Orbiter: Atlantis
Mission: STS-132
Payload: MRM 1
Launch: May 14, 2010
Time: 2:20 p.m. EDT
Site: Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center
Landing: May 26 @ approx. 8:30 a.m.
Site: KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility

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STS-132 Archive




Mission Status Center

By Justin Ray

Welcome to Spaceflight Now's live coverage of space shuttle Atlantis' STS-132 mission to the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically; there is no need to reload the page.
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MONDAY, MAY 17, 2010
For the latest video from Atlantis' mission, check out our extensive archive for STS-132 here.

High Definition footage of pre-flight and launch events can be seen here.

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2345 GMT (7:45 p.m. EDT)
Astronauts Garrett Reisman and Stephen Bowen carried out an extended seven-hour 25-minute spacewalk Monday, moving a backup Ku-band antenna to the International Space Station along with an equipment mounting platform. They also loosened bolts holding six new solar array batteries to a cargo pallet as get-ahead work for two upcoming spacewalks.

Read our full story.
1925 GMT (3:25 p.m. EDT)
Spacewalkers Garrett Reisman and Steve Bowen followed the instructions of "some assembly required" to erect a boom and attach a six-foot-diameter high-speed communications dish antenna atop the International Space Station, then gave Canada's Dextre robot an equipment holder during the first EVA of the Atlantis mission.
1924 GMT (3:24 p.m. EDT)
This was the second EVA in the career of Garrett Reisman and fourth for Steve Bowen. Reisman has accumulated 14 hours, 26 minutes and Bowen 27 hours, 21 minutes of spacewalking time on their previous excursions on separate spaceflights in 2008.
1923 GMT (3:23 p.m. EDT)
EVA ENDS. Repressurization of the Quest airlock module began at 3:19 p.m. EDT, marking the official end of today's spacewalk by Garrett Reisman and Steve Bowen. The EVA lasted 7 hours and 25 minutes.

The mission's second of three spacewalks is planned for Wednesday starting around 7:45 a.m. EDT when Bowen and Mike Good head outside to begin replacing a half-dozen batteries on the station's Port 6 truss.
1916 GMT (3:16 p.m. EDT)
The airlock hatch has been closed and locked. Standing by for repressurization.
1901 GMT (3:01 p.m. EDT)
The spacewalkers are climbing into the airlock to finish this successful outing that accomplished nearly almost everything. The new communications antenna gimbal locks didn't get released, however, and the spacewalkers tied the device down until engineers determine a game plan for activating it.
1854 GMT (2:54 p.m. EDT)
Passing the seven-hour mark of the spacewalk.
1845 GMT (2:45 p.m. EDT)
Tool inventories are underway before the spacewalkers make their way toward the airlock.
1843 GMT (2:43 p.m. EDT)
Garrett removed from the robot arm that foot-restraint he stood upon throughout the spacewalk. The arm is free is move for tomorrow's work to attach the Rassvet module to the space station.
1838 GMT (2:38 p.m. EDT)
Steve just finished working his way around the pallet to break the bolt torque on the batteries. He was able to do more than only two as originally forecast.
1835 GMT (2:35 p.m. EDT)
Garrett's first spacewalk back in 2008 began the orbital construction on Dextre. He's now putting additional touches on this robot, which is designed to replace hardware outside the space station without needing a spacewalk.
1819 GMT (2:19 p.m. EDT)
Garrett has mated up the electrical connection and now finishing work on Dextre's newly installed equipment storage platform.
1804 GMT (2:04 p.m. EDT)
Steve is getting a jump on the mission's remaining spacewalks by breaking the bolt torque on a couple of the new batteries that will be plugged into the station's P6 truss later this week. Those batteries are stowed on the backside of the carrier pallet that held the new Ku-band antenna and Dextre platform for launch.
1758 GMT (1:58 p.m. EDT)
Mission Control has deemed the Dextre platform is in good shape as-is.
1754 GMT (1:54 p.m. EDT)
Six hours on the EVA clock. The crew has about 40 minutes available for work before going into the cleanup procedures and returning to the airlock.
1751 GMT (1:51 p.m. EDT)
They are torquing down the three good bolts.
1747 GMT (1:47 p.m. EDT)
The spacewalkers have gotten three of the four bolts started. But that last one isn't cooperating.
1741 GMT (1:41 p.m. EDT)
A few hours after Atlantis docked with the International Space Station, two ships towed the shuttle's twin solid rocket boosters back into port Sunday evening.

