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STS-124 day 1 highlights

The highlights from shuttle Discovery's launch day are packaged into this movie.

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Discovery rolls out

Discovery travels from the Vehicle Assembly Building to pad 39A in preparation for the STS-124 mission.

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STS-124: The programs

In advance of shuttle Discovery's STS-124 mission to the station, managers from both programs discuss the flight.

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STS-124: The mission

A detailed preview of Discovery's mission to deliver Japan's science laboratory Kibo to the station is provided in this briefing.

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STS-124: Spacewalks

Three spacewalks are planned during Discovery's STS-124 assembly mission to the station.

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STS-124: The Crew

The Discovery astronauts, led by commander Mark Kelly, meet the press in the traditional pre-flight news conference.

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Astronauts prepare for mission's final spacewalk
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: June 8, 2008

Astronauts Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan are preparing for a third and final spacewalk today, a six-and-a-half-hour excursion highlighted by a dramatic robot arm ride over the top of the international space station to replace a nitrogen tank. Dubbed the "windshield wiper maneuver," the ride from one side of the station to the other will put Garan "clearly on top of the world," said arm operator Karen Nyberg, as he carries the 550-pound tanks.

"If you think about it, I'm going to be on the end of the arm and as we're doing this windshield-wiper maneuver right here at the top, I'll be 80 feet above the station looking down at the station, looking down at the Earth," Garan said before launch. "It's going to be really exciting, it's going to be really challenging, but I'm really looking forward to it."

Fossum will stow the old tank and hand Garan the fully charged replacement. Fossum also plans to re-visit the left-side solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ, remove a thermal cover and use Kapton tape to collect samples of dust-like debris he spotted on the joint's big drive gear during an inspection Thursday.

The space station is equipped with two SARJ gears, one on either side of the lab's main power truss, that are designed to rotate outboard solar arrays like giant paddle wheels to track the sun. The right side SARJ has suffered considerable damage to the surfaces of the 10-foot-wide drive gear that are gripped by 12 three-roller trundle bearings.

The left-side SARJ is operating normally, but Fossum spotted buildups of grease during an inspection Thursday. Photographs also indicted small amounts of an unknown material dusting the outer edge of the 10-foot-wide drive gear.

Engineers believe the grease may be coming from one or more of the trundle bearings the gear rolls through and it may be beneficial in slowing or preventing the sort of surface breakdown that has damaged the right-side gear. In any case, the grease is not thought to be an issue.

The dust-like material was somewhat of a surprise, Fossum said, but it is nothing like the damage and debris seen in the right-side SARJ.

"I don't believe it looks at all like the starboard side," Fossum told a reporter Saturday. "The starboard side definitely has metal shavings that show up and you can see some damage to the metal surface. There's just some things look different on the side we looked at the other day, the port side. It really looks to me like a little bit of grease, which is not a terribly big surprise when you're dealing with a bearing surface.

"Through the photographs, there might be a little bit of dusting of some other deposits around there. We plan to go out with a little bit of special tape and collect some of that dust from around the edge of the bearing. But really, that bearing looks to be in pretty darn good shape."

The crew was awakened at 5:32 a.m. by a recording of "The Mickey Mouse Club March" beamed up from mission control. The spacewalk, the 112th devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, was scheduled to begin at 10:32 a.m. (as of 7:30 a.m., the astronauts were running about a half-hour ahead of schedule).

Along with the nitrogen tank swap out and SARJ work, the spacewalkers also plan to re-install a repaired TV camera on the power truss and remove launch locks and insulation from the Japanese robot arm on the outboard end of the Kibo lab module.

But the major objective of today's work is to replace a nitrogen tank assembly, or NTA, used to pressurize the station's ammonia coolant loops. The depleted tank is located in the right side S1 segment of the station's power truss while the replacement, launched earlier, is mounted on an external stowage platform - ESP-3 - on the left side of the truss.

