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02/17/10: STS-130: EVA3 a success; all Cupola windows opened.
Mission: STS-130
Orbiter: Endeavour
Launch Pad: 39A
Launch Date: Feb 8, 2010, 04:14 EST (09:14 UT)
Landing: Shuttle Landing Facility, Kennedy Space Center; Feb 21, 22:20 EST/03:20 UT Feb 22 (deorbit burn: 21:15 EST)
Main gear touchdown: 22:20:31 EST
Nose gear touchdown: 21:20:39 EST
Wheels stop: 22:22:10 EST
Orbital Altitude: 122 nautical miles (140 miles)
Orbital Insertion: 191 nautical miles (220 miles)
Orbital Inclination: 51.6 degrees
Distance traveled: ~5.7 million miles
Crew:- Commander: George D. "Zambo" Zamka; Pilot: Terry Virts; Mission Specialists:- MS1 Kathryn P. "Kay" Hire, MS2 Stephen Robinson, MS3 Nicholas Patrick, MS4 Robert L. Behnken.
5 a.m. CST Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
Endeavour Pilot Terry Virts opened the windows one at a time early on Wednesday, giving spacewalkers Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick an early look into the International Space Station's room with a view that they had helped install.
Behnken and Patrick wrapped up their third and final planned spacewalk, a 5 hour, 48 minute excursion, at 2:03 a.m. CST. They completed all of their planned tasks, removing insulation blankets and removing launch restraint bolts from each of the cupola's seven windows.
Inside the cupola, Virts opened and then closed each window in turn, beginning at 11:25 p.m. with the circular 31.5-inch center window. He was the first to look out of that largest station window, on Tranquility's Earth-facing port, which will offer valuable views of the Earth and a good look for station robotic arm operators.
Near the end of the spacewalk, all the windows were opened simultaneously. Mission Specialist Kathryn Hire congratulated the spacewalkers for “raising the curtain on a bay window to the world.”
Early in the spacewalk, Behnken opened the second of two ammonia loops to allow coolant to flow through Tranquility, providing redundancy, and disconnected temporary power cables. Patrick installed heater and data cables connecting Tranquility to Pressurized Mating Adapter 3, which was moved to Tranquility's outboard port Tuesday.
The spacewalkers installed handrails on Tranquility, relocated a foot restraint and closed a centerline camera flap on Harmony's upper port, where PMA-3 had been attached. They routed video signal converter cables from the "rats' nest," the complex of cable connections on the S0 truss, to the Zarya module. That will help allow the station's Canadarm2 eventually to be operated from the Russian portion of the station.
Outfitting of Tranquility and the cupola continued, with astronauts preparing parts of the regenerative environmental control system for transfer to the module. Expedition 22 Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi replaced the Recycle Filter Tank Assembly, part of the Water Recycling System, before filling the replacement tank. The replaced tank will be returned to Earth on Endeavour.
The next shuttle status report will be issued after the crew's wakeup call, scheduled for 3:14 p.m., or earlier if events warrant.
NASA astronaut Nicholas Patrick, STS-130 mission specialist, participates in the mission's third and final session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. During the five-hour, 48-minute spacewalk, Patrick and astronaut Robert Behnken (out of frame), mission specialist, completed all of their planned tasks, removing insulation blankets and removing launch restraint bolts from each of the Cupola's seven windows. Credit: NASA
NASA astronauts Terry Virts (left), STS-130 pilot; and Jeffrey Williams, Expedition 22 commander, pose for a photo near the windows in the newly-installed Cupola of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
International Space Station's Tranquility node and its Cupola are featured in this image photographed by a spacewalker during the mission's (STS-130) third and final session of extravehicular activity. Credit: NASA
Robert Behnken (top) and Nicholas Patrick, both STS-130 mission specialists, participate in the mission's third and final session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. During the five-hour, 48-minute spacewalk, Behnken and Patrick completed all of their planned tasks, removing insulation blankets and removing launch restraint bolts from each of the Cupola's seven windows. Credit: NASA
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CDT = (EDT - 1 hour) = (UT - 5 hours)
PST = (UT - 8 hours)
PDT = (UT - 7 hours)
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