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Video archive

Day 11 highlights

Spacewalkers on Flight Day 11 tested a method for repairing damaged shuttle heat shield tiles in space.

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Day 10 highlights

Video highlights from Flight Day 10 as the astronauts enjoyed a mid-mission light-duty day.

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STS-123 day 9 highlights

Flight Day 9 saw Dextre moved to the Destiny lab, stowing the assembly pallet and a group dinner in the Zvezda module.

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STS-123 day 8 highlights

Finishing assembly of Dextre and delivering spare parts to the station occurred during the spacewalk on Flight Day 8.

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STS-123 day 7 highlights

The space station's handyman robot Dextre flexed its arms for the first time during Flight Day 7.

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STS-123 day 6 highlights

Flight Day 6 was dedicated to the second spacewalk and continued assembly of the Dextre robot.

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STS-123 day 5 highlights

The station and shuttle crews opened up and entered Japan's new Kibo logistics module during Flight Day 5.

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STS-123 day 4 highlights

Highlights of the Kibo logistics module's attachment to the station and the first spacewalk to begin Dextre assembly.

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STS-123 day 3 highlights

This movie shows the highlights from Flight Day 3 as Endeavour docked to the space station.

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STS-123 day 2 highlights

Flight Day 2 of Endeavour's mission focused on heat shield inspections. This movie shows the day's highlights.

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STS-123 day 1 highlights

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

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Launching on the shuttle

Video cameras on the boosters and tank, plus a cockpit camera show what the shuttle and its astronauts experience during the trek to space.

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STS-120: In review

The STS-120 crew narrates highlights from its mission that delivered the station's Harmony module and moved the P6 power truss.

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 Mission film

STS-123: TCDT

The STS-123 astronauts complete their countdown dress rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center.

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STS-123: To the pad

Endeavour travels to pad 39A in the overnight hours of Feb. 18 in preparation for liftoff on STS-123.

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Introduction to ATV

Preview the maiden voyage of European's first Automated Transfer Vehicle, named Jules Verne. The craft will deliver cargo to the International Space Station.

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Shuttle's heat shield checked for space debris hits
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: March 22, 2008

The Endeavour astronauts carried out a final heat shield inspection Friday and prepared for a final spacewalk Saturday night to mount the shuttle's inspection boom on the space station's solar power truss for use by the next station assembly crew.

Shuttle crews normally carry out so-called "late inspections" after undocking from the station. But the next assembly mission, scheduled for launch in late May, will deliver Japan's huge Kibo laboratory module to the station and there's not enough room in the shuttle Discovery's cargo bay for the module and an inspection boom. So Endeavour' boom will be mounted on the station during a fifth and final spacewalk Saturday and left behind for Discovery's crew to use and bring home.

"We had an absolutely fantastic day today," said lead shuttle Flight Director Mike Moses. "This is something we've been working on for a very long time, a lot of people on the ground spent a lot of time getting this docked late inspection ready to go. The crew executed perfectly. They actually went faster than we thought.

"The starboard wing (inspection) was a brand new procedure and we literally started by scanning up on top of it and then pulling the arm the whole way out, underneath the orbiter, sticking it under the belly and scanning the bottom half. So that was a very complicated set of maneuvers and to sequence all that together went fantastic."

The data collected during the inspection will be analyzed on the ground to make sure Endeavour's critical nose cap and wing leading edge panels have not been struck by orbital debris since a similar inspection the day after launch. Assuming no problems are found, 50-foot-long inspection boom will be mounted on the station's solar power truss.

"That sensor boom is going to be left on station because the following mission is going to deliver the next portion of the Japanese laboratory," said spacewalker Robert Behnken in a NASA interview. "That module is a very large module and there's actually not room in the shuttle payload bay to launch both that module and this sensor boom on the same shuttle flight.

