Astronauts Danny Olivas and Christer Fuglesang are camping out in the Quest airlock starting at 2:54 a.m. EDT Thursday, in preparation for the second STS-128 spacewalk which begins at 5:19 p.m.
John McCullough, chief of the Flight Director Office, stated that it doesn’t look like the International Space Station will have to do a debris avoidance maneuver. However, the final decision will be made during the last hour of Thursday’s spacewalk. Mission Control is building a plan to conduct a reboost just in case. The piece of debris that is being tracked is approximately 19 square meters and is in an elliptical orbit. It is a fairly big piece which makes it easier to track. The closest approach (about 3 kilometers from the station) is expected at 10:06 a.m. Friday.
John McCullough, chief of the Flight Director Office, stated that it doesn’t look like the International Space Station will have to do a debris avoidance maneuver. However, the final decision will be made during the last hour of Thursday’s spacewalk. Mission Control is building a plan to conduct a reboost just in case. The piece of debris that is being tracked is approximately 19 square meters and is in an elliptical orbit. It is a fairly big piece which makes it easier to track. The closest approach (about 3 kilometers from the station) is expected at 10:06 a.m. Friday.
