STS-114 MCC Status Report #16

Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - 11 p.m. CDT
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

STS-114 MCC Status Report #16

The Space Shuttle Discovery crew begins their ninth day in space with
preparations for the third spacewalk of the mission. This extravehicular
activity (EVA) was a preplanned activity for the mission, but now includes a
new task -- repair of two protruding gap fillers between tiles on the bottom
the Shuttle.

The crew began the day waking up at 10:09 p.m. CDT to "Where My Heart Will
Take Me," the theme song from Star Trek: Enterprise. The song, composed by
Dennis McCarthy, was selected for the crew as a surprise dedication from the
Deputy Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale. The International Space Station
Expedition 11 crew of Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips woke 30 minutes
later.

Mission Specialists Steve Robinson and Soichi Noguchi are scheduled to begin
their third spacewalk at 3:14 a.m. CDT as they exit out of the Space Shuttle
airlock. The two will be assisted by Andy Thomas, serving as the
intravehicular officer overseeing the spacewalk from inside, as well as
Pilot Jim Kelly and Mission Specialists Wendy Lawrence and Charlie Camarda
who will be supporting various robotic arm activities throughout the day.

The spacewalk is scheduled to last about 7 hours. The first task entails
Kelly and Lawrence maneuvering the External Stowage Platform-2 (ESP-2), via
the Station's robotic arm, which they pulled from Discovery's payload bay
earlier today, onto the Station. As the ESP-2 reaches its final position,
Robinson and Noguchi will guide the structure and secure it into place. With
that task complete, Lawrence and Kelly will conduct a "walk off" maneuver of
the Station robotic arm, by attaching the "free" end to the Mobile Base
System and releasing the other end from the Destiny Laboratory module to
where it will be needed as a platform for Robinson later in the EVA.

The two spacewalkers will move on to individual tasks, with Noguchi
installing the Materials International Space Station Experiment-5 (MISSE-5),
a materials experiment that will study the degradation of solar cell samples
in the space environment. He'll then remove the Rotary Joint Motor
Controller from the Space Station truss before proceeding to a support
position to assist Robinson in his final tasks.

Meanwhile, Kelly will work with Camarda, using the Orbiter Boom Sensor
System to inspect repair demonstration tiles inside the Shuttle's payload
bay. Later, Camarda will also work with Krikalev and Phillips to continue
stowing supplies and equipment inside Discovery and the Station. Discovery
Commander Eileen Collins will monitor and supervise all the activities.

Robinson, now attached to the Station robotic arm, will attempt to repair
two tile gap filler protrusions located on the underside of Discovery. He
will first try to gently pull out the protruding material, and if need be,
remove by trimming with a hacksaw.

Gap fillers are used in areas to restrict the flow of hot gas into the gaps
between Thermal Protection System components. They consist of a layer of
coated Nextel fabric and are normally about 0.020-inch thick. These
protrusions were identified from photos taken during the rendezvous pitch
maneuver conducted on flight day three, as Discovery approached the orbiting
Space Station.

The crews are scheduled to go to sleep about 2:09 p.m. CDT.

The next STS-114 mission status report will be issued Wednesday morning, or
earlier, if events warrant.

- end -


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info