NASA To Highlight Robotic Refueling Mission Payload, Communication Support On Final Shuttle Flight

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington                                        

 

Dewayne Washington

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will host a media event to highlight its role in the final space shuttle flight, currently targeted for launch on July 8. The media day will be held from 9 a.m. to noon EDT on Tuesday, June 28.

At 9 a.m., Goddard managers and engineers will give an overview of the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) module, which shuttle Atlantis will deliver to the International Space Station. RRM will use the station's two-armed robotic system, known as Dextre, to investigate the potential for robotically refueling existing spacecraft in orbit. The Canadian Space Agency built the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre, to perform intricate maintenance and servicing tasks on the station.

Reporters also will visit Goddard's Exploration and Space Communications area to learn how Goddard provides tracking, data and voice communications for every shuttle mission. Reporters then will have the opportunity to see the Network Integration Center and the Flight Dynamics Facility, which also support shuttle flights.

To attend, reporters must contact Dewayne Washington at 301-286-0040 or dewayne.a.washington@nasa.gov or Malissa Reyes at 301-286-0918 by June 27 to reserve space and provide names for security badges. Reporters should meet at the Goddard Visitor's Center, located off Greenbelt Road (State Route 193) and ICESat Road no later than 8:45 a.m. on June 28 to allow sufficient time for everyone to receive badges. A shuttle will take reporters to the various sites.

For information about NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, visit http://www.nasa.gov/goddard.

For information about RRM, visit http://ssco.gsfc.nasa.gov.

For information about ESC, visit http://esc.gsfc.nasa.gov.

For information about the STS-135 mission, visit http://go.nasa.gov/STS-135.

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Another View

A fish-eye lens attached to an electronic still camera was used to capture this image of NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff during the mission's fourth STS-134 spacewalk. During the spacewalk, Chamitoff and fellow astronaut Michael Fincke stowed the 50-foot-long boom and added a power and data grapple fixture to make it the Enhanced International Space Station Boom Assembly, which extends the reach of the space station's robotic arm. The docked space shuttle Endeavour is visible at top right.

Image Credit: NASA

Power and Data Grapple Fixture Connected to Boom

Greg Chamitoff, with assistance from Mike Fincke, released the six bolts holding the electrical flight grapple fixture to the space station boom and cut the grapple's cable. Using six bolts, Chamitoff then installed an adapter assembly on the boom. The pair then slid the power and data grapple fixture into place on it and secured it with four bolts. Now that the power and data grapple fixture has been added, the boom will be known as the Enhanced International Space Station Boom Assembly. The 50-foot boom now can be connected to the Canadarm, the space station's robotic arm, to double its reach.

The crews are cleaning up from the activity. The spacewalk timeline called for Fincke to stow the electrical flight grapple fixture they removed in Endeavour's cargo bay. However, in the interest of time, the spacewalkers will instead return the fixture to the airlock with them at the conclusion of today's spacewalk.

The next task will be to work on a spare arm for Dextre, the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator. The arm was delivered on the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 3, where three expandable diameter fixture bolts held it in place for launch. Fincke and Chamitoff will release each of the bolts, making use of a specially designed pry rod, if required.

Mission Control also notified the spacewalkers that they would like to extend the spacewalk to approximately 7 hours and 30 minutes to allow them to accomplish the primary planned activities. Chamitoff will need to recharge his oxygen. He will skip a 15-minute task to inspect and perhaps tighten a tether on Dextre that has loosened some over time. If time allows, that task could be added back at the end of the spacewalk.

Endeavour on the Pad

Bathed in xenon lights, space shuttle Endeavour, attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, took one last journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 3.4-mile trek, known as rollout, began at 7:56 p.m. EST and took about seven hours to complete. This is the final scheduled rollout for Endeavour, which is attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters atop a crawler-transporter. Endeavour and its six STS-134 crew members will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier-3, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS), a high-pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for the Dextre robotic helper and micrometeoroid debris shields to the International Space Station on the shuttle's final spaceflight. Launch is targeted for April 19 at 7:48 p.m. EDT.

Image Credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Second Spacewalk in Progress

The second STS-133 spacewalk began at 10:42 a.m. EST, when Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew switched their suits to battery power.

This is Bowen's seventh spacewalk and Drew's second. It is the 244th by U.S. astronauts and the 155th spacewalk in support of International Space Station assembly and maintenance. Discovery Mission Specialist Nicole Stott is once again inside the station, choreographing the activities and coordinating communications between the spacewalkers and Mission Control in Houston. Station Commander Scott Kelly and shuttle Mission Specialist Mike Barratt are in the cupola operating the station's 58-foot long robotic arm during the spacewalk.

Bowen is EV-1, the lead spacewalker, and is wearing a suit with red stripes. His helmet camera displays the number 19. Drew is EV-2, wears an all-white spacesuit, and his helmet camera displays the number 20.

Drew will complete the last task related to the failed ammonia pump module the pair moved into a storage location on Monday. He will vent the remaining ammonia from the module into space, using a special tool to protect his spacesuit from any ammonia contamination. Once he's done, he'll remove the tool and place it back in the airlock.

Meanwhile, Bowen will ride the station's robotic arm to the Columbus module and retrieve a lightweight adapter plate assembly that was used to attach experiments to the outside of Columbus. Drew will remove insulation from the avionics assembly on the Express Logistics Carrier-4 and gather up three sets of stowage bags from the Crew Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) cart on the left side of the station's truss, or backbone.

The crew will move a sunshade away from the lens of a video camera near Express Logistics Carrier-4. The sunshade is partially obscuring the camera's view. Throughout the remainder of the spacewalk the pair will work separately. Bowen will ride the arm to the Dextre robot, where he will install a camera light and pan and tilt assembly and remove unneeded insulation while Drew installs a light on the CETA cart. From there, Drew will move to a radiator beam on the left hand truss segment and install insulation on its valve module fluid line. He also will tighten a loose radiator grapple fixture stowage beam that was installed on STS-131 and might be used to temporarily store handles that would be necessary if a radiator ever needed to be replaced. Next, Drew will head to the Tranquility node to remove insulation covering electrical connectors. Bowen will climb off of the robotic arm and install a lens cover on the arm's elbow joint camera, which will protect the lens from erosion that might be caused by visiting spacecraft thrusters. The rest of the spacewalk will be spent installing similar covers on other cameras.

Conjoined

The docked space shuttle Discovery and the Canadian-built Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, are featured in this photograph taken by the STS-133 crew aboard the station. The blackness of space and Earth's horizon provide the backdrop for the scene.

Image Credit: NASA

Dextre Gets to Work

Dextre, the Canadian Space Agency's robotic "handyman", is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 26 crew member aboard the International Space Station on Feb. 3, 2011. Dextre completed its first real job since the robot passed its final exam in December 2010, unpacking two critical pieces of equipment delivered by the unpiloted Japanese Kounotori2 H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV2) spacecraft - the space equivalent of a moving van. HTV2 is the second unpiloted cargo ship launched by JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, to the station and delivered more than four tons of food and supplies to the station and its crew members.

Image Credit: NASA
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