Rainer Gerhards

STS-120
Report #14
Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 – 5 p.m. CDT
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – As crewmembers aboard the International Space Station and space shuttle Discovery prepared for the third spacewalk, they learned that the shuttle will spend an extra day in space, with landing now scheduled for just after 4 a.m. Nov. 7.

After analyzing photos of debris found inside the station’s starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, mission managers today decided to devote the mission’s fourth spacewalk Thursday to further inspection of the joint. That spacewalk originally was dedicated to testing of a shuttle tile repair dispensing “gun,” which has been deferred to a future shuttle mission.

The additional docked day has been inserted between the fourth and fifth spacewalks and provides for some crew off-duty time, along with ample equipment preparation and turnaround for the fifth spacewalk, scheduled for Saturday. Mission flight planners now are working detailed timelines to reflect the decision by the Mission Management Team. Discovery now is scheduled to undock from the station on Nov. 5 and land a week from Wednesday completing the STS-120 mission.

As a precursor to the additional rotary joint inspection spacewalk, Tuesday’s spacewalk by Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock will include a short task to inspect the port rotary joint to provide comparison data to station managers who will spend the night developing procedures for the fourth spacewalk. All other tasks for the third spacewalk remain as trained with the focus being on installation of the P6 truss to its permanent location outboard of the port truss.

Today the crew completed final preparations for the P6 truss installation and continued outfitting and activation of avionics and systems racks inside the Harmony Node. Despite the shutdown of the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly in the U.S. Destiny laboratory, work continues as normal with no interruption to operations with other means of carbon dioxide scrubbing equipment on board.

The crew day ended with Parazynski and Wheelock beginning their routine overnight “campout” in the Quest airlock. They plan to begin the spacewalk at about 4:28 a.m. Tuesday following a wakeup call from Mission Control late tonight about 11:30.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Tuesday morning or earlier if events warrant.

STS-120
Report #13
12:45 a.m. CDT Monday, October 29, 2007
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – With two successful spacewalks completed in three days, the crews on Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station have some time to relax today while also completing a big handoff and getting prepared for another EVA on Tuesday.

This morning’s wakeup music at 11:39 p.m., “One by One” by Wynton Marsalis, was played for Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson, one of the robot arm operators for this morning’s hand off of the P6 truss element between the shuttle and station robot arms.

P6, which was removed from the station during Sunday’s spacewalk, spent the night in a parked position in the grip of Canadarm2, which is based on the station’s Mobile Base System. At 2:08 a.m. CDT Wilson and Pilot George Zamka will fly the shuttle robot arm to grapple P6. Mission Specialist Clay Anderson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani will command the station arm to let go and then they will position the arm for a ride across the station’s truss.

At 4:23 a.m. the Mobile Transporter will begin a 90-minute transit to work site 8, the last stop on the port end of the station’s truss. Once the railcar locks down there, Anderson and Tani will reach out with Canadarm2 and take P6 back from the shuttle arm. It will be held there overnight and then installed on the port end of the truss during the mission’s third spacewalk Tuesday morning.

In between the two handoffs the crews are scheduled for off duty time. After lunch Tani and space station Commander Peggy Whitson will begin outfitting the avionics rack in the Harmony node while Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli helps spacewalkers Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock prepare the airlock for the next spacewalk.

At 12:43 p.m. shuttle Commander Pam Melroy, Wilson and Anderson will join Whitson, Tani and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko in the Harmony node to talk about the progress of the flight with ABC News, NBC News and CNN News.

The station and space shuttle flight control teams and mission managers are discussing options following the discovery by Tani during yesterday’s spacewalk of particulate matter (of unknown composition) inside the station’s starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint. That joint has been experiencing increased friction during rotation for the past month and a half. Station managers have decided to limit the use of the SARJ while the situation is assessed.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Monday afternoon or earlier if events warrant.

