NASA EVAers in harmony with first STS-120 space walk

William Atkins
Friday, 26 October 2007 20:22

Science - Space

On flight day 4, two astronauts from the STS-120 crew are conducting the first of five spacewalks on Friday, October 26, 2007, to install the Harmony module on the International Space Station.        

U.S. astronauts Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock are performing the first extravehicular activity (EVA). They will help astronauts inside the space station to unberth and transfer the Harmony compartment module. Harmony was delivered to the station within the payload bay of the shuttle Discovery. It will be moved to its port side position on Unity (Node 1) on the space station. The first spacewalk is being coordinated by Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, whose country built the Harmony unit.

The Harmony module, officially called Node 2, is a 23-foot by 14 foot (nearly 16 ton in weight when on Earth—and described as big as a “school bus”) expansion passageway to the U.S. segment of the space station. It will allow for scientific modules to be attached, such as the European and Japanese laboratory modules. It also is a pressurized living space for the inhabitants of the space station. Eventually, the expedition crews of the station will double to six people.

STS-120 commander Pam Melroy states, from the NASA STS-120 website, “STS-120 is such a cool mission. Node 2 is the expansion of the space station’s capability to bring international laboratories up. It’s the expansion of our capability to carry additional people.” She adds, “It has additional life support equipment that will allow us to expand out beyond a three-person crew. It’s this big boost in the capability which is really exciting”

The crew will actually place the Harmony module in a temporary resting position. The space shuttle Discovery is currently docked at an adapter port, which is Harmony's final position. Once, the STS-120 crew exits the space station for home, the ISS crew will move Harmony to its final position.

Before this job of moving Harmony, astronaut Wheelock rode the station’s robotic arm to remove a broken antenna from the station and store it inside Discovery’s payload bay so it can be returned to Earth and fixed.

This first EVA is expected to take about 6.5 hours.

EVA 2 (beginning at about 5:58 a.m. EDT) will occur on Sunday, October 28, on flight day 6. Parazynski and Daniel Tani, who will remain onboard the ISS is its flight engineer, replacing Clayton Anderson, will perform this second spacewalk.

Flight day 8 will contain EVA3 (beginning at 5:28 a.m. EDT, by Parazynski and Wheelock); flight day 10 for EVA 4 (beginning at 4:28 a.m. EDT, by Parazynski and Wheelock); and flight day 11 for EVA 5 (beginning at 3:58 a.m. EDT by U.S. astronaut and ISS commander Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut and ISS flight engineer Yuri Malenchendo).

Discovery and its STS-120 crew are expected to undock from the space station on Sunday, November 4, 2007, at about 1:34 a.m. EDT. A Tuesday, November 6th landing is expected on the runway at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:50 a.m. EST (note the end of daylight savings time, and the resumption of standard time).

Television coverage of all five spacewalks, and the landing, will be covered on NASA TV.