Two of them are preparing for the fourth spacewalk tonight, during which they will try to apply a sealant to a tile identical to the shuttle's heat protection tiles
The crew members of the space station and the space shuttle Endeavor were granted a few hours of rest on the tenth day of mission STS-123. They also spoke with the Prime Minister of Japan, Yaosu Pakuda, and participated in interviews with US media.
The astronauts spent the rest of their day preparing the tools for the expected fourth spacewalk at night and reviewing the procedures involved. They also prepared for the first mission of the spacewalk - testing methods to repair the shuttle's heat shields. In the technique that will be tried tonight, a device for sealing cracks in ships that was adapted to the ferry - the Tile Repair Ablator Dispenser - is used to spray the problematic tiles with a material specially prepared for this - Tile Ablator-54. After the experiment is completed, the tile will be returned to Earth to undergo extensive tests on the ground.
Before they went to sleep, Robert Behnken and Mike Furman entered the Quest airlock for the spacewalkers' permanent campsite, which was designed to remove the nitrogen from their bodies. They are supposed to start the spacewalk around midnight Israel time tonight.