Read our full story.
1740 GMT (1:40 p.m. EDT)
And now attention turns to Canada's Dextre -- the Special Dexterous Manipulator -- where the spacewalkers are attaching the Enhanced ORU Temporary Platform. This small deck at the base of the robot will hold equipment like ORUs, or orbital replacement units.
1725 GMT (1:25 p.m. EDT)
Steve has stopped at the airlock for a quick recharge of his spacesuit's oxygen supply. That will ensure his consumables can go beyond the 7-hour mark in the EVA.
1720 GMT (1:20 p.m. EDT)
Mission Control says the spacewalk could be extended an hour or more to accomplish the Dextre work.
1709 GMT (1:09 p.m. EDT)
Steve had to reconfigure the tethers on the antenna. But now he's wrapping up the worksite for this EVA.
1704 GMT (1:04 p.m. EDT)
Garrett just released the Dextre piece from the pallet, and it's now in his hands for holding while the robot arm relocates the spacewalk.
1658 GMT (12:58 p.m. EDT)
Steve has wrapped some tethers around the base of the new antenna dish to ensure its security while the ground assesses when to complete the activation work. There was earlier concern about the interface between the dish and its boom.
1650 GMT (12:50 p.m. EDT)
Mission Control has asked the crew to re-engage the gimbal lock bolts that Steve had already released. It's been decided to tie down the dish to the boom and not finish the work today.
1649 GMT (12:49 p.m. EDT)
The robot arm operators are driving Garrett into place for picking up the Dextre platform. He will release four bolts to free the payload from the launch pallet.
1640 GMT (12:40 p.m. EDT)
Steve got two of the eight bolts released on the launch locks before Houston asked him to pause. Engineers are making sure all is stable before finishing the antenna tasks.
1633 GMT (12:33 p.m. EDT)
A small heat shield has been wrapped around the antenna's group interface tube. Next, Steve is unfastening the dish's gimbal locks that were in place to hold the antenna stationary for launch.
1629 GMT (12:29 p.m. EDT)
The robot arm is lifting Garrett away from Z1 for return to the cargo pallet where he'll start working on the new device that the spacewalkers will install on Dextre today.
1625 GMT (12:25 p.m. EDT)
Success at last getting that stubborn connector attached between the dish and boom.
1606 GMT (12:06 p.m. EDT)
Now, the spacewalkers are battling one of the umbilical connectors.
1602 GMT (12:02 p.m. EDT)
The astronauts got some more turns into those bolts, tightening down the dish on its boom a lot better.
1554 GMT (11:54 a.m. EDT)
Four hours and counting into this EVA. Umbilical connections are being made now, and the crew is reporting seeing a gap between the dish and boom. The bolts might need some more torque.
1543 GMT (11:43 a.m. EDT)
The space-to-ground antenna, or SGANT, uses Ku-band communications for high-speed transmissions between the International Space Station and Earth via NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellites.

This new antenna becomes a redundant path for the communications, backing up the original Ku-band system installed early in the station's life on STS-92 in 2000.

