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2008-11-19 05:54:03
By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer Mike Schneider, Associated Press
Writer 1 hr 54 mins ago
HOUSTON Flight controllers were revamping plans Wednesday for the remaining
spacewalks planned during space shuttle Endeavour's visit to the international
space station, after a crucial tool bag floated out to space during a repair
trip.
The briefcase-sized tool bag drifted away from astronaut Heidemarie
Stefanyshyn-Piper on Tuesday as she cleaned and lubed a gummed-up joint on a
wing of solar panels on the space station. She and fellow astronaut Stephen
Bowen were midway through the first of four spacewalks planned for the mission.
The tool bag was one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalker.
As Stefanyshyn-Piper cleaned up a large gob of grease that seeped from a gun
used to lubricate the joint, the tool case somehow became untethered from a
larger bag and floated away along with a pair of grease guns, wipes and a putty
knife attached to it.
"What it boils down to is all it takes is one small mistake for a tether not to
be hooked up quite correctly or to slip off, and that's what happened here,"
said lead spacewalk officer John Ray.
Stefanyshyn-Piper and Bowen finished the spacewalk in almost seven hours by
sharing tools from Bowen's bag. Ray noted that Stefanyshyn-Piper showed "real
character and great discipline" by continuing on. She was the first woman to be
assigned as lead spacewalker for a shuttle flight.
"Despite my little hiccup, or major hiccup, I think we did a good job out
there," Stefanyshyn-Piper said after returning to the space station.
Flight controllers are considering having the two spacewalkers share Bowen's
pair of grease guns for the three remaining spacewalks on Thursday, Saturday
and Monday. They could also use caulking guns meant for repairing the space
shuttle. Another option is to have one spacewalker clean the joint while the
other uses the grease gun to lubricate it.
For more than a year, the joint has been unable to automatically point the
right-side solar wings toward the sun for maximum energy production.
Officials weren't worried the bag would hit the space station or the docked
space shuttle because by late Tuesday it already was 2 1/2 miles in front of
the orbiting complex, said flight director Ginger Kerrick.
"It is definitely moving away with every orbit," Kerrick said.
Inside the space station, crew members were so ahead of schedule in moving
equipment delivered by Endeavour that shuttle flight planners were
contemplating skipping an extra day at the outpost orbiting 220 miles above
Earth.
The equipment includes a recycling system that converts urine into water, an
extra bathroom, kitchenette, two bedrooms, an exercise machine and refrigerator
that will allow space station residents to enjoy cold drinks for the first
time. And the extra gear will allow the space station's crew to double to six
next year.
The water recycling system was to be hooked up late Wednesday, and the first
batch of urine would run through the system later in the week. Samples will be
flown back to Earth for safety tests before astronauts can use it.