Mission: STS-126, 27th station flight (ULF2)
Orbiter: Endeavour (OV-105)
Mission Number: Shuttle flight No. 125
Launch Date: Nov 14, 2008, 19:55 EST/00:55 UT
Launch Pad: 39A map  weather
Docking: Nov 16, 17:01 EST/22:01 UT
Mission Elapsed Time: 15 days, 20 hrs, 30 mins, 34 secs
[Chamitoff spent 183 days in space, 179 aboard the ISS, where Magnus remains]
EVAs: 4
Landing Site: Edwards Air Force Base, California
Landing: November 30, 2008:
main landing gear touchdown: 15:25:06 CST
nose gear: 15:25:21 CST
wheels stop: 15:26:03
Distance Traveled: 6,615,109 miles
Inclination/Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles
Primary Payload: Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM)
Crew: Mission Commander: Christopher J. Ferguson; Pilot: Eric A. Boe; Mission Specialists: Stephen G. Bowen, Donald R. Petit, Robert S. Kimbrough, Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper, launch: Sandra H. Magnus (Flight Engineer, NASA science officer, Expedition 17, 18), landing: Gregory Chamitoff (Expedition 17 Flight Engineer) Crew portrait
Contingency Shuttle Crew Support Mission: STS-319 (Rescue STS-126) - Discovery (OV-103).
Video: Windows Media Player .wmv format
STS-126 launches 2.07 MB
STS-126 ready for launch on Pad 39A 1.57 MB
Crew walks out to Astrovan 2.36 MB

5 p.m. CST Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

STS-126 Mission Control Center Status Report #11

Home improvements continued aboard the International Space Station with installation of two new bedrooms and preparations to activate a water recycling facility.

Station flight engineer Sandra Magnus and her predecessor Greg Chamitoff moved the port and starboard crew quarters to the station and installed them in the Harmony node. They also installed a rack with equipment for return to Earth inside the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module.

Other crew members also continued moving equipment and supplies between the two spacecraft. Transfer of all of the phone-booth-sized racks planned for this mission has been completed. Transfer work overall is about twenty five percent complete.

Nov 18: Astronaut Steve Bowen, STS-126 mission specialist, participates in the mission's first session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. During the six-hour, 52-minute spacewalk, Bowen and astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper (out of frame), mission specialist, worked to clean and lubricate part of the station's starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJ) and to remove two of SARJ's 12 trundle bearing assemblies. The spacewalkers also removed a depleted nitrogen tank from a stowage platform on the outside of the complex and moved it into Endeavour's cargo bay. They also moved a flex hose rotary coupler from the shuttle to the station stowage platform, as well as removing some insulation blankets from the common berthing mechanism on the Kibo laboratory. Credit: NASA

Former Expedition 6 station resident, Endeavour mission specialist Don Pettit and Expedition 18 station commander Mike Fincke spent a bulk of the day configuring hardware on the new Water Recovery System. The facility will treat wastewater and provide recycled water clean enough to drink. The system will be activated for initial checkouts tonight. It will take about two days of initial operations before the first sample of water processed from urine is available for testing.

Later today, the crew members will prepare for the second of four spacewalks by gathering tools and reviewing procedures. Subsequently, spacewalkers Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Shane Kimbrough will begin the standard pre-spacewalk campout in the station's Quest airlock.

The campout will begin at 10:20 p.m. Piper and Kimbrough will be in Quest overnight, with its pressure at 10.2 psi compared to the station's 14.7 psi, to reduce their systems' nitrogen content. That is to avoid the possibility of decompression sickness.

Endeavour's crew is scheduled to go to bed at 11:55 p.m. today and be awakened at 7:55 a.m. Thursday. The spacewalk is set to start at 12:45 p.m. Thursday.

The next shuttle status report will be issued after crew wake, or earlier if events warrant.

STS-126 Mission Coverage

- courtesy of NASA