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From: starrfie@hydro.la.asu.edu (Sumner Starrfield) Subject: MCC Status Report 08 Date: Sun, 5 Dec 93 22:38:19 MST MISSION CONTROL CENTER STS-61 Status Report #8 Sunday, December 5, 1993, 6 p.m. CST STS-61 Mission Specialists Tom Akers and Kathy Thornton are scheduled to make their first space-suited foray into Endeavour's payload bay tonight to replace the Hubble Space Telescope's solar arrays. It will be the second of five space walks scheduled for the mission. The seven-member crew was awakened at 5:57 p.m. CST with the song "With a Little Help from My Friends" by The Beatles. Controllers at the Space Telescope Operations Control Center will power down the solar array electronics boxes at 8:20 p.m. CST and configure them for changeout. The STOCC team will monitor the changeout throughout the space walk, then conduct a 23-minute aliveness test on the new arrays at 2:25 a.m. CST. The replanned time to start the extravehicular activity is 9:47 p.m. CST (MET 3/18:20). The first chore will be detaching and jettisoning the right solar array, which failed to completely retract because of a kink in its bi-stem framework. Thornton will step into a foot restraint on Endeavour's robot arm, and Mission Specialist Claude Nicollier will move her into position alongside the array. Thornton will install a transfer handle and attach it to the balky array. While she is holding onto the array with the handle, Akers will disconnect the array at the telescope body. The electrical connections will be broken when the shuttle is in darkness and the array's photovoltaic cells are not generating power. Nicollier will then use the arm to boost her and the array above the payload bay. Thornton will release the array no earlier than 10:43 p.m. CST (MET 3/19:16), imparting no motion, and Nicollier will move her back down into the cargo bay. After Commander Dick Covey and Pilot Ken Bowersox maneuver the shuttle away from the drifting array, the two space walkers will install its replacement. Akers and Thornton will then remove the array that retracted completely and stow it in its payload bay carrier. Next, they will install its replacement. Preparations for jettisoning of the right solar array are expected to take about half an hour to complete, and the entire space walk is scheduled to last about six hours. All of Endeavour's systems continue to perform well as the shuttle circles the Earth every 96 minutes in a 320 by 313 nautical mile orbit. ______________________________________________________________________ As an addendum - Peter Hauschildt is at home watching the above on C-span at 22:45. He has informed me by e-mail that it has all gone very successfully. The kinky array has been removed and jettisoned and the new array has been installed. Now if only the major networks thought science was important.
Return to the Powerful Daisaku Nogami
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