Live television, voice and payload data rely upon SGANT, along with other two-way communications like phone calls and email.
1540 GMT (11:40 a.m. EDT)
The dish was bolted in place at 11:39 a.m. EDT.
1533 GMT (11:33 a.m. EDT)
Installation of the antenna is getting underway now. The spacewalkers will secure four bolts and then mate two cables to affix the dish onto the boom.
1525 GMT (11:25 a.m. EDT)
Steve is just hanging out at the antenna boom, waiting for Garrett to arrive.
1520 GMT (11:20 a.m. EDT)
The robot arm is making another of these sweeping "windshield wiper" maneuvers to fly Garrett up and over to the Z1 truss.
1507 GMT (11:07 a.m. EDT)
Mission Control says the spacewalkers are running about on schedule. Steve is slightly ahead of his timeline and Garrett is slightly behind.
1501 GMT (11:01 a.m. EDT)
So far, so good as the astronauts work together in unloading this six-foot-diameter dish from a canister on the pallet.
1457 GMT (10:57 a.m. EDT)
Garrett has a firm grasp on the dish. Clearance is tight and this is a delicate moment to free the antenna while the arm begins moves away from the carrier.
1454 GMT (10:54 a.m. EDT)
Using his cordless power tool, Garrett has released the two bolts holding the Ku-band antenna dish onto the launch structure.
1444 GMT (10:44 a.m. EDT)
Garrett has arrived back at the Integrated Cargo Carrier - Vertical Light Deployable, or ICC-VLD, that's stowed on the station's mobile transporter.
1433 GMT (10:33 a.m. EDT)
The robot arm operators again have the video angles they need and Garrett is being maneuvered the rest of the way toward the pallet.
1420 GMT (10:20 a.m. EDT)
The spacewalkers had to take a brief pause after a power interruption aboard the space station knocked out the video displays that Piers Sellers and Tracy Caldwell Dyson were using to fly the robotic arm. Mission Control also wanted to ensure that when the power switches were restored that safety inhibits remained in place for the Z1 truss. But now Steve is back at work making those cable connections.
1400 GMT (10:00 a.m. EDT)
While the robotic arm maneuvers Garrett back to pallet for retrieval of the antenna dish, Steve will attach six power and data cables between the Z1 truss and the newly installed boom.
1354 GMT (9:54 a.m. EDT)
Now passing the two-hour mark of today's EVA. Four-and-a-half hours to go.
1349 GMT (9:49 a.m. EDT)
The boom is bolted in place. The International Space Station now has the first part of its new space-to-ground antenna package. This is the structural pole to support the communications dish, plus route the power and data umbilicals from the station.
1344 GMT (9:44 a.m. EDT)
Mounting of this tall boom on the space station is underway as Steve engages two installation bolts.
1333 GMT (9:33 a.m. EDT)
Steve just climbed up to Z1 where he will perform the boom installation chore once Garrett arrives.
1329 GMT (9:29 a.m. EDT)
The arm is inching closer to the Z1 truss. Garrett has rotated the boom in his hands to get it oriented for installation. Meanwhile, Steve has continued work at the pallet to ready Dextre's new device for its removal from the carrier later in the EVA.
1315 GMT (9:15 a.m. EDT)
Garrett Reisman hopped into the foot-restraint platform on the end of the space station's arm for maneuvering throughout today's spacewalk. Fellow astronaut Piers Sellers is inside the cupola at the robotics workstation controlling the arm today.

"I stand on the end of that thing, kind of like a cherry picker and then Piers will fly me around to the places I need to go. So first he'll fly over to the boom which is, I think it's like six or seven feet long and it's about that big around so it's a pretty big thing. And I'll pick that thing up. Steve will hand it off to me and then I'll hold on to it and fly it up to the top of the space station. Steve will be waiting for me there. He'll spacewalk over to there and we'll install it together.

"Then I come back by myself and I grab the dish and I pick that thing up and it's fragile so I got to be real careful with it. It's another way I could really mess this up. Then we take that and we put it on top of the boom and then, after that's all done, we come back and then we, to get that tool platform.

"Again I fly back in the arm, grab the tool platform off the pallet and we install the platform on the robot. Then we have a bunch of little things like connect electrical connections we need to make and other bolts that need to be tightened and stuff like that."
1306 GMT (9:06 a.m. EDT)
The robotic arm is in motion to maneuver the spacewalker and boom from the front-face of the station's truss to the Z1 truss atop the complex.
1303 GMT (9:03 a.m. EDT)
The new Ku-band antenna boom is now in the hands of Garrett Reisman to hold as the space station's robot arm swings the spacewalker up to the Z1 truss worksite.
1257 GMT (8:57 a.m. EDT)
The boom has been released from the pallet. Steve Bowen is holding it while Garrett Reisman gets anchored onto the station's robotic arm.
1250 GMT (8:50 a.m. EDT)
To give the International Space Station this new communications antenna, some assembly is required. It was built in two pieces -- the support boom and the dish. The spacewalkers are releasing eight bolts right now to unpack the boom from the launch carrier.
1235 GMT (8:35 a.m. EDT)
Spacewalker Garrett Reisman talked about performing this EVA in a pre-flight interview:

"We show up at the space station on the third day of the mission and then the very next morning Steve and I go outside and do the spacewalk so it's the same thing I did in my first mission and that was crazy because you show up and you got this big space station. You're overwhelmed and they say, 'Oh, yeah, go in there because you have to do a spacewalk tomorrow' and it's, 'Oh, man, already?' So, but we're going to do it again and at least this time it won't be as big of a shock and Steve and I will go, because we have a lot of work to do on the first spacewalk.

