[sarex] STS-121 MCC Status Report #13

[Arthur Rowe <azrowe80@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

5 p.m. CDT, Monday, July 10, 2006
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

07.10.06
STATUS REPORT: STS-121-13

STS-121 MCC Status Report #13

A six-hour, 47-minute spacewalk by astronauts from Space Shuttle 
Discovery today restored the International Space Station’s Mobile 
Transporter rail car to full operation and delivered a spare pump module 
for the station’s cooling system.

Space walkers Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum exited the Quest module’s 
airlock at 7:14 a.m. and climbed down into the shuttle payload bay, 
where they lifted the Pump Module from its stowage platform so Mission 
Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson could grapple it with the 
station’s 58-foot-long robotic arm. While the arm moved the module to 
its destination, Sellers and Fossum moved to the S0 Truss segment to 
begin work on the primary task of the EVA, replacement of the nadir-side 
Trailing Umbilical System (TUS).

A TUS contains a power, data and video cable that serves the Mobile 
Transporter as it moves along the station’s truss; the nadir TUS cable 
was inadvertently severed late last year and required replacement. As 
the first step in that process Sellers replaced the Interface Umbilical 
Assembly—the component containing the cutter—with a new IUA, one without 
a blade.

By that time, Canadarm2 reached External Stowage Platform 2 on the 
forward side of Quest with the Pump Module; Sellers and Fossum moved to 
the platform to receive the module from the arm, secured it to the 
storage platform, and returned to the TUS work site.

The space walkers removed the damaged TUS from within the S0 Truss, and 
Fossum carried it to the payload bay while riding the station arm. When 
he arrived, Sellers removed the new TUS from the payload bay platform, 
and the two swapped cable reels. Sellers stowed the old TUS on the 
cross-bay carrier while the arm moved Fossum back to the truss work 
site, where Sellers rejoined his crewmate to complete installation of 
the TUS and properly route its power, data and video cable through the IUA.

At two points during the spacewalk Fossum paused to take care of a loose 
connection of the emergency jet thruster backpack on Sellers’ spacesuit, 
securing it the first time with a safety tether.

The spacewalkers closed the hatch and began to repressurize Quest to end 
the spacewalk at 2:01 p.m. to conclude a six-hour, 47-minute excursion; 
the combined time spent spacewalking on two EVAs on this mission so far 
is 14 hours, 18 minutes. A third spacewalk, devoted to testing potential 
repair techniques and materials, is scheduled for Wednesday.

During the spacewalk Pilot Mark Kelly oversaw the timeline for the 
spacewalkers while Commander Steve Lindsey managed the cameras and 
transferred two containers of water onto ISS. Expedition 13 Commander 
Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter 
continued to work on delivery and stowage of equipment and supplies from 
the Multipurpose Logistics Module.

The next STS-121 mission status report will be early Tuesday.
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