"So to provide the inspection capability to allow that next shuttle mission to be able to inspect their thermal protection system before they come back for re-entry, they're going to need to have a sensor boom. They can't bring their own and so our flight is going to do an inspection late in the mission and then we'll stow the boom during our EVA 5 on the ISS and hook up the power to it and it'll be all ready for those guys when they actually arrive and install the Japanese module."

Behnken and his crewmates were awakened today by a recording of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" radioed up from mission control.

"Good morning Endeavour. And good morning to you, Dr. Bob," astronaut Al Drew called from Houston.

"Good morning, Alvin. I hope everything's going great down there," Behnken replied. "Thanks for that great wakeup music and I'd like to thank my fiance for choosing that for me. I just want to tell her I miss her and I can't wait to get back and see her here in a couple of days."

"Thanks for the good words, Bob. The music has got us awake down here, I'm sure that shook you out of bed as well."

"It did, Al. Thanks!"

Along with carrying out the late heat shield inspection, the astronauts also plan to move an experiment rack from the U.S. Destiny laboratory to the European Space Agency's new Columbus research lab. The work will take about four hours to complete.

"Four hours seems like a long time to move a rack from one location to another," said station Flight Director Ginger Kerrick. "This is a special rack, it has an active rack (vibration) isolation system and there are a lot of individual pieces of hardware that the crew is going to have to remove in order to (move) that rack. A standard rack relocation, you would power down the rack, you would remove all the electrical connectors, you'd remove all the thermal connectors, the vacuum system connectors. But this rack has all those additional pieces of hardware that are designed to isolate the experiments inside from the effects of any (vibration) that may be going on in the space station, for example, running on the treadmill or using the exercise bike."

In one other bit of news, Kerrick said engineers are still looking into a glitch involving the Canadian Space Agency's Dextre maintenance robot. During testing after the robot's assembly, one of its joints did not operate as expected.

"We positioned arm 2 of the SPDM (special purpose dexterous manipulator) in a good location that would provide the EVA crew access to remove the thermal cover on (the hand of) arm number two," Kerrick said. "After we repositioned the arm, we sent the crew to bed and the ground team proceeded with performing some checkouts that were not performed when we originally relocated SPDM to the lab. And that check out was to test out an alternate power path through the PDGF (lab power and data grapple fixture). We have a primary path and an alternate. We had powered up on the primary and just wanted to make sure the alternate power path worked.

"Well, the alternate power path did work. But when we repowered up the SPDM, the shoulder roll joint on its arm number two did not know what position it was in. And this was the exact same joint we had just repositioned for the EVA. We power cycled again and were not able to talk to it. The software gave us the message 'unknown position.' We have some diagnostic tests we can run to help us figure out where inside that roll joint the problem is occurring. But we can't run the diagnostics test until we clear that message. So our CSA counterparts are off investigating whether or not we can uplink a software patch that will clear that message for us so we can run the appropriate diagnostics test.

"But for right now, we had no other planned use of the arm. It was in a good config for the EVA. ... So still more work to be done on that, but no impact to the mission."

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


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

03/21/08
01:28 PM...10...11...00...Crew wakeup
04:03 PM...10...13...35...Heat shield sensor boom (OBSS) starboard wing survey
04:43 PM...10...14...15...Logistics transfers resume
05:23 PM...10...14...55...Experiment rack 3 transfer
06:33 PM...10...16...05...OBSS laser scan downlink
07:43 PM...10...17...15...OBSS nose cap survey
07:43 PM...10...17...15...OBSS mounting bracket assembly
09:08 PM...10...18...40...Crew meals begin
09:13 PM...10...18...45...OBSS port wing survey
10:23 PM...10...19...55...EVA-5: Tool config
11:00 PM...10...20...32...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
11:18 PM...10...20...50...Airlock prep

