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Watch All 5 Scheduled Spacewalks
& Overall Mission Live
On NASA TV
Original post date...
Saturday, July 18, 2009
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Fourth of Five Spacewalks to begin Friday at 09:58am EDT
About photo: Mission Specialist Chris Cassidy works outside of the International Space Station during the third spacewalk of STS-127
Photo credit: NASA TV
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* 9:30am EDT *
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Battery Work During Fourth Spacewalk
Friday, July 24, 2009
4:38am. CDT
The joint crew of Endeavour and the station was awakened at 5:03 a.m. EDT by Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” played for lead spacewalker Dave Wolf.
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Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn will head outside at 9:58am EDT to swap out all four of the remaining P6 truss batteries, a task that is expected to take about seven and a half hours. Two of the six original P6 batteries were changed out during the mission’s third spacewalk on Wednesday, but work was stopped when carbon dioxide levels in Cassidy’s suit began to rise unexpectedly.
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Spacewalkers Install Second Battery
1:32pm EDT
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Three hours and 35 minutes into today's spacewalk, Mission Specialists Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn installed their second of four new batteries on the space station's Port 6 truss. They also removed an old one and stowed it for return to Earth. Endeavour Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialist Julie Payette are using the space station robotic arm to move the spacewalkers around as they exchange old batteries with new ones.
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In total, four of the six Port 6 batteries earmarked for installation are in place. Two more will be swapped out before the end of this planned 7.5-hour spacewalk. Both spacesuits continue to perform normally.
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For the Record - Here’s a little more Info about Today’s Spacewalk
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Battery Replacements During Fourth SpacewalkSTS-127 Mission Specialists Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn will tackle a challenging 7 ½-hour spacewalk today to finish swapping out batteries for the International Space Station’s oldest set of solar arrays.
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Their outing will be devoted entirely to finishing the work started on the third spacewalk of the mission – removing old batteries from the Port 6 truss structure and transferring new batteries from the Integrated Cargo Carrier on the end of the station’s robotic arm to the empty sockets on the truss.
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Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialist Julie Payette will position Canadarm2 near the truss for the spacewalk and, once all of the battery swaps are complete, maneuver the carrier back into Endeavour’s cargo bay. That maneuver will require them to hand off the carrier to the shuttle’s arm for re-berthing by Hurley and Commander Mark Polansky.
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Astronauts Nearing End of Spacewalk
4:23pm EDT
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Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn finished installing the new Port 6 truss batteries and stowing the old batteries on the Integrated Cargo Carrier. Mission Control reports all the new batteries are working. Later today, space station robotic arm operators will move the cargo carrier into Endeavour’s payload bay for return to Earth.
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Six hours, 23 minutes into the spacewalk, Cassidy and Marshburn are performing a few clean up chores and are expected to end the excursion before the scheduled seven hour, 30 minute mark.
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5:10pm EDT
* Today’s spacewalk is now over *
It came to an official end at 5:06pm EDT
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STS-127 Crew Completes Fourth Spacewalk
5:11pm EDT
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Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn completed a seven hour, 12 minute spacewalk at 5:06 p.m. EDT, installing all four of the new batteries on the Port 6 truss.
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The six new installed batteries function as expected and the old batteries are stored on a cargo carrier that will be placed in Endeavour’s payload bay later today.
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This was the fourth of five STS-127 spacewalks, the 129th in support of International Space Station assembly and maintenance, totaling 805 hours, 42 minutes. It was the 101st spacewalk out of space station airlocks and the 217th American spacewalk in history. It was the second for both Cassidy and Marshburn.
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NASA Television airs a Mission Status briefing at 7 p.m. with STS-127 Lead Flight Director Holly Ridings and STS-127 Lead Spacewalk Officer Keith Johnson.
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NOTE: FIFTH Spacewalk is scheduled for Monday but I haven’t a clue as to when it is to start. I will post Monday’s Spacewalk start time when NASA gets that up-to-date info up on their website. At worse… Check back Monday morning after 8:00am.
For now… Keep up with the latest on this mission at link below.
Check out NASA TV too… They broadcast live on mission 24-7.
AJF
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Post Update:
Monday, July 27, 2009
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9:00am EDT.
About above image: Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn exit the Quest airlock to begin the fifth and final spacewalk of the STS-127 mission.
