HOUSTON --
Two spacewalking astronauts helped prepare the International Space Station
(ISS) for future shuttle missions Saturday, though NASA shortened their orbital
work as Hurricane Dean edged closer to the Gulf Coast.
Astronauts
Dave Williams and Clayton Anderson ended their spacewalk early to help prepare the
space shuttle Endeavour for a possible Tuesday landing -- one day earlier than
planned -- should Hurricane Dean threaten NASA's Mission Control center here at
the Johnson Space Center (JSC).
"Whoo man, you can't miss that," Williams said as the ISS
passed 214
miles (344 kilometers) above Dean during the five-hour and two-minute spacewalk.
"That's impressive."
"It's
only impressive when they're not coming to you," said Anderson, an ISS
flight engineer, said of the storm.
As of early
Saturday, Hurricane
Dean was a category four storm and growing, with maximum wind speeds of 150
miles per hour (240 kph) as it heads toward the Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
Spacewalkers
were initially scheduled spend about 6.5 hours installing a shuttle inspection
boom stand and other equipment outside the ISS. But NASA scaled back the work due
to Hurricane Dean's approach to the Gulf Coast, where it may impact coastal
Texas early next week.
Storm
preparations
NASA is
drawing up plans to shift its shuttle Mission Control operations in Houston to
a backup site at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida should the
storm force an evacuation at JSC and its surrounding area. Space station
Mission Control would transfer to Russia's Federal Space Agency operations
center outside Moscow.
Endeavour is
currently slated to land on Wednesday, but its STS-118 astronaut crew is
expected to shut hatches between the orbiter and space station at about 5:01
p.m. EDT (2101 GMT) today in preparation of a possible Tuesday Earth return.
Astronauts
aboard Endeavour and the ISS worked today to complete hauling supplies and equipment
between their two spacecraft to clear the way for tonight's hatch closure. Teacher-turned-astronaut
Barbara Morgan, who served as NASA's backup for Teacher in Space Christa
McAuliffe for the ill-fated 1986 Challenger launch, is overseeing the cargo
transfer.
NASA
mission managers are expected to decide later today whether to allow Endeavour
to remain at the ISS until Monday as planned or press ahead with an earlier
departure on Sunday for a Tuesday landing.
Hurricane
Dean is the latest worry for NASA after shuttle mission managers cleared
concerns over a deep divot in Endeavour's heat shield on Thursday.
Shortened
spacewalk
Williams
and Anderson began their spacewalk at 9:17 a.m. EDT (1317 GMT) to install a
shuttle inspection boom stand atop the station's Starboard 1 truss and tighten
a series of stubborn bolts to secure an antenna mount into place.
The antenna
mount is due to return to Earth during an October shuttle flight. Meanwhile, astronauts
plan to store a shuttle inspection boom at the ISS during a February mission to
await another orbiter crew.
The two
spacewalkers took care to avoid any regions with sharp edges outside the ISS
and checked their spacesuit gloves frequently for any signs of wear or damage.
The added measures came after their fellow crewmate Rick Mastracchio found a
small hole through two of the five layers of his own spacesuit glove on Aug. 15,
cutting
his spacewalk short.
"My
gloves look like they just came off the showroom floor," Anderson said
after the spacewalk.
Williams
and Anderson also attached a wireless sensor system antenna outside the ISS and
retrieved a pair of suitcase-like material exposure experiments, but left some
misaligned debris shields for later astronauts to wrangle into place.
A fire
alarm sounded inside the space station's Unity connecting node during the
spacewalk, but the orbital laboratory's crew found no signs of smoke and
Mission Control deemed it a false alarm.
Saturday's
spacewalk marked the third for Anderson, who now has a total of 18 hours and 11
minutes of orbital work under his belt.
Williams, a
veteran Canadian Space Agency astronaut, set a new national record during the
activity to become Canada's first spaceflyer to perform three spacewalks for a
total time of 17 hours and 47 minutes during his STS-118 excursions.
"It's
a real honor and pleasure to do it," Williams said.
The spacewalk was the fourth and last planned for Endeavour's crew, which spent
a total of 23 hours and 15 minutes working outside the ISS. It also marked the 92nd
dedicated to ISS assembly or maintenance and the 64th staged from the orbital
laboratory 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.
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