Spaceflight Now




Spaceflight Now +



Subscribe to Spaceflight Now Plus for access to our extensive video collections!
How do I sign up?
Video archive

STS-122: The mission

Atlantis' trip to the station will deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus science lab module.

 Play

STS-122: The programs

Managers from the shuttle, station and EVA programs discuss Atlantis' upcoming flight.

 Play

STS-122: Spacewalks

Three spacewalks are planned during Atlantis' STS-122 assembly mission. Lead spacewalk officer Anna Jarvis previews the EVAs.

 Full briefing
 EVA 1 summary
 EVA 2 summary
 EVA 3 summary

The Atlantis crew

The astronauts of Atlantis' STS-122 mission meet the press in the traditional pre-flight news conference.

 Play

Harmony's big move

The station's new Harmony module is detached from the Unity hub and moved to its permanent location on the Destiny lab.

 Play

Delta 4-Heavy launch

The first operational Delta 4-Heavy rocket launches the final Defense Support Program missile warning satellite for the Air Force.

 Full coverage

Columbus readied

The European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory module moves to pad 39A and placed aboard shuttle Atlantis for launch.

 To pad | Installed

Station port moved

The station crew uses the robot arm to detach the main shuttle docking port and mount it to the new Harmony module Nov. 12.

 Play

Atlantis rolls out

Space shuttle Atlantis rolls from the Vehicle Assembly Building to pad 39A for its December launch with the Columbus module.

 Play

Atlantis goes vertical

Atlantis is hoisted upright and maneuvered into position for attachment to the external tank and boosters.

 Play

Become a subscriber
More video



Astronauts suit up for third and final spacewalk
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: February 15, 2008

Astronauts Rex Walheim and Stan Love are gearing up for a third and final spacewalk today, a planned six-and-a-half-hour excursion to mount a pair of science packages on the hull of the new Columbus research module and to move a faulty space station gyroscope to the shuttle Atlantis for return to Earth.

The spacewalk, the 104th devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, is scheduled to start around 8:40 a.m. when Walheim and Love, floating in the Quest airlock module, switch their spacesuits to battery power.

"The three main goals are to bring the two exposed payloads that the Europeans want on the outside of Columbus and attach them to Columbus," Walheim said in a NASA interview. "Also, we're going to bring back a control moment gyro, or a CMG, that had failed earlier in the space station program. (An earlier crew) replaced it, so there's a new one that's working, but we have to take the failed one back home.

"Stan's going to have quite the (robot) arm rides taking these payloads back and forth, and I'm going to assist him."

If time is available at the end of the spacewalk, the astronauts plan to rub an improvised tool featuring a spacesuit glove wrapped around a socket wrench across a small impact crater seen earlier on an airlock handrail. The goal is to find out if rough edges around the tiny crater could be responsible for glove damage noted during recent spacewalks.

One other possible "get-ahead" task involves a quick inspection of the station's right side solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ, one of two that rotate outboard solar arrays to track the sun. The starboard SARJ has been shut down since late last year because of excessive vibration and internal contamination. If time is available today, Love and Walheim will inspect and photograph an area of the 10-foot-wide bearing race ring where engineers have spotted what appears to be a small defect.

It's not clear whether the defect might be a tiny crater or the result of some sort of debris resting on the surface of the race ring.

Here is a timeline of today's activity (in EST and mission elapsed time; includes revision I of the NASA television schedule):


EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

02/15/08
03:45 AM...07...13...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
04:20 AM...07...13...35...EVA-3: Airlock repress to 14.7 psi
05:15 AM...07...14...30...Flight director update on NASA TV
05:30 AM...07...14...45...EVA-3: Airlock campout preps
05:35 AM...07...14...50...Space station daily planning conference
06:00 AM...07...15...15...Columbus module activation continues
07:00 AM...07...16...15...EVA-3: Spacesuit purge
07:15 AM...07...16...30...EVA-3: Spacesuit oxygen pre-breathe
08:05 AM...07...17...20...EVA-3: Airlock depressurization
08:35 AM...07...17...50...EVA-3: Spacesuits to battery power (spacewalk begins)
08:40 AM...07...17...55...EVA-3: Airlock egress
08:55 AM...07...18...10...EVA-3: SOLAR transfer from shuttle to Columbus
11:10 AM...07...20...25...Crew meals begin
11:35 AM...07...20...50...EVA-3: Gyroscope transfer to shuttle
12:50 PM...07...22...05...EVA-3: EUTEF transfer from shuttle to Columbus
02:25 PM...07...23...40...EVA-3: Cleanup and ingress
03:05 PM...08...00...20...EVA-3: Airlock repressurization
03:15 PM...08...00...30...Spacesuit servicing
04:30 PM...08...01...45...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
06:15 PM...08...03...30...Station crew sleep begins
06:45 PM...08...04...00...Shuttle crew sleep begins
07:00 PM...08...04...15...Daily video highlights reel on NASA TV

"For EVA-3, I like to joke, I am the 'meat end effector:' I am the thing on the (robot) arm that grabs things," Love said in a NASA interview. "Rex and I will start at the airlock, we will make our way to the shuttle's payload bay, where the arm will be waiting for us, and it'll already have on it what we call the APFR - again, you are nothing at NASA without an acronym, articulating portable foot restraint - toe clip. It allows a person to stand and have a solid base for their feet somewhere, and there's a spot on the arm where you can put one of these things. That will be in place, I'll hop in there, and then we will start removing refrigerators, or refrigerator-sized objects.

