STORY WRITTEN FOR & USED WITH PERMISSIONPosted: February 10, 2010The Endeavour astronauts worked through a light day in orbit Wednesday, preparing for a spacewalk overnight Thursday, the first of three to attach and outfit a new habitation module, and looking forward to a bit of off-duty time.Space station commander-turned-plumber Jeffrey Williams, meanwhile, spent his "morning" repairing the lab's urine recycling equipment, installing a new distillation assembly centrifuge and pump module brought up aboard Endeavour, along with a new filter that engineers hope will restore the critical system to normal, or near-normal operation.If all goes well, Williams will complete the repairs this evening and the equipment will begin processing stored urine to make sure the system works as expected."The top priority really will be replacing the distillation assembly, which is a centrifuge that's a central component in the urine processor," said lead Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho. "That assembly will be replaced and if everything goes well, we'll do the initial activation of that assembly and start a brief shakedown period."Engineers on the ground "will be looking at the performance of that system, making sure all the currents and the rotation rates and other parameters are as they expect," he said. "And then we'll try to process some of the urine that's been stored. We'll probably start that process early on flight day five (overnight Thursday) or a little bit later."The primary goal of Endeavour's mission is to attach a new habitation module to the station that will house the U.S. toilet, oxygen generation system, carbon dioxide scrubber and water processing system, all of which are currently housed elsewhere in the lab.But the equipment racks will not be moved until the urine processing system has had a chance to operate, generating pure water that will be returned to Earth aboard Endeavour for analysis.Shuttle engineers at the Johnson Space Center are continuing their assessment of Endeavour's heat shield to make sure the orbiter can safely descend to Earth a the end of the mission.LeRoy Cain, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team, said engineers now have enough imagery to rule out any need for an additional, focused inspection. Time set aside for such an inspection now will be put to use transferring equipment and supplies and doing other tasks.Overall, Cain said, the shuttle's thermal protection system appears to be "very clean" with only two "areas of interest" under discussion.A photo survey carried out by the station crew during the shuttle's approach Tuesday showed a ceramic insert around a fastener securing a carrier plate around one of the shuttle's cockpit windows had loosened, protruding a bit above the surface of the window frame.A protruding ceramic insert seen before Endeavour's flight (left) and during photo surveys before docking (right). Credit: NASAThe fastener acts as a spacer of sorts and engineers are assessing what might happen if it worked loose during re-entry, whether it could strike the shuttle's tail fin, speed brake or an aft orbital maneuvering system rocket pod."The vertical stabilizer, where we have the rudder and the speedbrake, is the area that would be of concern, possibly the OMS pod," Cain said. "The ceramic insert is a fairly dense material. We'll see what the debris transport shows us."It's not yet known what sort of energy the insert could impart if it did work itself loose, or even whether that's a possibility given that it didn't come all the way out during the vibrations of launch."There are a whole lot of questions that have to be answered before we would ever consider whether or not we need to do anything to mitigate it," Cain said. "We have more questions than answers at this point, so we'll let the team go off and do the work."Another area of interest is a repaired tile on the upper surface of the crew module. The repair appears to have failed and one corner of the tile has separated slightly from the rest.Neither issue appears to be a serious threat and as of this writing, it appears unlikely any repairs would be attempted. But Cain said nothing has been ruled out."Those are two areas we'll take a closer look at from an analysis standpoint, we'll do some debris transport assessment and we'll talk some more about those two areas as we go through the mission," he said. "Initially, it doesn't look like we're going to be very concerned about them, but we want to be very vigilant and take a closer look."Overall, he said, "the vehicle is very, very clean from a thermal protection standpoint. Endeavour looks really good."Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EST and mission elapsed time; includes revision C of the NASA television schedule):EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT02/1004:14 PM...02...12...00...Crew wakeup04:30 PM...02...12...16...Post MMT briefing on NTV05:49 PM...02...13...35...ISS daily planning conference06:04 PM...02...13...50...ISS: Distillation assembly install07:04 PM...02...14...50...ISS: Water pump assembly replacement07:19 PM...02...15...05...EVA tools configured07:44 PM...02...15...30...Transfer operations08:24 PM...02...16...10...ISS: Waste water tank offload09:19 PM...02...17...05...EVA tool audit09:30 PM...02...17...16...Mission status briefing on NTV09:39 PM...02...17...25...ISS: Filter install10:49 PM...02...18...35...Joint crew meal11:49 PM...02...19...35...PAO event on NTV02/1112:09 AM...02...19...55...Crew off duty time04:14 AM...03...00...00...EVA-1: Procedures review05:29 AM...03...01...15...ISS evening planning conference06:39 AM...03...02...25...EVA-1: Mask/pre-breathe07:24 AM...03...03...10...EVA-1 Airlock depress to 10.2 psi07:44 AM...03...03...30...ISS crew sleep begins08:14 AM...03...04...00...STS crew sleep begins09:00 AM...03...04...46...Daily highlights reel on NTV01:30 PM...03...09...16...Flight director update on NTV04:14 PM...03...12...00...Crew wakeupFixing the urine processor is critical to long-term station operation. With a crew of up to six full-time astronauts, generating fresh water is an on-going issue that will take on added significance when the shuttle is retired later this year.Here is a bit more background from the CBS News STS-130 mission preview:The station's urine processor has been shut down in recent weeks because of problems with the distillation assembly. More recently, blockage in a line knocked out the part of the system that converts condensate into clean water."We brought home the other failed distillation assembly on the last shuttle flight," station Program Manager Mike Suffredini said before launch. "Through a failure investigation, we found calcium deposits inside the distillation assembly and we're doing quite a bit of investigation to determine how to prevent that in the future."One way is to not process to as high a concentration of brine inside the system, meaning we empty the tank that carries the ultimate waste from the urine processor, we empty it a little more often. So we want to run the processor with the new distillation assembly inside long enough to fill the tank up to the new level we plan to operate at, remove that tank and bring it home."That will take us almost the entire mission, from the time we're able to install the spare until the time the crew has to depart," Suffredini said. "That's what's driving us not to do the rest of the rack moves until the urine processor can move."As for the presumed line blockage problem with the water processing system that is preventing conversion of condensate, engineers believe a filter carried up aboard Endeavour should resolve the issue."When the shuttle arrives we'll install the filter and then we'll activate the water processor along with the urine processor and recover our regenerative (environmental control and life support) system by the end of the mission," Suffredini said.The station has plenty of stockpiled water for extended operations while work to fix the current problems is carried out. Station Flight Director Bob Dempsey described the repairs as "an extensive amount of work.""Once they complete that work, we'll activate from the ground and begin processing the urine and we'll watch that very closely," he said. "We'll process as much as we can through the mission so the filter/tank assembly gets to be used as much as we can and verify that the system is working in its new configuration and then we'll bring it back on the last day."As it now stands, the oxygen generation system, the U.S. toilet and the water processing system racks bound for Tranquility will not be moved into the new module during the normal shuttle timeline. If the flight is extended one day as managers hope, the Endeavour astronauts should be able to get some, if not all, of the equipment transferred.Additional coverage for subscribers:VIDEO:WEDNESDAY MORNING'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING VIDEO:SHUTTLE CREW WELCOMED ABOARD STATION VIDEO:HATCHWAY OPENED BETWEEN TWO SPACECRAFT VIDEO:ENDEAVOUR DOCKS TO THE SPACE STATION VIDEO:SHUTTLE FLIES OUT IN FRONT OF STATION VIDEO:ENDEAVOUR PERFORMS 360-DEGREE BACKFLIP VIDEO:STUNNING SHOT OF SHUTTLE AGAINST HORIZON VIDEO:STATION'S VIEW