Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Spacewalk begins work to move station's new module

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Spacewalk begins work to move station's new module
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: November 9, 2007

Space station commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko, staging a busy six-hour 55-minute spacewalk, completed final preparations today for moving the lab's shuttle docking port Monday, the next step in a complex sequence to prepare the outpost for delivery of European and Japanese research modules.

Today's spacewalk, the 97th in station history and the 20th so far this year, began at 4:54 a.m. and ended at 11:49 a.m. when Whitson and Malenchenko began repressurizing the Quest airlock module.

The primary goal of today's excursion was to prepare pressurized mating adapter No. 2, the station's forward shuttle docking port, for disconnection from the Destiny laboratory module Monday and attachment to the newly delivered Harmony module. Once PMA-2 is bolted to Harmony, the combined modules will be moved back to the front of Destiny early Wednesday.

Whitson and Tani plan two spacewalks Nov. 20 and 24 to connect power and ammonia cooling lines to Harmony, clearing the way for launch of the European Space Agency's Columbus research module Dec. 6 aboard the shuttle Atlantis.

At the Kennedy Space Center today, engineers made final preparations for rolling Atlantis to pad 39A early Saturday. The shuttle's crew plans to strap in Nov. 20 for a dress rehearsal countdown.

Here is a timeline of major events leading up to launch of Atlantis (in EST):


DATE.......EST........EVENT

11/10/07...04:00 AM...Atlantis is moved to launch pad 39A
11/12/07...05:40 AM...Shuttle docking port moved from Destiny to Harmony
11/14/07...04:55 AM...Harmony/docking port moved to Destiny
11/14/07..............Shuttle program flight readiness review concludes
11/20/07...06:00 AM...Whitson, Tani EVA; Harmony connected to ISS power/cooling
11/20/07..............Shuttle practice countdown
11/24/07...06:00 AM...Whitson, Tani EVA; Harmony connected to ISS power/cooling
11/25/07..............Harmony module activated
11/26/07..............Station crew enters Harmony
11/27/07..............Space station stage readiness review
11/30/07..............NASA senior management readiness review concludes
12/03/07...07:00 PM...Start of countdown to Atlantis launch
12/06/07...04:31 PM...Launch of Atlantis and Columbus module (time approximate)
12/09/07..............Columbus module attached to space station
12/15/07..............Atlantis undocks from space station
12/17/07..............Atlantis lands at the Kennedy Space Center

See our morning story for an overview of today's spacewalk.