CHAPTER 4 DAY IN THE LIFE: THE MAKING OF A MISSION 82 list of open issues—or worse, think about the things that they might have forgotten. However, issues constantly surfaced. Big and small trades were made at every turn. The Oxygen Generator Assembly failed a few days prior to the launch of Endeavour. The engineers pushed to have it fixed before the rack was relocated into Node 3. That way, if it couldn’t be reactivated, it was definitely related to the move and not the original, yet-to-be-diagnosed failure. The ISS team revised their timeline to squeeze in some repair work. A cooling valve on the Columbus module was not working properly, thus the team had to evaluate how it would impact the shutting down of the ammonia loops. Several meetings were held where the flight controllers concluded that only minor impacts could be accommodated in the procedures. A recent longeron shadowing event (see Chapter 9) had ISS Program management concerned that damage may have been done to the mast. They wanted high- resolution photographs to inspect for possible damage. The windows on the orbiter’s aft flight deck offered the best viewing location. However, the ultraviolet window screen would have to be removed to produce the sharpest photographs—an option that violated safety rules. Then the team got word that the president of the United States, Barack Obama, wanted to talk to the crew during the mission. The president’s schedule would drive the linkup, which meant the astronauts would not be speaking with the president during the prime part of their workday since it took place in the middle of the night, Eastern Standard Time. The flight directors began adjusting the schedule to make it work. Besides the public relations aspect, it would be a nice treat to give a hardworking crew during the mission. Figure 17. The final EVA timelines. EVA 1 consisted of preparing Node 3 for berthing. First the LTA power cable that powered the heaters was disconnected and bolts holding the module in the cargo bay were released. While the robotic arm was moving Node 3 from the orbiter cargo bay to its berthing spot, the crew performed other tasks such as positioning the bag that holds the ammonia hoses and removing the Orbital Replacement Unit Tool Platform. Once berthed, the spacewalking astronauts reconnected the heater cable as well as an avionics computer cable that would allow the computers to talk to the rest of the ISS systems. On EVA 2, the ammonia line of the “A” side of the cooling system was installed, and MLI (see Figure 14) was installed. This was repeated on the “B” side. The trunions, which helped hold the module securely in the cargo bay, were then covered to prevent heat from leaking away from the module. During EVA 3, the Loop “B” cooling was fully integrated into the ISS system (Loops B QDs) followed by removal of the MLI that protected the Cupola and the releasing of locks that held the shutters in place during launch. The LTA heater cable, which was no longer needed since Node 3 systems were now fully functional, was removed. Other small tasks were performed on all three EVAs. The Get Ahead section on the last spacewalk consisted of a list of small tasks that were not required for STS-130/ISS-20A but that had to be performed at some point time permitting, the EVA officer picked tasks from a list of various options for the crew to perform. The flight control team was used to working around these types of issues. By all standards, the mission was going smoothly. The training and hard work of numerous people over the years was paying off. The first significant issues with the intricate ballet of module movements came