STS-110, Mission Control Center
Status Report # 11
Saturday, April 13, 2002 – 6:00 p.m. CDT
Two grandfathers
completed the structural attachment of the newest component of the International
Space Station today, mating two large tripod legs of a 13 ½ ton
truss to the station’s main laboratory during a 7 hour, 30 minute
spacewalk.
Dubbed the “Silver
Team” by their colleagues because of their age, 54-year old Jerry
Ross and 49-year old Lee Morin of Atlantis’ crew had little trouble
extending and bolting the final two struts of the new S-Zero (S0) truss
to the Destiny Laboratory, insuring that the centerpiece for the future
expansion of the station would be permanently secured to accept additional
trusses and solar array towers over the next year. The station will
ultimately span some 350 feet from end to end, the length of a football
field.
The first two struts
of the truss were mated to Destiny on Thursday by the other Atlantis
spacewalking team, Steve Smith and Rex Walheim, who will venture back
outside Sunday to continue the outfitting of the truss and to reroute
electrical power to the station’s 58-foot long robotic arm.
Morin worked at
the end of the ISS’ Canadarm 2 throughout the day during his first
spacewalk, while Ross, America’s most experienced spacewalker and
the most flown space traveler in history, remained tethered to the station
to provide “free-floating” support during the eighth spacewalk
of his career.
Smith, Walheim
and Expedition Four Flight Engineer Dan Bursch helped choreograph the
spacewalk from Atlantis’ aft flight deck, while shuttle crew member
Ellen Ochoa and station Flight Engineer Carl Walz took turns maneuvering
Morin as they operated Canadarm2 from a robotic work station inside
Destiny.
Shuttle and station
Commanders Mike Bloomfield and Yury Onufrienko and shuttle Pilot Steve
Frick provided photographic and television support for the spacewalk,
the 36th devoted to ISS assembly over the past 3 ½ years.
After the truss
struts were bolted in space, Ross and Morin removed a series of panels
and clamps that provided structural support for the truss during its
launch in Atlantis’ cargo bay.
The spacewalkers
then began work to install a backup device containing an umbilical reel
for the Mobile Transporter railcar on the truss that will provide redundancy
to a similar device mounted on the truss Thursday. The two sets of umbilicals
for the Mobile Transporter, which is designed to move the robotic arm
up and down the length of the completed station truss, provide power,
data and video capability for the system, which will be tested for the
first time in orbit Monday.
Ross tried to remove
a restraining bolt on the mechanism which, if required, can cut the
umbilical cable should it snag during its operation, but the bolt proved
to be a bit balky and did not back out of its socket as planned. Flight
controllers decided not to spend additional time troubleshooting the
stubborn bolt today after engineers determined that the cable cutter
cannot inadvertently fire in its current configuration. The backup umbilical
system is operating normally and the stubborn bolt will be dealt with
on one of the mission’s two remaining spacewalks. The primary umbilical
system installed Thursday is also operating normally.
The spacewalk,
which was conducted out of the station’s Quest Airlock, began at
9:09 a.m. Central time and concluded at 4:39 p.m. as Ross and Morin
repressurized the outer compartment of the two-chamber module.
Late today, Frick
fired Atlantis’ steering jets in a one-hour procedure to slowly
reboost the space station by about 2 statute miles. It was the first
of three scheduled reboost maneuvers to eventually raise the orbit of
the ISS by about 6 statute miles before Atlantis departs the station
on Wednesday.
The ten shuttle
and station crew members are scheduled to begin their eight-hour sleep
period at 7:44 p.m. and will awaken Sunday just before 4 a.m. to begin
preparations for the third spacewalk of the flight.
The next STS-110
mission status report will be issued Sunday after crew wake up, or earlier,
if events warrant.
###
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