HOUSTON -- Astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Discovery and the International Space
Station (ISS) are hauling cargo between their two spacecraft today while
preparing for an extra spacewalk to pack away a half-furled
solar array atop the orbital laboratory.
As
Discovery's loadmaster, STS-116
mission specialist Joan
Higginbotham, is overseeing the transfer of supplies and equipment between
the shuttle and ISS, though each of her crewmates have at least some cargo
duties today [image].
"The
majority of this shift is probably going to be dedicated primarily to transfer
activities," ISS flight director Joel Montalbano said here at NASA's Johnson Space Center in a morning status update. "If you add it all up, it's about 30 crew
hours today and this will put us back probably around 95 percent or so of
completed transfer."
When
Discovery launched
towards the space station on Dec. 9, it carried
4,107 pounds (1,862 kilograms) of supplies, equipment and other hardware tucked
in the Spacehab module mounted within its payload bay, with another 1,107
pounds (502 kilograms) of cargo riding up inside the orbiter's middeck,
NASA officials have said. The Discovery crew is due to return to Earth with about 2,998 pounds (1,359 kilograms)
of unneeded items from ISS inside the Spacehab module while packing away about
727 pounds (329 kilograms) of material in their shuttle's middeck.
NASA
officials have scheduled about 100 crew hours of cargo transfer time altogether
for Discovery's STS-116
mission [image].
"This team
is cooking on all cylinders" Montalbano said. "They're all doing a great job."
Spacewalkers
prepare
In addition
to hauling cargo, Discovery spaceflyers Robert
Curbeam and Christer
Fuglesang, of the European Space Agency (ESA), will prime their NASA
spacesuits today for a Monday extravehicular activity (EVA) specifically aimed
at furling a stubborn solar array atop the space station's mast-like
Port 6 (P6) truss.
Mission
managers added the spacewalk to the shuttle crew's busy schedule late Saturday
after efforts to shake the solar array appeared successful, though Curbeam and his
spacewalking partner Sunita
Williams ultimately ran out of time to coax
the array into its storage boxes [image].
Fuglesang
and his crewmates awoke today at 9:17 a.m. EST (1417 GMT) to the "Blue Danube
Waltz," a song featured in the science fiction film 2001:
A Space Odyssey but chosen for the ESA astronaut for other reasons.
"Good
morning, I guess my wife chose that song, probably from our wedding day when we
danced to this nice waltz," said Fuglesang of his wife Elisabeth.
"Well you
can think about tomorrow as you dance out the airlock and start your EVA again,"
NASA
astronaut Shannon Lucid, serving as spacecraft communicator in Mission
Control
"I'll do
that, it feels like dancing out there," Fuglesang, who will make the third
spacewalk of his astronaut career Monday, said.
Curbeam
will be the first shuttle astronaut to perform four spacewalks in a single orbiter
flight, but is a veteran of extravehicular activity and currently ranks 13th
on the list of all-time spacewalkers, NASA officials said Saturday.
Tricia
Mack, NASA's lead spacewalk officer for Discovery's STS-116
mission, said the two astronauts will perform a series of standard
pre-spacewalk activities, among them: charging their NASA spacesuit batteries, going
over procedures and an evening "campout"
in the space station's Quest airlock to reduce the amount of time spent
breathing pure oxygen to purge nitrogen from their bloodstreams. Astronauts
purge nitrogen from their systems as a preventative measure against developing
decompression sickness, also known as the bends, while working inside their lower
pressure spacesuits.
Mission managers called on the shuttle
astronauts to pick through Discovery's tool box for any generic items that
might prove useful during Monday's spacewalk, Mack said. Any items tapped as a
possible tool during the solar array shaking spacewalk will have to be wrapped
in Kapton tape as a safety measure, she added.
The space
station's robotic arm will also be moved into a position that will allow
astronauts wider access to the troublesome solar array, NASA officials said.
Discovery
shuttle pilot William Oefelein, who also serves as the intravehicular
activity choreographer for the STS-116 spacewalks, will oversee a review this evening
to go over tomorrow's planned EVA, she added.
"We'll be
ready to go Monday," Mack said.
advertisement