"It's really packed with content so that's why we're working really hard to make sure we iron out all the kinks on the ground so hopefully it goes smoothly when we do it up there. We come outside and because all this equipment I talked about, the batteries, the antenna and the platform, the work platform for the Dextre robot, all comes on this pallet that flies up inside the cargo bay of the space shuttle so that the night before Piers with Tracy's help, is going to take that pallet out and stick it on the truss."
1225 GMT (8:25 a.m. EDT)
The spacewalkers are getting the tools and equipment collected and positioned for use in today's EVA.
1220 GMT (8:20 a.m. EDT)
Atlantis commander Ken Ham previews the spacewalk activities in this pre-flight interview:

"We got this rack now stuck on the railcar of space station that runs along the truss. It's basically close to centerline and the arm is also based on that, the big arm.

"Most of this equipment is going to go sort of over the back of the truss on what's called Z1 and it's a system of putting Garrett on the end of the arm. He's going to grab the boom for the SGANT antenna and then carry it over to Z1. Steve's going to meet him there and help him bolt that into the Z1. Then he runs back over again on the arm, picks up the dish, and comes back to the boom. In between each of these laps, Steve is doing a lot of electrical connections on Z1, getting this thing ready to fire up.

"So they put the dish on top and Garrett comes back over to the ICC and picks up the EOTP, Enhanced ORU Temporary Platform. And then moves that over to the Dextre part of the arm which is also based on the same little railcar on the MBS, so it's crowded up there.

"The clearances are small. The arm is big. It's got a live person on the end of it and they got to make all these trips back and forth and get it all done in 6 1/2 hours or so. So that's a pretty darn full day.

"Garrett is the EV1 on that particular EVA and he's done a super job figuring out the choreography of how to pull that off."
1205 GMT (8:05 a.m. EDT)
Both spacewalkers have emerged from the airlock. This is Garrett's second EVA. He did one during the STS-123 shuttle flight to the station lasting 7 hours and 1 minute. Steve has three EVAs to his credit from the STS-126 mission totaling 19 hours and 56 minutes.
1155 GMT (7:55 a.m. EDT)
EVA BEGINS. The spacewalkers switched their suits to internal battery power at 7:54 a.m. EDT, marking the official start time for today's EVA by Garrett Reisman and Steve Bowen. This is the first of three spacewalks planned during Atlantis' mission at the International Space Station.

The EVA is getting underway 21 minutes ahead of schedule.
1154 GMT (7:54 a.m. EDT)
The depressurization has been completed and the Quest airlock's outer hatch leading to space is being opened.
1138 GMT (7:38 a.m. EDT)
Depressurization is pausing at 5.0 psi for a planned leak check.
1126 GMT (7:26 a.m. EDT)
Airlock depressurization has begun.
1120 GMT (7:20 a.m. EDT)
The inner hatch has been closed.
1105 GMT (7:05 a.m. EDT)
Garrett Reisman and Steve Bowen have moved into the section of the airlock that will be depressurized shortly.
1035 GMT (6:35 a.m. EDT)
And now the spacesuit purge is underway. Mission Control says the EVA preps are a bit ahead of schedule.
1015 GMT (6:15 a.m. EDT)
The spacewalkers are gotten suited up and their helmets are on. Suit leak checks have begun.
1002 GMT (6:02 a.m. EDT)
Astronauts Garrett Reisman and Steve Bowen are gearing up for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to install a backup Ku-band dish antenna on the International Space Station, along with a robot arm equipment mounting platform.

Read our full story.
0929 GMT (5:29 a.m. EDT)
With help from their fellow crewmates, Garrett Reisman and Steve Bowen are getting suited up inside the Quest module for today's EVA.
0721 GMT (3:21 a.m. EDT)
The astronauts just woke up to begin Flight Day 4, which will feature a spacewalk outside the International Space Station to assemble and mount a new high-speed communications antenna atop the complex, plus add a new worksite fixture onto Canada's Dextre robot. The EVA by Garrett Reisman and Steve Bowen is scheduled to begin at 8:15 a.m. EDT.


Read our earlier status center coverage.

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Shuttle Atlantis on launch pad 39A.
Spaceflight Now photo by Justin Ray.