After exiting the Quest airlock module, Fossum will make his way to ESP-3 to prepare the new tank for handoff while Garan proceeds to the right side of the truss to pull out the depleted tank.

"This is going to be an absolutely spectacular EVA," Garan said in a NASA interview. "What's going to happen is I'm going up to the (right side of the) truss, to S1, where the old NTA is and I'll do the final preparations to pull it out of the truss. Meanwhile, Mike is going to translate all the way out to (the left side of the power truss) where the spare is and he's going to make the final preparations to receive the old NTA and to get the new NTA ready to move.

"So when everything is all set, I'm going to get onto the end of the space station's robotic arm and I'm going to pull the NTA out of the truss as the arm is backing away from the truss. And so when we get out a safe distance away from the truss, I'll have this 550-pound box in my hand and the space station's robotic arm is basically going to do what we call the Ôwindshield wiper maneuver' and it's going to go over the top over to ESP-3. So this maneuver takes about 20 minutes and on the top here I'll be almost (six stories) above the station looking straight down on the aft side of the station and the Earth (210) miles below. So it'll be a pretty spectacular view and, and pretty spectacular ride over to ESP-3."

Nyberg, assisted by Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, will be operating the station arm.

"It's going to be a fun ride for him because the arm is going to go completely stretched out up in a big arc over to the other side of the truss and so he'll be clearly on top of the world at that point."

Once on Fossum's side of the power truss, "we will stow the old nitrogen tank assembly on ESP-3," Garan said. "I'll grab the new one and we'll just do the maneuver right back to the other side where I'll install it back on S1. Meanwhile, Mike's out and tying up ESP-3, making sure that that NTA is ready to come back to Earth when we're ready to do that on a later mission. So that's the big thing that we're going to do.

"After that, we've got a number of other tasks, a whole bunch of maintenance of tasks on the station. Mike's going to go back out to the Japanese laboratory and finish some of the work on the robotic arm that we couldn't do because on EVA-2 it was in the launch configuration and we couldn't get at some of the covers and some of the fasteners that we needed to undo."

Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision K of the NASA television schedule):


EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

06/08/08
05:32 AM...07...12...30...Crew wakeup
06:02 AM...07...13...00...ISS daily planning conference
06:12 AM...07...13...10...EVA-3: 14.7 psi repress/hygiene break
06:57 AM...07...13...55...EVA-3: Airlock depress to 10.2 psi
07:22 AM...07...14...20...EVA-3: Campout EVA preps
08:57 AM...07...15...55...EVA-3: Spacesuit purge
09:12 AM...07...16...10...EVA-3: Spacesuit prebreathe
10:02 AM...07...17...00...EVA-3: Crew lock depressurization
10:32 AM...07...17...30...EVA-3: Spacesuits to battery power
10:37 AM...07...17...35...EVA-3: Airlock egress
11:07 AM...07...18...05...EVA-3: Fossum: Retrieve ESP-3 NTA
11:07 AM...07...18...05...EVA-3: Garan: Remove S1 NTA
12:17 PM...07...19...15...EVA-3: Fossum: Stow S1 NTA on fram
12:27 PM...07...19...25...EVA-3: Garan: S1 NTA install
12:47 PM...07...19...45...EVA-3: Fossum: Cleanup ESP-3 worksite
01:22 PM...07...20...20...EVA-3: Garan: SSRMS cleanup
01:27 PM...07...20...25...EVA-3: Fossum: Kibo robot arm (JRMS)
                                   insulation and launch lock removal
02:07 PM...07...21...05...EVA-3: Garan: S1 NTA connections
02:42 PM...07...21...40...EVA-3: Fossum: Kibo launch locks
02:42 PM...07...21...40...EVA-3: Garan: TV camera installation
02:57 PM...07...21...55...EVA-3: Fossum: Deploy micrometeoroid shields
03:02 PM...07...22...00...Logistics module vestibule outfitting
04:27 PM...07...23...25...EVA-3: Cleanup and airlock ingress
04:52 PM...07...23...50...EVA-3: Airlock repressurization
05:02 PM...08...00...00...Spacesuit servicing
07:00 PM...08...01...58...Mission status briefing on NTV
08:32 PM...08...03...30...ISS crew sleep begins
09:02 PM...08...04...00...STS crew sleep begins
10:00 PM...08...04...58...Daily video highlights reel on NTV; repeated hourly

