Orbiter Now Due To Return To Earth February 20

You're doing so well... you might as well stay awhile. On Wednesday, NASA extended the space shuttle Atlantis' stay at the International Space Station by one more day, giving the seven-member STS-122 crew additional time to make sure the newly-installed Columbus laboratory is up and running properly.

The decision came after European Space Agency astronauts Rex Walheim and Hans Schlegel successfully completed the second of three scheduled spacewalks outside the orbital laboratory. Their excursion lasted six hours and 45 minutes, during which time the spacewalkers completed the removal of an expended Nitrogen Tank Assembly (NTA) and the installation of a new one on the P1 truss. The tank is part of the orbital outpost’s cooling system.

With the help of the station’s robotic arm, the spacewalkers moved the new NTA from its position in space shuttle Atlantis’ payload bay, according to NASA. They temporarily stowed it on a Crew and Equipment Translation Aid cart while they removed the expended tank. With the new NTA installed, the old tank was transferred to the orbiter’s payload bay for return to Earth.

Because they finished their primary tasks early, the spacewalkers were also able to install thermal covers on the trunnion pins on the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory. They also inspected and adjusted the US Destiny laboratory's orbital debris shields.

Schlegel -- sidelined from participating in the mission's first spacewalk due to an unspecified illness -- showed no signs of discomfort during the extravehicular excursion.

"You guys did great," Mission Control told the spacewalkers, reports The Houston Chronicle. "You did a great job, Hans. You are a master at this."

Mission Specialist Stanley Love will join Walheim for STS-122’s third spacewalk on Friday at 0835 EST. They will install two payloads on the exterior of the Columbus laboratory: SOLAR, an observatory to monitor the sun; and the European Technology Exposure Facility that will carry eight experiments requiring exposure to the space environment, including lichen and fungus samples.

The decision to extend Atlantis' stay at the ISS came at the request of the International Space Station Program, and extends the STS-122 mission to 13 days -- giving the crew extra time to prepare Columbus to host a wide range of biological and physics experiments. As ANN reported, the mission was extended from 11 days to 12 earlier this week, after Schlegel's illness postponed the first spacewalk by one day.

Atlantis will now undock from the space station on Monday, February 18, and land at 0906 EST Wednesday, February 20, at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

Meanwhile, crewmembers inside the ISS found their efforts to activate the new lab hindered somewhat, by a software glitch between NASA and European computers. The glitch delayed the transmission of initial commands to the lab from a control center near Munich.

FMI: www.nasa.gov