Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Patrick, Behnken comprehensive Final STS-130 Spacewalk

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Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken begin the third and final spacewalk of the STS-130 mission at 9:15 p.m. EST Tuesday and finished at 3:03 a.m Wednesday.

Behnken opened the second of two ammonia loops to allow coolant to flow during Tranquility and disconnected temporary power cables. Patrick installed heater and data cables from the new node to Pressurized Mating Adapter 3, now situated on Tranquility’s outboard docking port.

Next the two spacewalkers removed the lagging from the cupola’s seven windows, and Patrick unconfined launch locks from the windows so Pilot Terry Virts could open the window shutters from inside the module for the first time.

Other tasks for the spacewalk integrated installation of handrails and other spacewalk support equipment on Tranquility, routing video signal converter cables from the S0 Truss to the Zarya module to maintain future Canadarm2 operations from a base on the Russian segment of the station, and removal of clamps and a flex hose rotary coupler on the P1 Truss.

During the spacewalk, station Commander Jeff Williams and other crew members sustained outfitting the Tranquility and cupola modules and performed closeout operations on components of the regenerative environmental control system prior to the last four racks of that system are relocated into Node 3 on Flight Day 11. Early Wednesday morning, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov replaced a futile vacuum valve in the Russian carbon dioxide removal unit.

The STS-130 mission included three spacewalks and the release of a connecting module that increases the station’s interior space. Node 3, known as Tranquility, provides extra room for crew members and many of the station's life support and environmental control systems. Attached to the node is a cupola, which is a robotic control station with six windows about its sides and another in the center that will provide a panoramic view of Earth, celestial objects and visiting spacecraft. The space station is at present about 90 percent complete.



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