Third Spacewalk Wraps up Work on Lab and Little Honey-Do’s
On Sunday, spacewalkers Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan pressurized the International Space Station’s ammonia cooling lines by replacing a nitrogen tank about the size of a refrigerator tank. Toting the empty 550 pound tank out and then bringing in a full one, Garan was able to see Earth from an excellent viewpoint as he floated 80 feet above the ISS and 215 miles above his home planet. Both spacewalkers were impressed with the unbelievable viewpoint from a task which began at 9:55 a.m. EDT above the southern Pacific Ocean, off of Peru.
Both men removed the insulation covers and restraints from a window and robotic arm of the laboroatry for Japan. Additionally, they deployed a set of metal shields between the lab and its smaller storage attic, protecting against orbital debris or space rock damage. This is the third mission which involved the delivery of Japan’s Kibo laboratory, and involved bringing up another crewmember to the ISS. The entire spacewalk was begun about a half an hour earlier than scheduled, allowing the two spacewalkers to not only finish the required tasks but finish up a few extra ones.
One of the necessary extra tasks involved sending Fossum to the port side solar array rotary joint, inspecting a 10-feet gear and collecting a sample of gray dusty material which was noticed last week on a previous spacewalk. The material will be sent back to the NASA engineers when the shuttle returns to Earth, allowing them to help any ongoing efforts to repair a similar gear that is located on the starboard side, damaged by metal shavings.
Sunday will mark the 112th excursion that is dedicated to the construction of the space station, and also dedicated to the final spacewalk planned. Both Fossum and Garan had spent 20 hours and 32 minutes working outside the space station, with Fossum now ranking 12th for all time spacewalkers.
This entry was posted on Sunday, June 8th, 2008 at 12:46 am and is filed under Mission Objectives, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
