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Spacewalkers to continue Dextre assembly tonight BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: March 15, 2008 Richard Linnehan and Michael Foreman are suiting up for a planned seven-hour spacewalk this evening to attach two 11-foot-long arms with gripper-like hands to the torso of a 12-foot-tall Canadian maintenance robot being assembled on the international space station. "The assembly of these arms and the configuration of those arms for nominal operations takes a highly choreographed series of events," said space station Flight Director Ginger Kerrick. "So it will actually take the full seven hours duration just to assemble the arms." The astronauts were awakened at 3:30 p.m. today by a recording of "We're Going to be Friends" by The White Stripes beamed up from mission control. "Good morning, Endeavour, and a particular good morning to you, Dr. Bob," astronaut Al Drew radioed from Houston. "Thanks for that, Al," Robert Behnken replied. "Good morning to you as well, and thanks for that great wakeup music, that's one of my favorite songs. It always reminds me of all the great friends that I've met going to different schools, or through different training, just like the shuttle crew I'm with right now. Thanks again, Al, and a great good morning to you." "You bet. Have a find day out there." After exiting the Quest airlock, Linnehan and Foreman will make their way back to the front side of the station's solar power truss where Dextre's components are mounted on a U-shaped Spacelab pallet. Each 11-foot-long arm features seven joints and thermal covers protecting those joints must be removed, along with the clamps holding the arms and joints in place. Each arm will be temporarily stowed on a pallet fitting during work to ready them for attachment to the torso. At this point, Linnehan will get back on the station arm while Foreman assists as a free floater. "On the second EVA, Mike and I will take the constructed arms that Garrett (Reisman) and I built from the previous EVA, which are still positioned on the sides of the SLP, but constructed so that the wrists and the hands, so to speak, are on the arms," Linnehan said. "At that point, Mike and I will take each of those arms off the sides of the pallet and we'll have to rotate the main body of the (robot) up and then plug those arms in on these giant outriggers. "That's when it takes on its big mantis kind of robot look. Once those arms are on, we have several other things that we have to do, such as install cameras, go down and put these special tool platforms and adaptors that allow it to hold equipment from the space station on the lower part of it and actually plug in and interface its own tools, take them out and work on things. All that takes a little bit more time at the end of the EVA and some of it involves me on the end of the arm, the robot arm, flying around doing it and at other times both of us will be free floating, moving around all over the pallet and building stuff that way. "And we hope to finish all of that in two EVAs and, as I said, if for some reason we're slow or something doesn't go the way we like, then on the third EVA Bob Behnken and I would be able to finish most of that." The torso of the robot will be pivoted up about 60 degrees for the attachment of the arms and hands. Once the appendages are in place, engineers on the ground will begin tests and checkout operations. If all goes well, the assembled robot will be parked on a power and data grapple fixture on the hull of the Destiny laboratory module Tuesday. "I personally am going to be sighing a big sigh of relief at the end of EVA-2 when we get ... both the arms installed," said Zeb Scoville, lead spacewalk officer. "There's a lot of really complex EVA activities going on there and coordination with some very fine robotics maneuvers required to get those installed. There have definitely been some challenges in ground training." Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision D of the NASA television schedule): EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 03:28 PM...04...13...00...Crew wakeup 04:08 PM...04...13...40...EVA-2: 14.7 psi repress/hygiene break 04:53 PM...04...14...25...EVA-2: Airlock depress to 10.2 psi 05:18 PM...04...14...50...EVA-2: Campout EVA preps 06:23 PM...04...15...55...Japanese module (JLP) outfitting 06:48 PM...04...16...20...EVA-2: Spacesuit purge 07:03 PM...04...16...35...EVA-2: Spacesuit prebreathe 07:08 PM...04...16...40...Station arm (SSRMS) ungrapples Dextre (SPDM) 07:53 PM...04...17...25...EVA-2: Crew lock depressurization 08:23 PM...04...17...55...EVA-2: Spacesuits to battery power 08:28 PM...04...18...00...EVA-2: Airlock egress 08:48 PM...04...18...20...EVA-2: Setup 09:08 PM...04...18...40...EVA-2: SPDM arm 2 stow 10:38 PM...04...20...10...EVA-2: SPDM arm 1 stow 11:38 PM...04...21...10...EVA-2: SPDM arm install 03/16/08 01:28 AM...04...23...00...EVA-2 (EV2): Cover removal; SLP cleanup 01:28 AM...04...23...00...EVA-2 (EV1): SPDM cover removal 02:38 AM...05...00...10...EVA-2: Cleanup 02:58 AM...05...00...30...SSRMS grapples SPDM 03:08 AM...05...00...40...EVA-2: Airlock ingress 03:28 AM...05...01...00...EVA-2: Airlock repressurization 03:43 AM...05...01...15...Spacesuit servicing 05:30 AM...05...03...02...Mission status briefing on NASA TV 06:58 AM...05...04...30...ISS crew sleep begins 07:28 AM...05...05...00...STS crew sleep begins 08:00 AM...05...05...32...Daily video highlights reel on NASA TV 08:43 AM...05...06...15...SPDM power up and testing 12:30 PM...05...10...02...Flight director update on NASA TV 03:28 PM...05...13...00...Crew wakeup
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VIDEO:
NARRATED PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 2 