Inside KSC News Feeds
06-08-2008, 10:38 AM
Astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan turned their spacesuits to internal battery power at 9:55 a.m. EDT, officially starting their third spacewalk of the STS-124 mission.
During the 6.5-hour journey, the spacewalkers will remove a depleted Nitrogen Tank Assembly from the starboard S1 truss and replace it with a new assembly. The Nitrogen Tank Assembly is used to pressurize the space station's ammonia cooling system. Fossum and Garan also will remove insulation and launch locks from the Kibo robotic arm and reinstall a repaired television camera on the far end of the port truss. Fossum will collect a sample of a dust-like substance from the port Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, or SARJ. The sample will be analyzed once it is returned to Earth. The port SARJ continues to function normally.
The spacewalk is Fossum's sixth, Garan's third, the 112th spacewalk devoted to space station assembly and maintenance, and the 197th by U.S. astronauts.
During the 6.5-hour journey, the spacewalkers will remove a depleted Nitrogen Tank Assembly from the starboard S1 truss and replace it with a new assembly. The Nitrogen Tank Assembly is used to pressurize the space station's ammonia cooling system. Fossum and Garan also will remove insulation and launch locks from the Kibo robotic arm and reinstall a repaired television camera on the far end of the port truss. Fossum will collect a sample of a dust-like substance from the port Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, or SARJ. The sample will be analyzed once it is returned to Earth. The port SARJ continues to function normally.
The spacewalk is Fossum's sixth, Garan's third, the 112th spacewalk devoted to space station assembly and maintenance, and the 197th by U.S. astronauts.