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Spacewalkers unfold and wire up new station truss BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: September 12, 2006; Updated after status briefing Astronauts Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper successfully wired in a new solar array truss segment today, removed launch restraints and deployed stowed appendages during a nearly flawless six-hour 26-minute spacewalk, the first of three complex excursions planned for the shuttle Atlantis' space station assembly mission. "It's been a whirlwind few days here, a lot of hard work has really paid off," said lead station flight director John McCullough. "This EVA was unique, again because we had to power down half the space station. ... We had 13 umbilicals that had to be mated to supply power from the two channels on the space station and those were all accomplished successfully. "After the EVA, the powerups went very well, all the systems are looking very good, there are no issues being tracked right now with the new hardware, it's all in good condition."
"Would you pass along to the station team, everybody up here was really awed by the job they did today with all the powerups, the powerdowns, the activations," he said. "We were really running hard to keep up with them. They worked real hard for this day and they just did a great job." Other than a few tighter-than-expected bolts - and the astronauts removed 167 in all - the only problem occurred late in the spacewalk when Tanner, removing one of 16 launch locks around a massive rotating joint, lost a washer and a bolt with a captive spring. While Tanner expressed some initial concern that the bolt might have found its way inside the truss where it could possibly interfere with the operation of the rotary joint, McCullough and John Haensly, lead spacewalk officer, said they were confident that did not happen. "We're pretty certain it didn't go into the structure," Haensly said. "Basically the only open space ... was the cover that he had removed and actually visually saw both the washer and the bolt and spring go off in a (different) direction." While any sort of debris in the rotary joint would be a cause for concern, he said, "we're pretty certain it didn't go in." The spacewalk, the 80th devoted to space station assembly and maintenance, began at 5:17 a.m. and officially ended at 11:43 a.m. when the astronauts repressurized the Quest airlock. With the completion of today's spacewalk, 61 astronauts representing the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, Germany and France have logged 424 hours and 43 minutes building and maintaining the orbital lab complex. "Joe and Heide, you did a phenomenal job and set the bar very high for the rest of assembly," astronaut Pam Melroy radioed from the space station control center. "Well, we just did what we were told, Pam," Tanner joked. "We just did the best we could do, that's all we wanted to do, right Heide?" "That's all I wanted to do," Piper said. "Amen." Tanner, Piper and their shuttle crewmates - commander Brent Jett, pilot Chris Ferguson, Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean - originally trained to carry out this mission in 2003, the next flight in the sequence after Columbia's ill-fated voyage. Station assembly was put on hold in the wake of the disaster, but the Atlantis astronauts stayed together and the years of training paid off with a remarkably smooth spacewalk that belied the complexity of of the required tasks. "Shuttle flights are definitely a hurricane when they come to the space station as far as activity goes and it takes a lot of activity in a very short time," McCullough said. "We're right now in day two of that hurricane and things are going very well." Along with accomplishing all of their primary objectives - wiring in the new P3/P4y truss, deploying solar array appendages, removing launch restraints and engaging stiffeners and rotary joint drive motors - the spacewalkers had enough time left over to accomplish a few tasks originally scheduled for a spacewalk Wednesday by Burbank and MacLean. The primary items on the agenda Wednesday were to remove 16 launch locks from the massive rotary joint that ultimately will spin the new arrays to follow the sun, along with six other restraints that must be removed before the joint can move freely. The launch-lock removal is a multi-step procedure that requires the astronauts to first release an inboard clamp; remove and temporarily stow a thermal cover; remove four bolts from the launch lock; and reinstall the thermal cover. Tanner and Piper were asked to remove two of those launch locks to give Burbank and MacLean a sense of how that work might go. As it turned out, the only snag of the day came when Tanner lost the bolt, spring and washer while working on one of the launch locks. The captive washer that normally would keep the spring-loaded bolt in place apparently came off the threads on the end of the bolt, perhaps when it was inadvertently bumped. "Well, this is unfortunate," Tanner said, clearly disappointed. "The washer is gone, it went in a good direction, forward. The bolt and spring stayed together and I only got a glimpse of it, but it departed pretty much zenith (in an upward direction). I guess it could have ricochetted off anything in between me and the (upper) corner." "The question would be, did it go into structure or away from structure?" mission control asked. "Well, it was breezing across the surface of structure," Tanner replied. "It could have gone right over Heide's head, but she wouldn't have known to look up. And it was dark anyway." After another inspection, he said "I don't see any way it could have gotten in" the truss. "I don't see it anywhere." Back inside the space station, Tanner, clearly thinking about the lost bolt, called mission control one more time to offer details about its possible trajectory. Melroy thanked him, saying "we think you did a great job and we sure appreciate all the extra detail, but we don't think it's going to be a problem." "Well, I just hope that bolt is on its way to mother Earth right now and not hanging around SARJ," he said, referring to the solar alpha rotary joint. "We do, too," Melroy said. "We'll work it some more tomorrow, but don't worry about it." Haensly said Burbank and MacLean will pay close attention to the fasteners when removing the remaining launch locks Wednesday. But Piper had no problems with the one she removed today and no additional problems are expected Wednesday.
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STS-115 patch The official crew patch for the STS-115 mission of space shuttle Atlantis to resume orbital construction of the International Space Station. Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide  |
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VIDEO:
TANNER LOSES BOLT DURING ROTARY JOINT WORK 