Spaceflight Now





Depleted station ammonia tank removed by astronauts
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: April 11, 2010


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Two hours into a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk, astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Clay Anderson, assisted by the space station's robot arm, have successfully removed a partially depleted 1,295-pound ammonia coolant tank and temporarily stowed it on an astronaut tool cart.

After attaching a pair of radiator servicing fixtures to the power truss, the spacewalkers will turn their attention to installing a full 1,700-pound ammonia tank carried up by the shuttle Discovery that was temporarily parked on the truss Friday.

If all goes well, the old tank will be moved to the shuttle Discovery's cargo bay during a third spacewalk Tuesday.

There have been no problems of any real significance during Sunday's spacewalk, although manually detaching the old tank and holding it steady so the station's robot arm could lock on proved to be a bit of a challenge.

With Mastracchio holding the massive tank in place, Anderson helped orient it so Stephanie Wilson, operating the robot arm, could lock on. But as he was trying to move out of the way, his suit apparently got hung up on some attachment fittings, imparting a slow movement to the big tank.

"OK Clay, all right, you just watch, it looks like you may be putting a couple of rates into the tank," spacewalk coordinator Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger warned.

"Yeah, I know," Anderson said, trying to get clear of the tank. "Stand by. Gosh dog it. ... Crud! You silly beast, jiminy Christmas!"

"Clay, what's happening there?" Metcalf-Lindenburger asked.

"It's one of these pit pin lanyards," Anderson explained. "There, I'm off."

"OK, I copy, I know there's a lot of supplies over there on your left," Metcalf-Lindenburger said. "Just go slow, it's fine, there's no rush, there's plenty of sunlight for them to grapple with."

"All right, Rick, I think I'm out of your way," Anderson said a moment later.

A few minutes after that, Wilson drove the robot arm in to capture the tank.

"The SSRMS has the tank," she confirmed.

"Thank you," Mastracchio said.

Wilson and shuttle pilot James Dutton then moved the depleted ammonia tank to an astronaut equipment cart on the front side of the station's siolar power truss and the spacewalkers secured it in place with six tethers.

"And Rick and Clay, Steph and Jim and Dottie, real nice job, great team work," shuttle commander Alan Poindexter radioed. "You guys are doing great. It's really awesome to see you working."

This is the 142nd spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the sixth so far this year and the second of three planned by Discovery's crew.

Running about 45 minutes ahead of schedule, Mastraccio and Anderson, floating in the Quest airlock module, switched their spacesuits to battery power at 1:30 a.m. EDT to officially begin the spacewalk.

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