The goal: to allow the STS-126 crew members, the 18th crew of the space station and the engineers on the ground to verify that the water recovery system is operating as a series * The fourth and final spacewalk has ended
Yesterday (Monday), the control center informed the astronauts on the space shuttle Endeavor and the members of the 18th crew of the space station that the STS-126 mission has been extended by a day. The new landing date is Sunday, at 13:18 EST (20:18 Israel time), although this date is still not final. The purpose of the extension is to allow Endeavor astronauts, the space station crew and engineers on the ground to continue testing the operation of the new water recovery system.
As you may recall, with the installation of the system at the end of last week, the astronauts encountered the failure of the pump that collects the urine produced in the space station in order to separate the water and make it drinkable. Apparently one of the mechanical pumps was not working properly. After two days of attempts, the astronauts managed to produce water using the system, but NASA prefers to continue to operate it for several consecutive days to be sure that the malfunction has indeed been fixed.
Tonight, Steve Bevan and Shane Kimborough completed their fourth and final spacewalk, at 02:31 Israel time. They completed cleaning the engines of the station's two adjustable solar collectors, installed a camera on one of the station's supports as well as a GPS receiver, and closed a bolt on the outer side of the Kivu space shuttle.
In the meantime, the astronauts continued to transfer equipment and food from the shuttle to the space station, so far about 75% of the supplies stored in the Leonardo storage component, which was removed from the shuttle's cargo deck at the beginning of the operation and attached to the space station from the outside, have been transferred to the station.
