Spaceflight Now





BY JUSTIN RAY

Follow space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 mission to finish assembly of the International Space Station's Japanese segment. Reload this page for the latest updates.

Bookmark and Share
Sign up to our Twitter feed and get text message updates on your cellphone. U.S. readers can also sign up from their phone by texting "follow spaceflightnow" to 40404. (Standard text messaging charges apply.)

TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2009
The astronauts spent the evening getting prepared for Wednesday's spacewalk by Dave Wolf and Chris Cassidy. Wakeup time will be 6:03 a.m. and the EVA is slated to start around 11 a.m. EDT.

Onboard rocket camera footage always dazzles and the video from shuttle Endeavour's solid boosters doesn't disappoint. The inspiring views of the spacecraft rocketing toward orbit, which were released by NASA on Tuesday, are presented here for Spaceflight Now+Plus users with launch audio. Check out the clips here.

2145 GMT (5:45 p.m. EDT)
New NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a respected former shuttle commander and retired Marine Corp major general, said Tuesday he's confident an on-going presidential review of NASA's manned space program will not result in changes that would lengthen the projected five-year gap between the end of shuttle operations and the debut of a new rocket system to replace it.

Read our full story.

1848 GMT (2:48 p.m. EDT)
The space station's Canadian-built robot arm has completed its relocation to the worksite on the far port side of the truss backbone in support of the next spacewalk. The arm is holding in its hand the carrier with the new batteries that the astronauts will install on the P6 truss.
1720 GMT (1:20 p.m. EDT)
In preparation for tomorrow's spacewalk that will begin replacing batteries on the Port 6 solar array truss, the station's robot arm has detached the spare parts pallet from the mobile railcar. This pallet, not to be confused with the one docked to the Japanese facility this morning, launched the replacement hardware that was unloaded during yesterday's EVA. But it also houses the six fresh new batteries for the station's oldest power module that the astronauts will swap out during spacewalk Nos. 3 and 4 on the far port side of the complex.
1437 GMT (10:37 a.m. EDT)
Attachment of the Japanese experiments pallet has been completed successfully.
1426 GMT (10:26 a.m. EDT)
A "soft dock" has been achieved between the carrier and Exposed Facility.
1414 GMT (10:14 a.m. EDT)
The space station arm has moved the experiments carrier the final feet into its capture port on the end of the Japanese Exposed Facility.

This is a temporary installation of the pallet structure. Once the payloads are unloaded by Japan's new robot arm on Thursday, the carrier can be berthed back in Endeavour's bay for return to Earth.

1345 GMT (9:45 a.m. EDT)
The Endeavour astronauts spent the morning working with the shuttle and station robot arms, pulling a pallet of Japanese experiments from the orbiter's payload bay and moving it into position for installation on a new experiment platform Thursday.

Read our morning story.

1343 GMT (9:43 a.m. EDT)
The station's arm has taken the Japanese logistics carrier - known as JLE or "jelly" - from the shuttle arm.
1330 GMT (9:30 a.m. EDT)
The latest version of the NASA Television schedule (Rev. J) can be downloaded here.
1320 GMT (9:20 a.m. EDT)
This Japanese-made carrier has reached the handoff position. Loaded aboard is an X-ray astronomy payload, a space environment monitor and a communications system. The three items will be removed from the carrier and attached to ports on Japan's Exposed Facility on Thursday.
1300 GMT (9:00 a.m. EDT)
Space shuttle Endeavour's robot arm has unberthed the compact platform containing three experiment packages for Japan's Exposed Facility. The arm will maneuver the payload into position for handoff to the space station's arm, which will install the platform directly onto the Exposed Facility.
1005 GMT (6:05 a.m. EDT)
"Life Is a Highway" was the wakeup song played by Mission Control to get Flight Day 7 underway for the astronauts. Unberthing of a small Japanese experiments carrier from Endeavour's payload bay is scheduled for this morning, followed by some off duty time in the afternoon and then an evening devoted to preparing for tomorrow's spacewalk is the game plan for the crew.

Read our earlier status center coverage.

STS-127 patch
The official embroidered patch for shuttle Endeavour's flight to finish building Japanese section of the space station.
 U.S. STORE
 WORLDWIDE STORE

Hubble crew
The official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle's last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase.

PATCH
 U.S. STORE
 WORLDWIDE STORE

Expedition 20
The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 20 crew is now available from our stores.
 U.S. STORE
 WORLDWIDE STORE

STS-128 patch
The official embroidered patch for shuttle Discovery's flight to deliver equipment and research gear to the space station.
 U.S. STORE
 WORLDWIDE STORE