STS-120
Report #12
4:00 p.m. CDT Sunday, October 28, 2007
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – Astronauts Scott Parazynski and Dan Tani successfully completed all major tasks during STS-120’s second spacewalk, the 17th this year and the 94th dedicated to the International Space Station’s assembly and maintenance.

During the 6 hour and 33 minute spacewalk, Parazynski and Tani teamed to disconnect cables from the Port 6 (P6) truss, allowing it to be removed from the Z1 truss. Once completed, Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Doug Wheelock used the station’s robotic arm to move the P6 and park it overnight. The space walk began at 4:32 a.m. CDT and ended at 11:05 a.m. CDT.

Tani also visually inspected the station’s starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint and gathered samples of “shavings” he found under the joint’s Multi-Layer Insulation covers. The task was added so engineers could gather additional information on possible causes of increased friction detected for the past month and a half as the joint rotated for solar array positioning.

Mission managers today decided to limit the use of the rotary joint as they continue to assess the anomaly. Managers also determined Discovery’s Thermal Protection System is cleared for reentry.

In addition to detaching the P6 truss, the spacewalkers outfitted the Harmony module, mated the power and data grapple fixture and reconfigured connectors on the starboard 1 (S1) truss that will allow the radiator on S1 to be deployed from the ground later.

Tomorrow, Wilson, Wheelock and Mission Specialist Clay Anderson will handoff the P6 element to the shuttle robotic arm, operated by Mission Specialists George Zamka and Commander Pam Melroy. The station’s arm will then be move down along the truss railway closer to the P6 outboard installation point and the P6 will be handed back to Canadarm2 for installation in its new location on P5 during the mission’s third spacewalk.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Monday morning or earlier if events warrant.

STS-120
Report #11
12:30 a.m. CDT Sunday, October 28, 2007
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – The second of a record five spacewalks on one space shuttle visit to the International Space Station begins this morning, and it will end with a major station element en route to a new location.

Today’s wakeup song at 12:09 a.m. CDT, “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong, was played for Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski on the day he makes his second spacewalk of the mission. He and Flight Engineer Dan Tani spent the night camped out in the Quest airlock to purge nitrogen from their bloodstreams to help prevent them from experiencing decompression sickness.

While the spacewalkers suit up, mission specialists Stephanie Wilson and Doug Wheelock will maneuver the station’s robot arm to grapple the P6 truss element, now secured atop the Z1 truss. When Parazynski and Tani exit the station at 4:58 a.m. CDT they will head for the intersection of the P6 and Z1 to disconnect the last umbilicals and bolts holding the two components together.

When they finish there the spacewalkers will move to separate jobs. Parazynski will go to the new Harmony node, installed on the Unity node Friday, to install handholds and other equipment. Tani will move to the starboard truss for two inspections. He will look for sharp edges on handrails on the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid cart and then move to the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint to look for the cause of increased friction that has been observed recently when that joint is rotated.

At the same time, Wilson and Wheelock will use Candaram2 to lift P6 off of the Z1 truss, the first step in its move to the far port end of the station’s truss structure. The 45-foot-long truss will remain on the arm tonight and will be handed over to the shuttle robot arm Monday. This allows the station arm atop its mobile operating base to move along the truss railway closer to the P6 outboard installation point and then P6 will be handed back to Canadarm2 for installation Tuesday during the mission’s third spacewalk.

Late in today’s spacewalk Parazynski and Tani meet up again to install a new grapple fixture on Harmony, a fixture that the station arm will use next month to remove Harmony from Unity and install it at the front of the Destiny laboratory. At that location Harmony will provide docking ports for the European and Japanese laboratory modules scheduled to arrive later this year and early next year.

Today’s spacewalk, the fifth of Parazynski’s career and the second for Tani, is scheduled to end at 11:38 a.m. CDT.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Sunday afternoon or earlier if events warrant.