Image credit: NASA TV
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Looks like today’s Spacewalk got started early this morning
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Final Spacewalk Begins at 7:33am EDT
Below originally posted at 7:38am EDT
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STS-127’s fifth and final planned spacewalk began almost an hour early when Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy switched their spacesuits to battery power at 7:33 a.m. EDT. The spacewalk is expected to last 6.5 hours.
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While Marshburn secures multi-layer insulation around the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator known as DEXTRE, Cassidy will split out power channels for two of the four space station Control Moment Gyroscopes. Next, Marshburn and Cassidy will install video cameras on the front and back of the new Japanese Exposed Facility. And their final task will be to deploy a Payload Attach System on the Starboard 3 truss that will provide storage capability for spare space station hardware.
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Below originally posted at 8:36am EDT
Both Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy completed their first tasks ahead of schedule and are moving to the Japanese Exposed Facility to install two video cameras. The cameras, one in the front and one in the rear, will provide views to help with rendezvous and berthing of Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), an unmanned cargo craft scheduled to make its first deliveries to the space station in September.
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- Here’s a little info about today’s mission -
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Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn spent the night camped out in the Quest airlock. The primary objective of the spacewalk is to install two cameras on Japan’s Kibo laboratory that will provide views to help with rendezvous and berthing of the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV). The HTV is scheduled to make its first deliveries to the station in September.
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The six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk also includes an electrical cable swap and adjustment of insulation blankets on the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator. If time permits, the pair also will deploy a Payload Attachment System on the Starboard 3 truss structure that will allow an external spare parts stowage platform to be installed on a future shuttle mission.
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Inside the complex, Commander Mark Polansky and Mission Specialist Dave Wolf will support the spacewalkers, and Pilot Doug Hurley will continue cargo transfers, which are more than 80 percent complete.
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Get Ahead Tasks for Spacewalkers
9:21am EDT
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Two hours, 45 minutes into the spacewalk, Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy completed installing two video cameras on the Japanese Exposed Facility that will provide views to help with rendezvous and berthing of Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) later this year. Based on the amount of time needed to clean up after the spacewalk, Mission Control decided to defer the deployment of a Payload Attachment System on the Starboard 3 truss. Instead, the spacewalkers will undertake a few “get ahead tasks.”
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* Fifth & Final Spacewalk now in the History Books *
12:32am EDT
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STS-127 Crew Completes Fifth and Final Spacewalk
Spacewalkers Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy completed a four hour, 54 minute spacewalk today at 12:27pm EDT.
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Marshburn and Cassidy secured multi-layer insulation around the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator known as Dextre, split out power channels for two space station Control Moment Gyroscopes, installed video cameras on the front and back of the new Japanese Exposed Facility and performed a number of “get ahead” tasks, including tying down some cables and installing handrails and a portable foot restraint to aid future spacewalkers. The deployment of the Payload Attach System on the Starboard 3 truss was deferred to another spacewalk sometime in the future.
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This was the fifth and last planned STS-127 spacewalk, the 130th in support of International Space Station assembly and maintenance, totaling 810 hours, 36 minutes. It was the 102nd spacewalk out of Space Station airlocks and the 218th American spacewalk in history. It was the third for both Marshburn and Cassidy, Marshburn totaling 18 hours, 59 minutes and Cassidy 18 hours, five minutes.
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This was the second Space Station assembly mission to conduct five spacewalks. STS-123 also performed five spacewalks in March 2008. The five STS-127 spacewalks totaled 30 hours, 30 minutes. The five STS-123 spacewalks totaled 33 hours, 29 minutes.
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At 6 p.m., NASA Television will air a Mission Status briefing with STS-127 Lead Flight Director Holly Ridings and STS-127 Lead Spacewalk Officer Kieth Johnson.
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Well that’s it for me until we get near the time to land STS-127, hopefully at the Florida’s landing strip. I’ll update the latest landing date and time of… in the next few days.
But until then -- Keep up with the latest on this mission at link below.
Check out NASA TV too… They broadcast mission live 24-7.
AJF
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* Read Latest News & Updates
at NASA.gov
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*Watch Mission LIVE
At NASA TV
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ENJOY!!!********************************
STS-127: Interactive Mission Timeline
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GOD SPEED to the Crew of STS-127 Endeavour on finishing up on a successful mission along with having an event free, Safe Landing...
AubreyJ.........
All info in this post taken from the NASA.gov website unless otherwise stated
Image Credit: NASA
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