Spaceflight Now Plus
Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 3 PLAY
VIDEO: ANIMATION OF NITROGEN TANK REPLACEMENT PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 8 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: JAPANESE VIP CALL TO STATION PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: MEDIA INTERVIEWS WITH SHUTTLE AND ISS CREWS PLAY
VIDEO: KIBO LAB'S ROBOTIC ARM FLEXES FOR FIRST TIME PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF ARM'S FIRST MOVEMENTS PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S FLIGHT DIRECTOR INTERVIEW PLAY
VIDEO: CREW'S DOWNLINKED REPLAY OF LOGISTICS MODULE MOVE PLAY

VIDEO: LEFT-HAND BOOSTER CAMERA LOOKING UPWARD PLAY
VIDEO: LEFT-HAND BOOSTER CAMERA LOOKING INBOARD PLAY
VIDEO: LEFT-HAND BOOSTER CAMERA LOOKING DOWNWARD PLAY
VIDEO: RIGHT-HAND BOOSTER CAMERA LOOKING UPWARD PLAY
VIDEO: RIGHT-HAND BOOSTER CAMERA LOOKING DOWNWARD PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 7 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE CREW ASKED TO TAKE PHOTOS OF WING PANELS PLAY
VIDEO: JAPANESE LOGISTICS MODULE MOVED TO KIBO LAB'S ROOF PLAY
VIDEO: STATION'S ROBOT ARM GRAPPLES LOGISTICS MODULE PLAY
VIDEO: MEDIA INTERVIEWS WITH SHUTTLE AND ISS COMMANDERS PLAY
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S FLIGHT DIRECTOR INTERVIEW PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF LOGISTICS MODULE MOVE PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 6 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: BUZZ LIGHTYEAR TOY ON THE LOOSE IN SPACE PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS INVITE VIEWERS TO DINNER PLAY
VIDEO: THURSDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: INSPECTION OF THE PORT-SIDE SOLAR ROTARY JOINT PLAY
VIDEO: FAULTY TV CAMERA REMOVED FROM STATION PORT TRUSS PLAY
VIDEO: THERMAL SLEEVE PLACED ON KIBO TRUNNION PIN PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH LOCKS RELEASED ON KIBO'S UPPER PORT PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALKERS INSTALL PAIR OF TV CAMERAS ON KIBO PLAY
VIDEO: MIKE FOSSUM EMERGES FROM AIRLOCK FOR EVA NO. 2 PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 2 PLAY
VIDEO: THURSDAY'S FLIGHT DIRECTOR INTERVIEW PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 5 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ENTER THE KIBO MODULE FOR FIRST TIME PLAY
VIDEO: CEREMONY BEFORE KIBO HATCH OPENING PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: TUESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: KIBO SCIENCE LAB ATTACHED TO THE SPACE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: KIBO MODULE UNBERTHED FROM SHUTTLE PAYLOAD BAY PLAY
VIDEO: CLOSEUP INSPECTION OF STATION'S SOLAR ROTARY JOINT PLAY
VIDEO: FOSSUM UNBOLTS LOCKS ON KIBO'S WINDOW COVERINGS PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALKERS REMOVE COVERS ON KIBO'S PORT PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE POWER UMBILICALS UNHOOKED FROM KIBO PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE INSPECTION BOOM RETRIEVED FROM THE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALKER RON GARAN REMOVES COVER ON BOOM PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALKER MIKE FOSSUM FREES ARM'S ELBOW CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: ANIMATION OF KIBO MODULE INSTALLATION PLAY
VIDEO: ANIMATION OF INSPECTION BOOM RETRIEVAL PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 1 PLAY
VIDEO: TUESDAY'S FLIGHT DIRECTOR INTERVIEW PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: CREW'S REMARKABLE CAMCORDER FOOTAGE FROM MONDAY PLAY
VIDEO: MONDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE CREW WELCOMED INTO STATION PLAY
VIDEO: DISCOVERY DOCKS TO SPACE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE PERFORMS RENDEZVOUS BACKFLIP PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF PREVIEWING THE DOCKING PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: CREW'S CAMCORDER FOOTAGE FROM FLIGHT DAY 2 PLAY
VIDEO: SUNDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: ANIMATION OF THE HEAT SHIELD INSPECTIONS PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED TOUR OF DISCOVERY'S PAYLOAD BAY PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: EXTERNAL TANK SEEN AFTER SEPARATION PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: VAB ROOF 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: FRONT CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: BEACH TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD PERIMETER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-12 TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-23 TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PLAYALINDA BEACH PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PRESS SITE PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: WEST TOWER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 009 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 041 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 061 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 063 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 070 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 071 PLAY