STS-120
Report #10
2 p.m. CDT Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – Astronauts at the International Space Station now have a little more room to float around in – 2,666 cubic feet more, to be exact.

The hatch of Node 2 – or Harmony, as the module was named by school children – was opened at 7:24 a.m. CDT today. Station Commander Peggy Whitson and Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli – who is from Italy, where the module was built – were the first to enter, and took advantage of the opportunity to remark on the appropriateness of its name.

“We think Harmony is a very good name for this module,” Whitson said, “because it represents the culmination of a lot of international partner work and will allow international partner modules to be added on.”

Crew members spent part of today hooking Harmony systems up for use. Rick LaBrode, lead shuttle flight director, said it was going well.

“It’s beautiful,” LaBrode said. “Bright, shiny. The report from the crew is that it’s as clean as can be. Perfect shape.”

The module won’t be ready for full use while space shuttle Discovery is at the station. It’s been installed in a temporary location because the shuttle’s docking port is currently situated at its final location. The station crew will move the docking port and Harmony, and finish bringing all of its systems online after the shuttle leaves.

After the module’s ventilation system was up and running, some crew members were able to take time out from their work for interviews with a few television stations. They answered questions on subjects ranging from the challenges of the missions to the historic significance of having Whitson, the first female commander of the station, in space at the same time as Pam Melroy, the second female commander for the shuttle.

“We hope to see a woman leading a mission to Mars someday,” Melroy said.

The other major tasks for the day centered around preparations for the mission’s second spacewalk on Sunday. Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski and the station’s newly arrived flight engineer, Daniel Tani, are scheduled to leave the station at 4:58 a.m. They’ll finish disconnecting the Port 6, or P6, truss segment from the top of the station, where it was installed temporarily in 2000, and help direct robotic arm operators as they move the solar array section to its permanent home on the end of the port truss.

In addition, mission managers also have asked Tani to take a look at a rotary joint used to rotate solar arrays on the starboard side of the truss. The joint has been showing some increased friction lately, and mission managers hope Tani may be able to identify the cause.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Sunday morning or earlier if events warrant.

HOUSTON – Today is the grand opening of the International Space Station’s newest module, a connecting node that will host new laboratory complexes from around the world.

The day began with an Italian wakeup song at 12:39 a.m. “Bellissime Stelle” (Beautiful Stars) by Andrea Bocelli was played for European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli of Italy, the country where the new node, Harmony, was built.

This morning Nespoli, a member of the crew on Space Shuttle Discovery, will work with Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson to outfit the vestibule between Harmony and the Unity module, to which it was installed yesterday during the first spacewalk of the mission. They are scheduled to open the hatch into Harmony at 7:58 a.m. CDT, and the crewmembers will get to enter the module for the first time. They will install a ventilation line to circulate the air and begin setup operations.

Harmony will be relocated to the front of the Destiny laboratory after the shuttle departs, and provide the docking ports for laboratory modules from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that are to arrive later this year and early next year.

This morning shuttle Commander Pam Melroy, Pilot George Zamka, and Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Doug Wheelock will use the shuttle and station robotic arms to return the Orbiter Boom Sensor System to the starboard payload bay sill. Plans for a focused inspection of Discovery’s thermal protection system were cancelled by mission managers after a thorough review of detailed imagery yielded no evidence of damage that required more examination.

Additional time was added for today’s review of the updated plans for the second spacewalk of the mission, which takes place Sunday morning. In a newly-added task, space station Flight Engineer Dan Tani will visually inspect the truss’ starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint. He will look for possible causes of increased friction in that joint that has been detected for the past month and a half during its rotation for solar array positioning.

Tani also will spend time with astronaut Clay Anderson, his predecessor on Expedition 16, to get acclimated to life on the space station. This afternoon at 1:03 p.m. Anderson will join Whitson and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko plus shuttle astronauts Melroy, Zamka, Wilson and Wheelock in the new Harmony node to discuss the mission in interviews with CBS News, FOX News, and WHAM-TV of Rochester, New York, Melroy’s hometown.

