NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Second STS-129 Spacewalk Begins

Image above: A portion of the International Space Station, including the Columbus laboratory (bottom), is featured in this image photographed by an STS-129 crew member. Credit: NASA

The second spacewalk of the STS-129 mission began at 9:31 a.m. EST Saturday. Even though they are starting late, Mission Specialists Mike Foreman and Randy Bresnik plan to get all the scheduled tasks complete during what will now be a six-hour-long spacewalk. That is 30 minutes shorter than was originally planned, which means that they will not have extra time in the schedule for get ahead work.

Foreman and Bresnik still intend to install the Grappling Adaptor to On-Orbit Railing assembly (or GATOR) on the Columbus module, relocate a floating potential measurement unit to the P1 truss segment, set up a cargo attachment system on the zenith face of the S3 truss segment and install a wireless video system external transceiver assembly.

The spacewalkers exercised 10 minutes on the Destiny laboratory’s cycle ergometer, wearing masks and breathing pure oxygen to help purge their bodies of nitrogen. They spent a total of two hours and 20 minutes breathing oxygen before the spacewalk. This procedure was used for years by spacewalkers prior to the arrival of the space station’s Quest Airlock and will help prevent them from experiencing decompression sickness, or the bends, when they enter the vacuum of space.

The International Space Station again experienced a false depressurization alarm that originated from the new Poisk Mini-Research Module overnight. The station’s automatic response resulted in a shutdown of ventilation systems, which led to two smoke detectors issuing a false alarm, as well – one in the Columbus European laboratory and one in the Quest airlock, where Foreman and Bresnik were camping out as part of the pre-breathe protocol that precedes spacewalks.

The alarm sounded at 9:53 p.m., more than two hours after Atlantis’ crew went to sleep for the night. Emergency procedures required the spacewalkers to move out of the airlock while teams on the ground verified that the alarms were false.

At this time, flight controllers do not know why the Poisk module generated another false rapid depressurization alarm.

The STS-129 mission is focused on the storage of spare hardware on the exterior of the station. The 11-day flight includes three spacewalks and the installation of two platforms to the station’s truss, or backbone. The platforms will hold spare parts to sustain station operations after the shuttles are retired. This equipment is large and can only be transported using the unique capability of the shuttle.

For the latest news and information on the STS-129 mission, visit the main shuttle page.

› Read more about STS-129

› Read more about Expedition 21
› View crew timelines

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