VIDEO: LIFTOFF OF DISCOVERY WITH KIBO LAB! PLAY
VIDEO: ONBOARD CAMERA FOOTAGE OF TANK FOAM FALLING PLAY
VIDEO: INSIDE MISSION CONTROL DURING LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: POST-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY

VIDEO: FINAL PRE-LAUNCH POLLS GIVE "GO" FOR LIFTOFF PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS QUARTERS FOR LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS DON SPACESUITS FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED RECAP OF KIBO LAB'S PRE-FLIGHT CAMPAIGN PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED RECAP OF DISCOVERY'S PRE-FLIGHT CAMPAIGN PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH PAD GANTRY RETRACTED FRIDAY NIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE OF GANTRY ROLLBACK PLAY
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
VIDEO: BRIEFING ON KIBO LABORATORY FACILITY PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT THE CAPE FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S COUNTDOWN AND WEATHER BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED MISSION PREVIEW MOVIE PLAY

VIDEO: NEWS BRIEFING FOLLOWING FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW PLAY

VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH COMMANDER MARK KELLY PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH PILOT KEN HAM PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS1 KAREN NYBERG PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS2 RON GARAN PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS3 MIKE FOSSUM PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS4 AKIHIKO HOSHIDE PLAY

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS PRACTICE EVACUATION OF SHUTTLE PLAY
VIDEO: CREW BOARDS DISCOVERY FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY
VIDEO: TRAINING SESSIONS AT LAUNCH PAD AND BUNKER PLAY
VIDEO: CREW NEWS CONFERENCE AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY

VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE OF GANTRY ENCLOSING DISCOVERY PLAY
VIDEO: PAD'S ORBITER ACCESS ARM SWUNG INTO POSITION PLAY
VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE OF CRAWLER RETREATING AFTER ROLLOUT PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE DISCOVERY ROLLED TO PAD 39A PLAY

VIDEO: SHUTTLE AND STATION PROGRAM BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: STS-124 MISSION OVERVIEW PART 1 | PART 2
VIDEO: PREVIEW BRIEFING ON MISSION'S SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: THE ASTRONAUTS' PRE-FLIGHT NEWS BRIEFING PLAY

VIDEO: KIBO LABORATORY TRAVELS TO THE LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: TRANSPORT CANISTER WITH KIBO ROTATED UPRIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: CRANE PLACES KIBO MODULE INTO TRANSPORT CANISTER PLAY

VIDEO: DISCOVERY HOISTED FOR ATTACHMENT TO FUEL TANK PLAY
VIDEO: THE SHUTTLE MOVES TO THE VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY
MORE: STS-124 VIDEO COVERAGE
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