The remaining EVA tasks are designed to pave the way for the arrival
of the U.S. Laboratory Destiny early next year. Tanner and Noriega
will remove umbilicals from Pressurized Mating Adapter-2, connecting
them to a dummy panel on that docking port and preparing it for
relocation to the end of the Destiny module, which will be connected
to Unity on the STS-98/5A mission.
The next STS-97 status report will be issued Tuesday evening.
On Tuesday, December 5, 2000, 8:00 p.m. CST, STS-97 MCC Status Report # 11
reports:
Endeavour astronauts completed the second of the STS-97
mission^Òs three spacewalk Tuesday, hooking up power and data
cables and connecting ammonia coolant lines between the International
Space Station^Òs new solar array truss and the rest of the ISS.
They also prepared a docking port for a January move to another area
on the space station to get ready for arrival of the U.S. laboratory
Destiny.
Carlos Noriega and Joe Tanner began their spacewalk at 11:21 a.m.
Before moving on to the cable connections, they surveyed the starboard
solar wing to better understand the condition of the tensioning system
that extends one of its two solar array blankets. Engineers, flight
controllers and managers continue to develop possible plans for
Noriega and Tanner to further tension that blanket on the third
spacewalk, scheduled for Thursday.
During their 6 hour, 37 minute spacewalk, Noriega and Tanner moved
the S-band antenna assembly to the top the solar array tower. They
also released restraints holding a radiator to the tower^Òs side.
It is designed to help cool Destiny. That radiator was deployed after
the spacewalk.
Destiny is scheduled to be launched to the space station Jan. 18.
The docking port, Pressurized Mating Adaptor 2, will be moved
temporally from its spot at the forward end of the Unity module, where
the laboratory will be attached. The docking port then will be placed
on the forward end of Destiny.
Endeavour Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission
Specialist Mark Garneau supported the spacewalk. Inside the space
station, the Expedition One crew, Commander Bill Shepherd and
cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, went into Unity for the
second time in their 35 days aboard the station. There they
reconfigured cables to route electricity from the new solar arrays to
the rest of the space station.
The work kept the station crewmembers up past their scheduled 3:36
p.m. bedtime. Endeavour^Òs crew was scheduled to begin its sleep
period about 10:30 p.m., and are scheduled to be awakened at 6:36
a.m. on Wednesday.
The second spacewalk brings this crew^Òs total to 14 hours and 10
minutes outside the space station, and total spacewalk time outside
the station for all flights to 83 hours and 44 minutes. 0 The next
STS-97 status report will be issued Wednesday morning.
Go to STS-97 Flight Day 7 Highlights: