, after the spacewalkers have completely removed the remaining connections to the P6 element, will remove the element from it's current position. Tomorrow, it will hand it off to the Shuttle's CanadArm, roll along the truss on it's little rail car system, then take the P6 back from the Shuttle arm and install it in its permanent position at the end of the P5 segment. Then, the spacewalkers get to do some inspection work.

There appears to be some damage to some handrails on the outside of the station which are thought to be the result of space debris. That needs to be looked at. The starboard (solar alpha) rotary joint or SARJ, which controls the major directional pointing capability of the S3/4 array section seems to be experiencing higher than expected friction, indicated by small current spikes in the motor during motion. That also needs to be checked. I'm not sure if it's in this coming spacewalk, but they are also extending the remaining 4 radiators on the Z1 truss segment as the addition of new modules over the next couple of months is going to increase the cooling needs of the Station quite a bit. There's a slew of other stuff to be done, but those are the major highlights.

Nothing has come up on the thermal protection system (TPS) picture analysis from launch or the rendezvous pitch manoeuver, so everything is good on that aspect of the mission.

Whew!

posted by Kyle @ 19:20