OF SHUTTLE ENGINE FIRING VIDEO:PREVIEW OF FLIGHT DAY 3 ACTIVITIES VIDEO:TUESDAY AFTERNOON'S MANAGEMENT TEAM UPDATE VIDEO:AMAZING LAUNCH FOOTAGE FROM COCKPIT CAMERA VIDEO:FLIGHT DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE VIDEO:TUESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING VIDEO:TIME-LAPSE OF WING INSPECTIONS VIDEO:INSPECTION BOOM READIED FOR USE VIDEO:PREVIEW OF FLIGHT DAY 2 ACTIVITIES VIDEO:NARRATED TOUR OF ENDEAVOUR'S PAYLOAD BAY VIDEO:FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE VIDEO:THE FULL STS-130 LAUNCH EXPERIENCE VIDEO:SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR BLASTS OFF! VIDEO:GO BEHIND THE SCENES IN MISSION CONTROL VIDEO:JETTISONED EXTERNAL FUEL TANK TUMBLES AWAY VIDEO:PAYLOAD BAY DOORS OPENED FOLLOWING LAUNCH VIDEO:CREW FINISHES GETTING SUITED UP VIDEO:ASTRONAUTS LEAVE CREW QUARTERS VIDEO:CREW ARRIVES AT LAUNCH PAD 39A VIDEO:ASTRONAUTS BOARD THEIR SPACECRAFT VIDEO:LAUNCH REPLAY: VAB ROOF VIDEO:LAUNCH REPLAY: PRESS SITE VIDEO:LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD PERIMETER VIDEO:LAUNCH REPLAY: BEACH TRACKER VIDEO:LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD CAMERA 070 VIDEO:LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD CAMERA 071 VIDEO:LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-23 TRACKER VIDEO:LAUNCH REPLAY: PLAYALINDA BEACH VIDEO:LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD FRONT CAMERA VIDEO:LAUNCH REPLAY: BANANA CREEK SITE VIDEO:NARRATED REVIEW OF SHUTTLE'S PREPARATIONS VIDEO:NARRATED REVIEW OF PAYLOADS' PREPARATIONS VIDEO:EXPLANATION OF WEATHER PROBLEMS VIDEO:LOW CLOUDS SCRUB FIRST COUNTDOWN VIDEO:ASTRONAUTS DEPART QUARTERS FOR PAD 39A VIDEO:CREW GETS SUITED UP FOR LAUNCH ATTEMPT VIDEO:PAD SERVICE GANTRY RETRACTED VIDEO:TIME-LAPSE OF MOBILE TOWER ROLLBACK VIDEO:INTERVIEW WITH COMMANDER GEORGE ZAMKA VIDEO:INTERVIEW WITH PILOT TERRY VIRTS VIDEO:INTERVIEW WITH MISSION SPECIALIST 1 KAY HIRE VIDEO:INTERVIEW WITH MISSION SPECIALIST 2 STEVE ROBINSON VIDEO:INTERVIEW WITH MISSION SPECIALIST 3 NICK PATRICK VIDEO:INTERVIEW WITH MISSION SPECIALIST 4 BOB BEHNKEN VIDEO:ENDEAVOUR'S PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE VIDEO:THURSDAY STATUS AND WEATHER UPDATE VIDEO:COUNTDOWN PREVIEW BRIEFING VIDEO:ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE FOR LAUNCH VIDEO:LAUNCH DATE SET AT FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW VIDEO:PAYLOAD BAY DOORS CLOSED FOR LAUNCH VIDEO:CREW SEES TRANQUILITY LOADED INTO SHUTTLE VIDEO:SHUTTLE EVACUATION PRACTICE VIDEO:ASTRONAUTS BOARD ENDEAVOUR VIDEO:THE LAUNCH DAY SIMULATION BEGINS VIDEO:PAD BUNKER TRAINING FOR THE CREW VIDEO:CREW BRIEFED ON EMERGENCY PROCEDURES VIDEO:TEST-DRIVING AN EMERGENCY ARMORED TANK VIDEO:NIGHTTIME APPROACHES IN TRAINING AIRCRAFT VIDEO:ASTRONAUTS CHAT WITH REPORTERS AT PAD 39A VIDEO:SPACEWALKER UPDATES COOLING HOSE FIX VIDEO:ROBINSON'S THOUGHTS ON SHUTTLE RETIREMENT VIDEO:ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN VIDEO:TRANQUILITY DELIVERED TO PAD 39A VIDEO:PAYLOAD TRANSPORTER GOES UPRIGHT VIDEO:PACKING UP PAYLOAD FOR LAUNCH VIDEO:SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR'S FRIGID ROLLOUT TO PAD VIDEO:ENDEAVOUR HOISTED FOR ATTACHMENT TO TANK VIDEO:CRANE ROTATES THE ORBITER VERTICALLY VIDEO:ENDEAVOUR MOVES TO ASSEMBLY BUILDING VIDEO:TIME-LAPSE SHOWS ENDEAVOUR ASCENDING IN VAB VIDEO:TIME-LAPSE SHOWS THE MOVE TO ASSEMBLY BUILDING VIDEO:ORBITER READY TO LEAVE HANGAR VIDEO:EXTERNAL TANK ATTACHED TO BOOSTERS VIDEO:ENDEAVOUR'S MAIN ENGINE INSTALLATION VIDEO:ASTRONAUTS VISIT THEIR SPACECRAFT VIDEO:CREW INSPECTS MISSION PAYLOADS VIDEO:FUEL TANK UNLOADED FROM THE BARGE VIDEO:EXTERNAL TANK ARRIVES AT SPACEPORT VIDEO:FORWARD THRUSTER POD CHECKED OUT VIDEO:ENDEAVOUR TOWED OFF RUNWAY FROM STS-127 VIDEO:TRANQUILITY HATCH SEALED FOR LAUNCH VIDEO:CUPOLA ATTACHED TO TRANQUILITY VIDEO:THE SPACE STATION'S NEW CUPOLA VIDEO:TRANQUILITY UNPACKED IN FLORIDA VIDEO:NEW MODULE ARRIVES FROM EUROPE STS-134 PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!The final planned flight of space shuttle Endeavour is symbolized in the official embroidered crew patch for STS-134. 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The design features the space shuttle Columbia's historic maiden flight of April 12, 1981.Mercury anniversaryFree shipping to U.S. addresses!Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Alan Shephard's historic Mercury mission with this collectors' item, the official commemorative embroidered patch. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Astronauts give Endeavour full post-launch inspectionBY WILLIAM HARWOOD