At 2:23 p.m. Tani and his spacewalking partner, Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski, will begin their overnight campout pre-breathe inside the Quest airlock as they get prepared for their spacewalk starting at 4:58 a.m. Sunday.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Saturday afternoon or earlier if events warrant.

STS-120
Report #08
4:30 p.m. CDT Friday, Oct. 26, 2007
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – It proved to be a perfect day for a spacewalk.

In just over six hours, STS-120 Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock installed the Harmony module in its temporary location on the International Space Station, readied the P6 truss for its relocation on Sunday, retrieved a failed radio communications antenna and snapped shut a window cover on Harmony that opened during launch on the space shuttle.

The astronauts plan to enter Harmony for the first time at 8:03 a.m. Saturday after Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli and Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson open the hatches. The station’s newest pressurized module adds 2,666 cubic feet of volume, increasing the station’s living space by nearly 20 percent (from 15,000 to 17,666 cubic feet).

Mission managers today determined a focused inspection of Discovery’s heat shield is not necessary Saturday following detailed review of the imagery gathered over the last two days. The Mission Management Team declared the shuttle’s Thermal Protection System is cleared for reentry. A routine final inspection focusing on the wing leading edges is planned for late in the mission.

Station managers also decided to add a 360-degree visual inspection of the station’s starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) during the second spacewalk on Sunday. The SARJ has shown increased friction for the past month and a half. Though the increase is not constant and averages less than a tenth of an amp, managers decided to add the inspection because the spacewalkers will be near the joint.

During the spacewalk, astronauts will remove the multi-layer insulation covers on the joint to better see the swing bolts beneath and document their inspection with photographs.

Parazynski and Wheelock began the spacewalk at 5:02 a.m. CDT and wrapped up at 11:16. First, the two removed and stowed the S-band Antenna Structural Assembly which is being returned to Earth on Discovery. Next, they secured a Payload and Data Grapple Fixture onto Harmony that could not be in place during launch, removed contamination covers and disconnected the power cables linking Harmony to Discovery.

Once the spacewalker’s preparations were complete, Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Clay Anderson and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel Tani used the station’s robotic arm to remove Harmony from the payload bay and move it to its position on the port side of Unity. Nespoli coordinated spacewalk activities.

Harmony will be relocated to the front of the Destiny laboratory after the shuttle departs. It will provide the docking ports for laboratory modules from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that are to arrive late this year and early next year. Outfitting of the station’s newest module will continue throughout the mission.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Saturday morning or earlier if events warrant.

STS-120
Report #07
1 a.m. CDT Friday, October 26, 2007
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – Delivery of Harmony highlights the day as the crews of Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station prepare for the first of a record five spacewalks planned for a single shuttle assembly mission.

The day began at 12:39 a.m. CDT with the wakeup song “Rocket Man” by Elton John, played for Mission Specialist Doug Wheelock on the day he performs the first spacewalk of his career.

Wheelock and Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski exit the Quest airlock at 5:28 a.m. for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk. They will retrieve an S-band antenna assembly from the Z1 truss and pack it in the shuttle payload bay for return to Earth for refurbishment, disconnect umbilicals running between the P6 and Z1 trusses to facilitate the demating of P6 later in the flight, and prepare the connecting node Harmony for removal from the payload bay.

After the spacewalkers unplug Harmony from shuttle power, the station’s Canadarm2 will grapple it, lift it from Discovery’s payload bay, and install it on the port side of the station’s Unity node. Leak checks between the two modules will continue the rest of the day and overnight before the astronauts enter Harmony for the first time Saturday.

Harmony will be relocated to the front of the Destiny laboratory after the shuttle departs. It will provide the docking ports for laboratory modules from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that are to arrive late this year and early next year.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Friday evening or earlier if events warrant.