Saturday has the last EVA on tap for this trip. The tasks for spacewalkers Robert Behnken and Michael Foreman include stowing the Orbiter Boom Sensor System on the Station, and the mounting of an experiment package outside the Columbus module. NASA reports:
STS-123 Astronauts Performing Final Spacewalk
Image above: An astronaut exits the U.S. Quest airlock beginning the fifth spacewalk of the STS-123 mission. Credit: NASA TV
Mission Specialists Robert L. Behnken and Mike Foreman began the fifth spacewalk of STS-123 at 4:34 p.m. EDT. Rick Linnehan, also a mission specialist, is coordinating their activities from inside the orbiting complex made up of space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station.
Behnken and Foreman are tasked with stowing the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) on the station’s S1 Truss. With the OBSS in the grip of the station’s robot arm, the two spacewalkers will assemble an umbilical designed to keep the boom safe while it is stored in the harsh space environment. Then, the robot arm will hand the OBSS off to Behnken and Foreman, who will stow it on the truss.
The next component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory, which will be delivered on space shuttle Discovery during the STS-124 mission, is too large to accommodate the OBSS in the shuttle’s payload bay. Once the next element of Kibo is installed on the station, Discovery’s astronauts will detach the OBSS left behind by space shuttle Endeavour, use it to perform tile inspections and bring it home.
When the STS-123 spacewalkers have successfully attached the boom to the S1 Truss, they will release launch locks on two of the Harmony module’s common berthing mechanisms and install trunnion covers on the Japanese Logistics Module – Pressurized Section. They also will perform other tasks including an inspection of the starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint.
In addition, the spacewalkers are tasked with installing the Materials International Space Station Experiment 6 on the outside of the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory, an activity the astronauts were unable to complete during the mission’s third spacewalk.
With the final STS-123 spacewalk complete, flight day 14 will see the crew of Endeavour prepare for the end of their visit to the station. The orbiter will undock Monday and return to Earth Wednesday.
Media Resources
› STS-123 Execute Packages
› STS-123 TV Schedule
› STS-123 Press Kit (4.4 Mb PDF)
› STS-123 Fact Sheet (433 Kb PDF)
Flight Day 12 videos are up at the JSC Gallery. Kibo tour video here. Discussion here. Status Report #24 here. Check the links at right for play-by-play and NASA TV.
