Monday will see the fourth spacewalk of Discovery’s mission to the ISS. NASA reports:
Crew Prepares for Fourth Spacewalk
The STS-116 crew prepared on Sunday for its fourth spacewalk. The excursion, which was added Saturday, will be an attempt to retract the P6 port solar array on the International Space Station.
Throughout the day, astronauts prepared tools and spacesuits for use by the spacewalkers. Flight controllers put the finishing touches on the spacewalk’s timeline for review by the crew. Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang will conduct the spacewalk, which is slated to begin at 2:12 p.m. EST Monday.
In other activities Sunday, the STS-116 and Expedition 14 crews transferred cargo between the station and Space Shuttle Discovery. Shuttle crew members took a break from the schedule at 6:27 p.m. to talk with the Associated Press TV Network, WLS TV in Chicago, WMAQ TV in Chicago and Black Entertainment Television.
Overnight, Curbeam and Fuglesang will sleep in the Quest airlock for the pre-spacewalk campout procedure. During a campout, the pressure is lowered in the airlock to the pressure normally found on Earth at 10,000 feet above sea level. The procedure protects against decompression sickness as spacewalkers go to the even lower pressure in the spacesuits for the spacewalk.
During the spacewalk, Curbeam and Fuglesang will attempt to free up the array for retraction with several techniques — pulling guide wires, flipping grommets, and pushing panel hinges. If necessary, the spacewalkers will shake the panel.
Another objective of the fourth spacewalk is to collect additional information that could prove useful when the opposite side of the array is retracted on STS-117 in March.
The fourth spacewalk resulted in an extra day at the station for the STS-116 crew. Discovery is scheduled to undock at 5:09 p.m. Tuesday. Landing is now targeted for 3:55 p.m. Friday at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Pics from Flight Day 7 and Flight Day 8 are up at the JSC Gallery. Check the links at right for play-by-play and NASA TV.