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CX2SA > ISS 04.02.06 18:35l 106 Lines 5153 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 28002_CX2SA
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Subj: EXP 12 STATUS REPORT #06-5
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Sent: 060204/1616Z @:CX2SA.LAV.URY.SA #:28002 [Minas] FBB7.00e $:28002_CX2SA
From: CX2SA@CX2SA.LAV.URY.SA
To : ISS@WW
SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMAT A/C #31468
*International Space Station Status Report #06-5*
*11:30 p.m. CST, Friday, Feb. 3, 2006*
*Expedition 12 Crew*
Space station crew members released a spacesuit-turned-satellite during
the second spacewalk of their mission last night. Called SuitSat, it
faintly transmitted recorded voices of schoolchildren to amateur radio
operators worldwide for a brief period before it ceased sending signals.
Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev
ventured outside for a five-hour, 43-minute spacewalk to release
SuitSat, conduct preventative maintenance to a cable-cutting device,
retrieve experiments and photograph the station's exterior. Clad in
Russian Orlan spacesuits, McArthur and Tokarev opened the hatch to begin
the spacewalk at 5:44 p.m. EST. It was the fourth career spacewalk for
McArthur and the second for Tokarev.
After setting up tools and equipment, they positioned the unneeded Orlan
spacesuit on a ladder by the station's Pirs airlock hatch. The suit
reached the end of its operational life for spacewalks in August 2004.
It was outfitted by the crew with three batteries, internal sensors and
a radio transmitter for this experiment.
The SuitSat provided recorded greetings in six languages to ham radio
operators for about two orbits of the Earth before it stopped
transmitting, perhaps due to its batteries failing in the cold
environment of space, according to amateur radio coordinators affiliated
with the station program. The suit will enter the atmosphere and burn up
in a few weeks. Tokarev pushed the suit away toward the aft end of the
station as the complex flew 225 miles above the south central Pacific
Ocean. The suit initially drifted away at a rate of about a half meter
per second, slowly floating out of view below the Zvezda Service Module
and its attached Progress cargo craft. The suit is now separating from
the station at a rate of about six kilometers every 90 minutes.
McArthur and Tokarev then moved from Pirs to the Zarya module where they
removed a hubcap-shaped grapple fixture adapter for the Strela crane.
They moved the adapter to Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 on the Unity
module. The Strela fixture was moved to prepare Zarya for the future
temporary stowage of debris shields.
McArthur and Tokarev made their way to the center truss segment of the
station, where they tried and failed to securely install a safety bolt
in a contingency cutting device for one of two cables that provide
power, data and video to the Mobile Transporter rail car. The
transporter moves along the truss to correctly position the Canadarm2
robotic arm for assembly work. The Trailing Umbilical System cable on
the nadir, or Earth-facing side of the transporter was inadvertently
severed by its cutter on Dec. 16.
After several attempts to drive the bolt with a high-tech screwdriver,
McArthur wire-tied the cable to a handrail instead. That left the cable
out of its cutting mechanism, disabling the Transporter from further
movement on the station's rail system for the time being. The
Transporter is not needed for assembly work until the STS-115 mission to
install additional truss segments.
The severed cable reel mechanism will be replaced during one of the
three spacewalks by Discovery crewmembers Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum
during the STS-121 shuttle mission later this year.
McArthur and Tokarev moved back to Pirs. Once at the Russian airlock,
they retrieved an experiment to study the effect of the space
environment on microorganisms.
As their final spacewalk task, the crew photographed the exterior of
Zvezda, including Russian sensors that measure micrometeoroid impacts,
handrails, propulsion systems and a ham radio antenna. McArthur and
Tokarev then returned to the Pirs airlock and closed the hatch at 11:27
p.m. EST. It was the 64th spacewalk in support of station assembly and
maintenance, the 36th staged from the station, and the 17th conducted
from Pirs. In all, station spacewalkers have accumulated 384 hours and
23 minutes outside the facility since December 1998.
Meanwhile in Russia, final preparations were made this week to ship the
next Soyuz spacecraft from Moscow to the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site
in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft is scheduled to depart Monday and will
launch the 13th station crew in late March.
During the week, the station was maneuvered through a new procedure
using guidance and navigation computers in the Destiny laboratory to
request firings of the thrusters on the Zvezda module while maintaining
overall attitude control through the Control Moment Gyroscopes.That
saves time in handing orientation control of the station between the
U.S. and Russian systems.
For information about crew activities, future launch dates and station
sighting opportunities on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home
###
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