[sarex] ISS Status Report: SS07-06

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468
> Feb. 4, 2007
>
> Katherine Trinidad
> Headquarters, Washington 
> 202-358-3749
>
> John I. Petty
> Johnson Space Center, Houston 
> 281-483-5111 
>
> STATUS REPORT: SS07-06
>
> INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS07-06
>
> HOUSTON - For the second time in four days, two residents of the 
> International Space Station stepped outside for a spacewalk to 
> complete connecting cooling loops from a temporary to a permanent 
> system. This time the excursion lasted just over seven hours. 
>
> Wearing U.S. spacesuits, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria 
> and Flight Engineer Suni Williams began their spacewalk at 7:38 a.m. 
> CST, a few minutes ahead of schedule. After setting up tools and 
> tethers outside the Quest airlock, they moved to the area that 
> connects the Z1 truss to the S0 truss at the middle of the station's 
> large girder-like truss system. This area is known as the "rats' 
> nest."
>
> In these tight quarters, they rerouted a series of two electrical 
> cables and four fluid quick disconnect lines from the soon-to-be 
> defunct Early External Active Thermal Control System to a permanent 
> cooling system in the Destiny Laboratory. The cooling loop 
> reconfigured Sunday, known as the Moderate Temperature Loop (Loop B), 
> removes heat from the station's avionics systems and payload racks 
> through a heat exchanger system in the Destiny Laboratory. On Jan. 
> 31, Lopez-Alegria and Williams reconfigured a Low Temperature Loop 
> (Loop A) that rejects heat from the station's environmental systems. 
>
> On Sunday, the spacewalkers also assisted in the retraction of the aft 
> heat-rejecting radiator on the P6 truss. The radiator had been used 
> since 2000 to keep station systems at the correct temperature through 
> the temporary cooling system. They helped tie the radiator down with 
> a series of cinches. Unlike the starboard radiator, which was 
> retracted Jan. 31, the aft radiator did not require the installation 
> of a protective thermal shroud due to the station's orientation to 
> the sun. During this summer's STS-118 shuttle mission, a third 
> radiator will be retracted, the only radiator on the P6 truss that 
> will be redeployed after the truss is relocated to the far port side 
> of the truss. 
>
> Once the radiator was retracted, Lopez-Alegria and Williams completed 
> Wednesday's unfinished task of disconnecting and stowing the second 
> of two fluid lines for the Early Ammonia Servicer, a large tank on 
> the P6 truss that is no longer needed. The EAS was designed to 
> replenish ammonia to the temporary cooling system on the station in 
> the event of a coolant leak. The servicer will be jettisoned during a 
> spacewalk by the Expedition 15 crew this summer. 
>
> Lopez-Alegria, at the base of the P6 truss, photographed the starboard 
> solar array and the blanket box into which it folds. Engineers will 
> analyze the photos and finalize plans to retract that array during 
> the STS-117 shuttle mission to the station next month. 
>
> After the photographs were taken, Lopez-Alegria and Williams resumed 
> the stringing of electrical cables from the S0 truss to the Destiny 
> Laboratory and to its forward docking port, Pressurized Mating 
> Adapter-2 (PMA-2), to which visiting shuttles dock. The cables 
> provide electricity for the Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System 
> (SSPTS). The system will enable docked shuttles to draw electrical 
> power from the station to extend their missions. SSPTS is scheduled 
> to debut during STS-118, enabling Endeavour to fly for two weeks. 
> Three of the six cables were connected Sunday. The others probably 
> will be connected during a spacewalk Thursday, Feb. 8. 
>
> Lopez-Alegria removed a sunshade from a data relay box on another 
> pressurized mating adapter that connects the U.S. and Russian 
> segments of the station. Since the shade is no longer needed, it was 
> folded up and brought inside to be discarded either on a future 
> Russian Progress cargo ship or a shuttle mission. Back in the 
> airlock, Lopez-Alegria and Williams did some precautionary 
> decontamination procedures after a few ammonia flakes were seen early 
> in the spacewalk.
>
> The spacewalk ended at 2:49 p.m. as the crew returned to Quest. It was 
> the eighth spacewalk of Lopez-Alegria's career and the third for 
> Williams. He surpassed astronaut Steve Smith to vault into third 
> place on the all-time spacewalking list for most hours spent outside. 
> Williams now holds the record for most spacewalking time by a female. 
> Former astronaut Kathy Thornton previously held that honor. Sunday's 
> spacewalk was the 79th for station assembly and maintenance and the 
> 51st done without a shuttle present.
>
> On Monday, Lopez-Alegria and Williams will recharge batteries and 
> prepare their spacesuits and tools for the next spacewalk set for 
> Thursday morning. 
>
> For more about the crew's activities and station sighting 
> opportunities, visit: 
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/station 
>
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> -end-
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