03/22/08
12:18 AM...10...21...50...OBSS laser scan downlink
12:58 AM...10...22...30...EVA-5: Procedures review
02:43 AM...11...00...15...EVA-5: Mask pre-breathe/tool config
03:33 AM...11...01...05...EVA-5: Airlock depress to 10.2 psi
03:58 AM...11...01...30...ISS crew sleep begins
04:28 AM...11...02...00...STS crew sleep begins
05:00 AM...11...02...32...Daily video highlights reel on NASA TV
09:30 AM...11...07...02...Flight director update on NASA TV
12:28 PM...11...10...00...Crew wakeup

Spaceflight Now Plus
Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: FRIDAY NIGHT'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SCIENCE GLOVEBOX FACILITY MOVED INTO COLUMBUS LAB PLAY
VIDEO: INSPECTION BOOM SURVEYS SHUTTLE WINGS AND NOSE PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF LATE INSPECTION PROCESS PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 11 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: FRIDAY MORNING'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: BEHNKEN GIVES ANOTHER SHOT AT STUCK CONNECTOR PLAY
VIDEO: TILE SAMPLES AND DISPENSER STOWED IN PAYLOAD BAY PLAY
VIDEO: CLOSEUP VIEW OF THE 'REPAIRED' SHUTTLE TILES PLAY
VIDEO: SPACE SHUTTLE TILE REPAIR DEMONSTRATION - PART 2 PLAY
VIDEO: SPACE SHUTTLE TILE REPAIR DEMONSTRATION - PART 1 PLAY
VIDEO: TILE REPAIR DRY RUN PRACTICE WITH THE DISPENSER PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALKERS SET UP WORKSITE FOR TILE REPAIR TEST PLAY
VIDEO: FOREMAN FIGHTS WITH STUCK POWER CONNECTOR PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS EGRESS AIRLOCK FOR EVA NO. 4 PLAY
VIDEO: TILE REPAIR DEMONSTRATION PREVIEW PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 4 PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF FUTURE DEXTRE WORK PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF JAPAN'S SECTION OF ISS PLAY

VIDEO: LAUNCH VIDEO FROM COCKPIT CAMERA W/INTERCOM PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 10 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: CREW MEDIA INTERVIEWS WEDNESDAY NIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: JAPANESE VIP CALL TO STATION PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 9 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: TUESDAY NIGHT'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH CARRIER PALLET RETURNED TO SHUTTLE PLAY
VIDEO: DEXTRE ROBOT ATTACHED TO DESTINY LAB MODULE PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF DEXTRE'S RELOCATION PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 8 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: TUESDAY MORNING'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: DEXTRE ROBOT FREED FROM LAUNCH PALLET PLAY
VIDEO: SECOND SPARE DCSU BOX PLACED ON THE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALKER UNABLE TO INSTALL MISSE EXPERIMENT PLAY
VIDEO: FIRST SPARE DCSU BOX PLACED ON THE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: SPARE YAW JOINT FOR STATION ARM TRANSFERRED PLAY
VIDEO: MOUNTING PLATE ATTACHED TO COLUMBUS PLAY
VIDEO: DEXTRE ROBOT FITTED WITH TOOL HOLDER PLAY
VIDEO: TOOL PLATFORM ATTACHED TO DEXTRE PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 3 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: THE FLIGHT DAY 7 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: DEXTRE MOVES ARMS FOR BRAKE TESTS PLAY
VIDEO: CREW MEDIA INTERVIEWS SUNDAY NIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: SUNDAY NIGHT'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 6 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: SUNDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SECOND ARM ATTACHED TO DEXTRE ROBOT PLAY
VIDEO: FIRST ARM ATTACHED TO THE DEXTRE ROBOT PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALKERS HELP DEXTRE DO A SIT-UP PLAY
VIDEO: SECOND DEXTRE ARM PULLED FROM LAUNCH CARRIER PLAY
VIDEO: FIRST ARM REMOVED FROM PALLET WITH FORCE PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 2 PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 5 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY MORNING MEDIA INTERVIEWS PLAY
VIDEO: STATION ARM GRAPPLES DEXTRE TO PROVIDE POWER PLAY
VIDEO: CEREMONY AT JAPANESE MODULE HATCH OPENING PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S MISSION MANAGEMENT TEAM UPDATE PLAY

VIDEO: THURSDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: NEW MODULE CONNECTED TO THE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: JAPANESE MODULE UNBERTHED FROM SHUTTLE PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALKER START ASSEMBLING DEXTRE ROBOT PLAY
VIDEO: JAPANESE MODULE PREPPED FOR UNBERTHING PLAY
VIDEO: HARMONY DOCKING PORT PREPPED PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEWALK NO. 1 BEGINS PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION PREVIEWING JAPANESE JLP MODULE PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION PREVIEWING MODULE MOVE PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 1 PLAY
VIDEO: THURSDAY'S MISSION MANAGEMENT TEAM UPDATE PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: DEXTRE PALLET MOVED FROM SHUTTLE TO STATION PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION PREVIEWING DEXTRE ROBOT PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION PREVIEWING PALLET MOVE PLAY
VIDEO: THURSDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE CREW WELCOMED ABOARD STATION PLAY
VIDEO: DOCKING REPLAY FROM OTHER TRUSS CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR DOCKS TO SPACE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR PERFORMS THE 360-DEGREE BACKFLIP PLAY
VIDEO: VIEWS OF THE SHUTTLE APPROACHING FROM BELOW PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF PREVIEWING THE DOCKING PLAY
VIDEO: UPDATE FROM MISSION MANAGEMENT TEAM PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: ANIMATION OF THE HEAT SHIELD INSPECTIONS PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED TOUR OF ENDEAVOUR'S PAYLOAD BAY PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: INSIDE MISSION CONTROL DURING LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: THE FULL LAUNCH EXPERIENCE PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR BLASTS OFF! PLAY
VIDEO: THE POST-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
VIDEO: HIGHLIGHTS FROM ENDEAVOUR'S LAUNCH CAMPAIGN PLAY
VIDEO: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PAYLOADS' LAUNCH CAMPAIGN PLAY

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: VAB ROOF PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD FRONT PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PRESS SITE PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: WEST TOWER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD PERIMETER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-23 WIDESCREEN 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 061 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 063 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 070 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 071 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-1 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-2 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-6 PLAY

VIDEO: FINAL PRE-LAUNCH POLLS GIVE "GO" FOR LIFTOFF PLAY
VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR'S CREW MODULE CLOSED FOR FLIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUT DOI CLIMBS INTO HIS SEAT PLAY
VIDEO: PILOT JOHNSON CLIMBS INTO HIS SEAT PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUT REISMAN CLIMBS INTO HIS SEAT PLAY
VIDEO: COMMANDER GORIE CLIMBS INTO HIS SEAT PLAY
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VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS QUARTERS FOR LAUNCH PAD PLAY
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VIDEO: SUNDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: CREW ARRIVES AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS AND WEATHER BRIEFING PLAY

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VIDEO: NARRATED SHORT FILM PREVIEW ENDEAVOUR'S FLIGHT PLAY

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VIDEO: BRIEFING ON THE SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: CREW'S PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING PLAY
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VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: COMMANDER DOM GORIE PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: PILOT GREG JOHNSON PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: MS1 BOB BEHNKEN PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: MS2 MIKE FOREMAN PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: MS3 TAKAO DOI PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW: MS4 RICK LINNEHAN PLAY

VIDEO: FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW NEWS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: TCDT TRAINING HIGHLIGHTS PLAY
VIDEO: PRESS CHAT WITH CREW AT LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: CREW ARRIVES AT KSC FOR PRACTICE COUNT PLAY
VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR ARRIVES AT PAD 39A PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ROLLS TO THE VAB PLAY | XL SIZE
MORE: STS-123 VIDEO COVERAGE
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