Endeavor Astronauts Begin Space Station Renovations
Posted on: Monday, 17 November 2008, 13:45 CST
After having docked with the International Space Station on Sunday, Endeavor astronauts have today begun the installation of updated items such as a new toilet and a contraption that purifies urine and sweat into drinkable water at the orbiting outpost.
The 21-foot-long payload bay is carrying almost 15,000 pounds of new equipment for the space station, which will be able to house six crew members next year as opposed to three in the past.
"It's a big day in front of us," said the space station's commander, Mike Fincke. "We're here to work, and this is the can-do crew."
Using a robotic arm, Endeavor’s astronauts loaded other housewarming items onto the space station, including an exercise machine, kitchenette and two sleeping compartments.
The crew aboard Endeavor will remain at the outpost for almost two weeks while they arrange the new equipment. They will also take part in four spacewalks to clean and lubricate a solar wing-rotating joint that broke down more than a year ago.
"Things are going exceedingly well," LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team, said Sunday.
Early Monday, Mission Control welcomed the space station's newest resident, Sandra Magnus, to her new home. She traded places with astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who will return to Earth with Endeavour after six months in orbit.
"Happy to be here," Magnus said.
As Endeavor passed within several hundred feet of the space station on Sunday, shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson guided it through a 360-degree backflip so Fincke and Chamitoff could take some 200 close-up photos of its thermal shielding. The images will help NASA determine whether Endeavour was damaged during liftoff Friday night.
It was assumed that a strip of thermal blanket was lost during launch, but images showed the blanket it proper shape.
The extra precautions were implemented after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry in 2003 over Texas, killing all seven crew members.
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Image Caption: Shuttle commander Chris Ferguson being welcomed aboard the International Space Station by the ISS crew, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008. NASA TV
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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