"First will be SOLAR, which is a solar telescope that mounts on the outside of Columbus. It's like a little satellite ... but it gets its attitude control, its power and its data feed all through the space station, so it's a little satellite that mounts on the outside of space station. We will pick it up from the payload bay, there's one bolt that holds it in place, then riding the arm I will carry it up to Columbus. Once it's bolted in place - and driving that bolt connects all its power and data connections all at the same time - we'll back away."

The SOLAR instrument package will be mounted on the upper of two attachment platforms on the outboard bulkhead of the Columbus module. At that point, the station arm will move Love to an external storage platform near the Quest airlock so he and Walheim can move the faulty gyroscope back to Atlantis for return to Earth.

"The space station holds its attitude in space using big, heavy gyroscopes and over the history of station we've had two of these fail," Love said. "The STS-118 crew removed the CMG-3, the CMG of interest here, and put it on a platform for us; we're bringing it home. So we'll go over by the airlock, grab that CMG, unbolt it, the arm will swing me over to the shuttle payload bay and we'll plunk it down in the exact same slot that we pulled SOLAR out of because it's the same structural interface there."

The space station uses four 500-pound control moment gyros to change its orientation in space without having to fire rocket thrusters. The devices are critical to space station operations and NASA wants to get the failed unit back to Earth so engineers can figure out what went wrong.

"Stan will come underneath that stowage platform and we'll remove some of the insulation that's around it so he can grab onto some handrails. Then I'll do the bolt and release it and then he can take it off back to the payload bay. When he gets a ride to the payload bay, I'll go scurry down there, free-floating as we call it - basically just walk with my hands - and get down there and help him put it back on the space shuttlešs carrier so that we can bring it home."

With the CMG safely bolted down in the shuttle's cargo bay, "we'll move over to EuTEF (the European Technology Exposure Facility), which is an external exposure facility, basically, looking at how materials respond to being exposed to space for a long period of time; another little satellite that mounts on the outside of Columbus," Love said. "I'll pick it up, we'll unbolt it, we'll drag it up, riding the arm, up to Columbus and stick it on another External Payload Facility, bolt it in place, and then our EVA is done."

The EuTEF package will be mounted on Columbus' lower external attachment bracket.

"We have some cleanup work - we have to move the toe clip off the arm, we're not allowed to leave it there; we have some safety tethers that we had strung on previous EVAs, we have to clean all that up since it's the last EVA of the flight. If there's any extra time we may do extra tasks."

Spaceflight Now Plus
Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 5 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: MONDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: COLUMBUS MODULE HOISTED OUT OF SHUTTLE BAY PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF COLUMBUS' ATTACHMENT PLAY
VIDEO: OVERVIEW ANIMATION OF COLUMBUS MODULE PLAY
VIDEO: GUIDED TOUR OF ATLANTIS' PAYLOAD BAY PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF TODAY'S SPACEWALK PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: SUNDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: POST-MISSION MANAGEMENT TEAM BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ATLANTIS DOCKS TO SPACE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS PERFORMS THE 360-DEGREE BACKFLIP PLAY
VIDEO: VIEWS OF THE SHUTTLE APPROACHING FROM BELOW PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS COMPLETES THE "TI" BURN PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF THE DOCKING PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: HEAT SHIELD INSPECTIONS EXPLAINED PLAY

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-1 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-2 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-6 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: WEST TOWER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: FRONT CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 009 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 049 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 050 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 051 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 054 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 060 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 070 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 071 PLAY

VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: NARRATED REVIEW OF ATLANTIS' LAUNCH PREPS PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: NASA AND ESA POST-LAUNCH NEWS BRIEFING PLAY

VIDEO: FULL LENGTH LAUNCH MOVIE! PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS BLASTS OFF WITH COLUMBUS PLAY
VIDEO: POLLS GIVE THE FINAL "GO" TO LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS QUARTERS FOR LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS DON THEIR SPACESUITS FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP DOCKS TO STATION THIS MORNING PLAY
VIDEO: PAD GANTRY ROLLED BACK THE NIGHT BEFORE LAUNCH PLAY

VIDEO: COLUMBUS AND ATV OVERVIEW BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
VIDEO: TUESDAY MORNING'S COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: MONDAY'S CARGO SHIP UNDOCKING FROM STATION PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS' PAYLOAD BAY DOORS CLOSED FOR FLIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: CREW RETURNS TO KENNEDY SPACE CENTER FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: MONDAY MORNING'S COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: POST-FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: STS-122 ASTRONAUT BIOGRAPHIES PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED OVERVIEW OF ATLANTIS' MISSION PLAY
VIDEO: INSIGHTS INTO COLUMBUS SCIENCE LABORATORY PLAY
VIDEO: STS-122 MISSION OVERVIEW BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: BRIEFING ON THE SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: CREW'S PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH STEVE FRICK PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH ALAN POINDEXTER PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH LELAND MELVIN PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH REX WALHEIM PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH HANS SCHLEGEL PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH STANLEY LOVE PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH LEOPOLD EYHARTS PLAY
MORE: STS-122 VIDEO COVERAGE
SUBSCRIBE NOW