NOTE: These are halloween props.
Posted on 09/12/2006 11:10:51 AM PDT by stm
NOTE: These are halloween props.
This could be subtitled :LOST IN SPACE
or BOLT OUT OF THE BLUE?
DING! DING! DING!, We have a winner!
I am listening to them right now during tonight's space walk. Guess what? He is done it again. He has lost a another bolt and washer.
spaceflightnow.com
1439 GMT (10:39 a.m. EDT)
The keel pin is being unbolted as the spacewalkers prepare to remove the structure. They will be stowing it inside the new truss. It has to be relocated because its current location blocks the station's railcar tracks along the truss backbone of the complex.
This task had been scheduled for the third spacewalk. But time is available today to get ahead.
1401 GMT (10:01 a.m. EDT)
The next activity will be removing and stowing the triangular keel pin that supported the truss in Atlantis' payload bay.
1356 GMT (9:56 a.m. EDT)
The final launch restraint on the rotary joint has been removed.
1348 GMT (9:48 a.m. EDT)
Burbank and MacLean have managed to free that stubborn launch restraint. They have one more restraint left to remove today.
1330 GMT (9:30 a.m. EDT)
The spacewalkers are now working together to try free a tough bolt on one of the launch restraints.
1318 GMT (9:18 a.m. EDT)
Three of the six launch restraints have been removed by the spacewalkers so far. They completed the lock removals earlier.
1305 GMT (9:05 a.m. EDT)
Four hours and counting for spacewalkers Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean. This is Burbank's second career EVA and the first for MacLean.
Both are working to release the truss launch restraints. MacLean had to get a new socket after his first one broke.
The restraints hold together the inner and outer rotary joint bulkheads. Others are holding the forward face nadir and zenith joint stub rails to the inboard bulkhead and on aft truss beams.
1220 GMT (8:20 a.m. EDT)
Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean ran into the same problem today that spacewalker Joe Tanner encountered Tuesday: a lost bolt from a thermal cover on a newly installed solar array truss. Unlike Tanner, MacLean never saw the spring-loaded bolt separate from its retaining clip and float away. One minute it was there, the next it was gone.
"OK, on cover eight, a bolt is missing," MacLean radioed. "Bolt alpha. I did not see it go."
"OK, Steve, I copy that, bolt 1 alpha is missing," Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper replied from inside the shuttle-station complex.
spaceflightnow.com
1553 GMT (11:53 a.m. EDT)
Both astronauts are climbing back into the airlock. Standing by for hatch closure and repressurization.
1518 GMT (11:18 a.m. EDT)
The spacewalkers are gathering up their tools and bags to begin making their way back to the airlock for the conclusion of today's EVA.
1505 GMT (11:05 a.m. EDT)
Astronauts Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean, using their combined muscle power, a big wrench and lots of grunts and groans, finally freed an overly tight bolt today that threatened to prevent a massive rotating joint from operating properly.
The bolt secured one of six large launch restraints on the 2,500-pound solar alpha rotary joint at the heart of the new port 3 truss that was attached to the space station Tuesday. The SARJ was launched with 16 launch locks on the main gear assembly and larger launch restraints, all of which had to be removed to permit rotation of the new solar array making up the outboard P4 truss.
spaceflightnow.com
1616 GMT (12:16 p.m. EDT)
EVA ENDS. Repressurization of the Quest airlock module began at 12:16 p.m. EDT, marking the official conclusion of this second of three spacewalks during Atlantis' construction mission to the space station. Today's EVA lasted seven hours and 11 minutes, bringing the total spacewalking time on STS-115 to 13 hours and 37 minutes.
Well said my friend, well said indeed!
spaceflightnow.com
1747 GMT (1:47 p.m. EDT)
The Solar Alpha Rotary Joint is in motion. Controllers are checking out this new system, which will be used to keep the solar arrays aimed at the sun as the outpost circles the globe.
spaceflightnow.com
1338 GMT (9:38 a.m. EDT)
The Atlantis astronauts successfully unfurled a second solar array today, giving the international space station a new set of wings stretching some 240 feet from tip to tip and completing the primary goal of the 116th shuttle mission.
Read our update story.
1244 GMT (8:44 a.m. EDT)
Deployment of the International Space Station's new set of power-generating solar wings has been successfully completed! Extension of the starboard array completed at 8:44 a.m.
spaceflightnow.com
two rookies - Dan Burbank and Canadian flier Steve MacLean - hadn't gotten a galled bolt out during the crew's second spacewalk.
Asking about Suffredini's joking comment, Tanner said "I want to squash that bug right now. These EVAs were not easy. The fact that everybody said they looked easy is a real compliment to these three other people here and we appreciate it. Thank you very much."
Floating on Atlantis' aft flight deck by Burbank, MacLean and his own partner, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Tanner then reached down and pulled up a giant wrench.
"I know these two guys, these big, strong guys, aren't going to brag on themselves, so I want to show you the tool that they used on EVA-2," Tanner said. "This is a ratchet wrench with a nine-inch rigid extension and a cheater bar to give yourself a little more leverage. The moment arm here is around two feet and these guys backed out a bolt that was sticky, they're estimating it was probably 130 to 140 foot pounds of torque. They basically cut some new threads in a pretty sizable bolt. That was not in any shape or form easy.
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