HOUSTON -- Two astronauts primed the
oldest power tower atop the International Space Station (ISS) for a future move
Wednesday, despite a ripped spacesuit glove that cut their spacewalk short.
Endeavour shuttle astronaut Rick Mastracchio and ISS flight engineer Clayton Anderson moved
antennas, equipment carts and other hardware to clear the station's mast-like
Port 6 (P6) truss for its October trip to the port-most edge of the orbital
laboratory.
But Mastracchio
reported a small hole in the Vectran layer of the
left spacesuit glove thumb at about the four-hour mark, prompting Mission
Control to order him back to the station's Quest airlock early. The spacewalk
was slated
to run about 6.5 hours.
"I can see the surface under
the Vectran material," Mastracchio
said. "I don't know where that hole came from."
NASA spacesuit gloves are made of
five protective layers, with the Vectran layer the
second from the exterior to prevent cuts and abrasions, the space agency said.
New flight rules instituted after spacesuit
glove damage was found following NASA's STS-116 shuttle flight last
December required Mastracchio to end his work early as a precaution. Those
rules also call for routine glove checks during spacewalks, which led Mastracchio to spot the damage on his left thumb.
"He is in absolutely no
danger," NASA commentator Kyle Herring said of Mastracchio,
adding that the spacewalk's early end was just a
precaution. "His suit and suit parameters are just fine."
Anderson later finished is own tasks
to conclude the five-hour and 28-minute spacewalk.
As Mastracchio
and Anderson worked outside the ISS, NASA engineers here at the Johnson Space
Center were wrapping up a series of tests to determine whether a small gouge in
heat-resistant tiles on Endeavour's underbelly will require a spacewalk repair.
A preliminary analysis using
computer modeling left NASA optimistic that no
repair would be required, but the agency ordered
more tests to be sure late Tuesday. A decision on whether to repair the ding or
leave it untouched is expected no earlier than late tonight.
Mastracchio, whom shuttle officials have said
would likely perform any shuttle tile repair if needed, has a spare set of
spacesuit gloves aboard Endeavour should a fix be required, NASA said.
Power tower clear for move
Despite ending their spacewalk
early, Mastracchio and Anderson accomplished all of
their major tasks to prepare the P6 truss for its relocation in October. The
truss was temporarily installed vertically near the station's midpoint in 2000.
Its wing-like solar arrays were completely furled during a June shuttle flight
for its move to the station's port side.
STS-118 mission specialist Tracy
Caldwell choreographed Wednesday's spacewalk from the flight deck of Endeavour,
checking in with Mastracchio every hour so to monitor
his condition. A sensor in Mastracchio's spacesuit
failed in a Monday
spacewalk, forcing the spacewalker and his crewmates to rely on verbal
checks to make sure he wasn't suffering carbon dioxide poisoning.
"Rick's full of drama on this
trip," Caldwell said after the glove damage was found.
Mastracchio and Anderson began the spacewalk at
10:37 a.m. EDT (1437 GMT) and were an hour ahead as they moved two large
equipment carts from the portside path of the station's railcar-like Mobile
Transporter.
"Houston, EV-3, there's no
jettison today, correct," Anderson playfully asked Mission Control, as he
moved the carts. The astronaut tossed two massive pieces of space station
hardware into space last month during
an earlier spacewalk.
While Anderson grasped the carts
from the end of the station's robotic arm, his Expedition 15 crewmate Oleg Kotov and shuttle pilot Charlie Hobaugh
cautioned him to keep a firm grip.
"Oleg was just saying to make
sure you hold on to this item," Hobaugh joked.
"He says you have other tendencies while you're on the end of the
arm."
"To throw
things away?"
Anderson replied.
Jokes aside, ISS managers said
Wednesday's spacewalk and another planned for later this week are vital for the
station's tight construction schedule.
"A lot of the focus at this
point is on setting ourselves up for the next set of flights," NASA's
deputy ISS program manager Kirk Shireman told SPACE.com.
"This is where we had time to get some stuff done because on the next few
flights you don't have up-mass, or you don't have crew time to get these tasks
done."
Wednesday's spacewalk marked the
third - and final - planned extravehicular activity (EVA) for Mastracchio on STS-118 for a total of 18 hours and 13
minutes working outside a spacecraft. It was the second spacewalk for Anderson,
who now has 13 hours and nine minutes under his belt.
The spacewalk was the 91st dedicated
to ISS assembly or maintenance, and the 63rd staged from the space station
itself.
NASA is broadcasting Endeavour's
STS-118 mission live on NASA TV. Click
here for mission updates and SPACE.com's NASA TV feed.
advertisement
