STS-111, Mission Control Center
Status Report # 18 Thursday,
June 13, 2002 – 7 p.m. CDT
In a 7-hour, 17-minute
spacewalk today, Endeavour astronauts Franklin Chang-Díaz and Philippe
Perrin successfully replaced a wrist roll joint on the International
Space Station’s robotic arm, restoring the arm to full functionality.
With Endeavour
Pilot Paul Lockhart choreographing the spacewalk from inside Endeavour,
Chang-Díaz and Perrin stepped outside the station’s Quest airlock
at 10:16 a.m. Central time. Commander Ken Cockrell used the shuttle’s
robotic arm to provide television views of the spacewalk activity.
Chang-Díaz and
Perrin first removed the arm’s latching end effector, essentially
the hand of Canadarm2, and attached it to a handrail on the station’s
Destiny Laboratory. Next they released six bolts connecting the wrist
roll joint to the adjoining yaw joint and an additional bolt connecting
power, data and video umbilicals. Perrin carried the failed unit to
Endeavour’s payload bay where it was temporarily stored near the
new joint.
Perrin released
six fasteners to remove the new joint from its launch carrier in the
shuttle cargo bay and brought it up to Canadarm2 where Chang-Díaz was
positioned. After aligning the new component with the wrist yaw joint
at the end of the arm, the duo tightened the six bolts to secure the
new joint to the arm and turned the final bolt to connect the power,
data and video lines. After they reinstalled the latching end effector,
power was turned back on to Canadarm2. The failed joint was then placed
in a flight support structure in the cargo bay for return to Earth.
Working at the
robotics workstation inside the Destiny Laboratory, Endeavour Astronaut
Dan Bursch and Expedition Five Commander Valery Korzun conducted a checkout
of the health of the arm once the new joint was installed. At 3:43 p.m.
Central time, the arm returned to full operational status.
Following an inventory
of the tools they used during the spacewalk, Perrin and Chang-Díaz re-entered
Quest. Airlock repressurization began at 5:33 p.m. Central time, signaling
the end of the spacewalk. It was the 41st spacewalk in support of ISS
assembly and maintenance and the third of the mission, bringing the
total spacewalking time for STS-111 to 19 hours and 31 minutes.
The next STS-111
status report will be issued Friday morning, or earlier, if events warrant.
###
NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Status Reports and other information are available automatically
by sending an Internet electronic mail message to majordomo@listserver.jsc.nasa.gov.
In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type
"subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes). This will add the e-mail address that
sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list. The
system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription.
Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail.
|