The failure to fully deploy an external cargo carrier mechanism during the Discovery crew's final spacewalk today will have no immediate impact on space station assembly, the flight director said today. The jammed carrier, intended to support pallets carrying spare parts and other equipment for downstream use, may be repaired by the station crew or astronauts on an upcoming assembly flight.

"All in all, it was a very productive spacewalk," lead Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho said. "We did learn several things about what might be ailing that mechanism and we're certainly going to look toward plans for remediating that in the future.

"This, of course, was the third and final spacewalk for the mission. So tomorrow will be largely an off-duty day for the crew. The day after tomorrow, on Wednesday, the crew will be preparing for the final transfers of equipment and logistics supplies as well as hatch closure and subsequently, undocking."

Undocking is targeted for 3:53 p.m. Wednesday. If all goes well, Discovery will land back at the Kennedy Space Center around 1:44 p.m. Saturday.

"Overall, we're absolutely thrilled and very happy that we were able to accomplish what we did," Alibaruho said. "We certainly accomplished our highest priority objectives and certainly the ones that we were most concerned about were executed flawlessly."

Alibaruho said the station's complex water recycling system, including a repaired urine processing assembly, appears to be working normally after installation of a new distillation centrifuge unit Friday. After initial tests and checkout, the astronauts ran a water sample through the system overnight and no problems were reported.

"We had great success with the operation of the urine processor assembly," Alibaruho said. "We were able to perform the full processing cycle of about 70 pounds of urine that has been washed through the urine processor and has been converted into clean water. So we're very excited about that.

"The new distillation assembly appears to have performed very well, with no anomalies. In fact, we got a report from the crew that all-around performance of that unit was much better from a vibration perspective and an acoustic perspective. So that gives us some indication that that new distillation assembly that we flew up is in good shape and quite healthy. So we're very excited about that activity today."

The water recycling system is designed to convert condensate and urine into potable water for drinking, crew hygiene and oxygen generation. The urine processor was installed during a shuttle flight last November, but the vacuum distillation assembly centrifuge malfunctioned and eventually failed.

Getting the recycling system up and running is critical for NASA's plans to boost station crew size from three to six in late May. While the station has enough fresh water to support six astronauts in the near term, recycling is required for long-term support.

"What's next on the plate for checkout of our advanced life support systems equipment is basically to take end-of-mission water samples from various places in the water recycling loop, from some of the sensor areas that look at water quality, we take a sample from the actual galley water dispenser, the ambient temperature line and the hot temperature line, as well as the rack interface area where we make the connection of the water recycler rack to the main water buss in the U.S. laboratory," Alibaruho.

"So we'll take about four samples, four water samples, for return home," he said. "Those will be analyzed by specialists to determine if the whole system can be cleared for use by the crew. So those water samples were a very important mission objective for us in addition to the installation of the (S6 solar array) truss and deployment of the solar arrays, of course."

He said it likely will take about a month to complete analysis of the returned water samples. Assuming they meet the required standards, the station crew will be cleared to begin using recycled water.

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