Mission Status Center

The shuttle Atlantis' heat shield has been cleared for re-entry as is after an exhaustive review of data and imagery that showed no problems of any significance with the ship's protective tiles, its reinforced carbon carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels, NASA officials said Thursday.

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EVA ENDS. Repressurization of the Quest airlock module began at 4:01 p.m. EST, marking the official end of today's spacewalk by Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher. The EVA lasted six hours and 37 minutes. It was the first of three spacewalks planned for Atlantis' mission to the space station.

The outer hatch has been closed and locked.

The spacewalking duo has climbed into the airlock. They'll soon close the hatch to complete this successful first EVA of Atlantis' STS-129 flight.

The spacewalkers are beginning to make their way back to the airlock now.

The new attachment fixture to hold a future payload has been successfully set up on the space station's Starboard 3 truss, completing an extra task for today's spacewalk.

After some hammering, that stuck cross brace has been detached.

The spacewalkers have resorted to trying a hammer to free a diagonal brace that needs to be moved out of the way for the attachment device to be unfolded from the S3 truss. But that didn't work either.

Now at the five-hour mark the spacewalk. The astronauts are trying to unfold this payload attachment system on the Starboard 3 truss. Bolt troubles are slowing them down, however.

The spacewalkers are en route to the worksite on the S3 truss after a stop at the airlock where they gathered tools and allowed Foreman to recharge his suit's oxygen supply.

All of the primary tasks for today's spacewalk have been completed with about two hours to spare. Instead of doing some minor odds and ends, the decision has been made to spend the bonus time on a get-ahead job of deploying a payload attachment fixture on the station truss backbone.

Foreman managed to get the connection mated on the S0 truss that will be needed for the new Tranquility module early next year.

Remaining on Foreman's original list of activities for this EVA is troubleshooting a connector on the Starboard 0 central truss that spacewalkers were unable to get routed during the last shuttle mission. If he encounters similar problems, an adapter was carried up on this flight to help with the problem.

Satcher has finished applying the new grease to the Japanese robotic arm's grappling snares.

Now running a couple hours ahead of the intended timeline, the spacewalkers are getting some minor get-ahead tasks added to the to-do list for today.

Satcher has moved to his new patient -- the Japanese robotic arm on the Kibo laboratory. He will completed similar preventative maintenance there.

Bobby Satcher, an orthopedic surgeon, continues the delicate maintenance work on the extra hand used to hold payloads on the space station's mobile railcar. Mike Foreman is proceeding with his chores, including removal of a handrail on the Unity connecting node and replacing it with a bracket for routing an ammonia cable.

While Mike Foreman works on cable connections outside the space station, Bobby Satcher has been maneuvered by the station arm into position at the mobile base transporter where he will lubricate the grappling snares on the payload attachment fixture.

Now at the two-hour mark into the EVA. The spacewalkers have gotten about 80 minutes ahead of the timeline.

The spacewalkers have completed installation of the refurbished S-band Antenna Support Assembly onto the International Space Station's Z1 truss to serve as a future spare.

Installation of SASA is underway.

Satcher has arrived at Z1 for delivery of the new antenna.

Foreman is making his way to the Z1 truss to meet up with Satcher for installation of the SASA.

Passing the one-hour mark into the EVA. Mission Control says the astronauts are running about 55 minutes ahead of the scripted timeline so far.

Having released the antenna assembly from its bracket on the starboard sidewall of shuttle Atlantis' payload bay, Foreman has handed the unit to Satcher for the relocation up to the space station.

Satcher has gotten a foot platform installed on the space station's robotic arm and climbed aboard from the Starboard 1 truss. He'll be maneuvered down to the shuttle bay to pick up the spare antenna and carry it to the Z1 truss for installation.

"Our first task is to take another spare part out of the space shuttle's payload bay, the SASA payload, which is S-band Antenna Support Assembly, which is basically a spare S-band antenna for the space station," Foreman said in a NASA interview. "It's an antenna that failed on orbit. They brought it back, refurbished it, now it's ready to go and we'll put it back into the spare location.

"So I will go out of the airlock, go over to the payload bay and start getting that thing ready to hand off to Bobby. Bobby's going to go out, get into the robotic arm and they'll maneuver him over into the payload bay on the end of the arm. He'll grab that thing after I unbolt it and he'll ride the arm back to Z1 where it gets installed in the spare location and I'll translate back over there and help him install it."

Both spacewalkers have emerged from the airlock. This is the fourth EVA for Foreman and the first for Satcher.

EVA BEGINS. The spacewalkers switched their suits to internal battery power at 9:24 a.m. EST, marking the official start time for today's EVA by Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher. This is the first of three spacewalks planned during Atlantis' mission at the International Space Station.

Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: STEP-BY-STEP SUMMARY OF SPACEWALK NO. 1 PLAY
VIDEO: THURSDAY MORNING FLIGHT DIRECTOR INTERVIEW PLAY
VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
MORE: STS-129 VIDEO COVERAGE
MORE: HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO COVERAGE
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The depressurization has been completed and the Quest airlock's outer hatch leading to space is being opened.

Depressurization is pausing at 5.0 psi for a planned leak check.

Airlock depressurization is progressing.

The internal hatch on the airlock has been closed.

Dressed in their spacewalking suits and ready to head outside today, Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher have moved into the section of the airlock that will be depressurized shortly.

Earlier this morning, CAPCOM Stan Love radioed commander Charlie Hobaugh with the news that the crew won't need to perform follow-up inspections on Atlantis' heat shield during a period of time set aside on Friday.

"We have no focused inspection tomorrow. It took us a little longer than usual to reach that conclusion because we had to use analysis to augment the imagery on the (external tank umbilical) doors. The imagery wasn't quite what we were hoping for. We're now replanning Flight Day 5 to fill the focused inspection time block with other activities," Love said.

Astronauts Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher are gearing up for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to install a spare S-band antenna assembly on the International Space Station, work on cable runs and connections and lubricate robotic snares used to grip payloads and equipment.