STS-111, Mission Control Center
Status Report # 14
Tuesday, June 11, 2002 – 7 p.m. CDT
In a 5-hour spacewalk
today, Endeavour astronauts Franklin Chang-Díaz and Philippe Perrin
completed installation of the Mobile Remote Servicer Base System, or
MBS, on the International Space Station’s railcar, the Mobile Transporter.
With those tasks completed, they established a moveable base for future
use by the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2.
Chang-Díaz and
Perrin ventured outside the station’s Quest airlock at 10:20 a.m.
Central time. With the help of Pilot Paul Lockhart, who guided the spacewalk
from inside the shuttle, Chang-Díaz and Perrin first connected primary
and backup cables for video and data, and primary power cables between
the Mobile Transporter railcar and the MBS. Once the connections were
made, ground controllers sent commands for the MT to remotely plug in
its umbilical attachments to receptacles on the S0 (S-Zero) truss railway.
With that complete,
Chang-Díaz and Perrin then deployed an auxiliary grapple fixture on
the MBS called the Payload Orbital Replacement Unit Accommodation, or
POA, and placed it in its final configuration. Identical to the end
effectors on Canadarm2, the fixture can grapple payloads and hold them
as they are moved along the station’s truss atop the MBS.
Continuing to run
ahead of schedule, the two spacewalkers then secured four bolts between
the MBS and the railcar, completing installation of the new MBS platform.
Later this month or next, Canadarm2 will “walk off” the Destiny
Laboratory and mate its free hand to any one of four power and data
fixtures on the new platform so it can be driven up and down the length
of the station’s truss for use in future station assembly and maintenance
operations.
The spacewalkers
then relocated a television camera to its final position on top of a
mast atop the MBS. The camera will provide views of station assembly
and maintenance operations to ground controllers. Final tasks included
adding an extra extension cable for the platform, a wire tie to one
of the cables installed earlier during the spacewalk and to photograph
connectors near the lower portion of the MBS that tie into the MT.
Following an inventory
of the tools they used during the spacewalk, Perrin and Chang-Díaz re-entered
Quest. Airlock repressurization began at 3:20 p.m. Central time, signaling
the end of the spacewalk. It was the 40th spacewalk in support of ISS
assembly and maintenance and the second of the mission, bringing the
total spacewalking time for STS-111 to 12 hours and 14 minutes.
After flight controllers
verified that all connections on the Mobile Remote Servicer Base System
were working properly, the capture latch on Canadarm2 was released.
The arm, which had been supplying power to the MBS, was then repositioned
for Thursday’s third and final spacewalk of the mission, which
will see replacement of its wrist roll joint.
Handover conferences
between the two Expedition crews and the transfer of equipment and supplies
to the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module also continued today.
Working ahead of schedule, the crew continued to refill the module with
unneeded supplies to be returned to Earth.
At 9:19 Central
time tonight, Endeavour crewmembers and former Expedition Four Flight
Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch will set a new U.S. space endurance
record, exceeding Shannon Lucid’s record of 188 consecutive days
spent in space. Walz will set another record in the process, exceeding
Lucid’s U.S. record for cumulative days spent in space as he reaches
223 days accrued over the course of five flights. Expedition 4 Commander
Yury Onufrienko has spent a total 381 days in space, but remains far
behind the world record for time in space of 747 days, held by Sergei
Avdeyev.
The next STS-111
status report will be issued Wednesday morning after crew wakeup, or
earlier, if events warrant.
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