Mastracchio And Williams Install New Station Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG)
Houston TX (SPX) Aug 16, 2007 STS-118's second spacewalk is now in the history books. Mission Specialists Dave Williams and Rick Mastracchio successfully installed a new control moment gyroscope (CMG) onto the International Space Station's Z1 truss during the excursion, which ended at 6 p.m. EDT. The new CMG replaces a faulty gyroscope, which was removed during the first half of the spacewalk. The new gyroscope is one of four CMGs that are used to control the station's attitude in orbit. Before concluding the 6-hour, 28-minute excursion, the orbital duo relocated the faulty CMG to external stowage platform-2, where it will stay until it is returned to Earth on a future shuttle mission. Mission Specialist Tracy Caldwell served as the spacewalk coordinator, and STS-118 Pilot Charles Hobaugh and Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Clay Anderson operated the station's robotic arm. The next spacewalk is scheduled to take place Wednesday. Mastracchio and Anderson will team up to prepare the station's Port 6 truss for relocation during STS-120. A fourth spacewalk was added to the schedule when STS-118 was extended by three days. In other activities, crew members continued cargo transfers between Endeavour and the station. Experts on the ground continued to analyze imagery collected Sunday during the STS-118 crew's focused inspection of five areas of concern on the Endeavour's heat shield. Managers Add Three Days to Shuttle Mission Mission managers decided Sunday to extend the STS-118 mission by three days. The decision came after the successful operation of the new Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS). Endeavour is now scheduled to undock from the International Space Station on Aug. 20 and land Aug. 22. In addition to the extra time at the orbital outpost, managers added a fourth spacewalk that is scheduled to take place Aug. 17. The SSPTS reroutes power from the space station to the shuttle during docked operations, allowing the orbiter to conserve materials needed to generate power and spend more time in space. Related Links STS-118 at NASA Station at NASA Station and More at Roscosmos S.P. Korolev RSC Energia Watch NASA TV via Space.TV Space Station News at Space-Travel.Com
Punctured astronaut's spacesuit cuts short spacewalk Washington (AFP) Aug 15, 2007 Two astronauts floating outside the International Space Station were forced to cut short their spacewalk Wednesday after one of them found a hole in his spacesuit's left glove. |
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement |