Heidemarie 'Toolbag' Piper set for second spacewalk
While ISS crew hunt missing spider
Cloud storage: Lower cost and increase uptime
Endeavour mission specialists Shane Kimbrough and Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper are getting ready for the second mission STS-126 spacewalk outside the International Space Station this afternoon, scheduled to get under way at 18:45 GMT.
Their lisk of jobs includes "the relocation of two crew and equipment translation aid carts, the lubrication of the Canadarm2 end effector, and the continuation of cleaning and lubrication of the starboard solar alpha rotary joint".
Piper earlier this week dropped a toolbag during the first spacewalk - a mishap she described as "very disheartening". She added: "There's still the psychological thing of knowing that we made a mistake and having to live through that. It was hardest coming back in and having to face everybody else."
Piper did, though, insist there would be no repeat performance, tempting fate with: "You're not going to see us lose another bag. We're going to double- and triple-check everything from here on out."
Inside the ISS, meanwhile, crew are keeping a sharp eye out for one of two orb spiders which may have gone awol from a sealed container which arrived aboard Endeavour. The arachnids form part of an experiment aimed at promoting science to students, which consists of seeing how they cope with web-weaving in space.
The answer is not very well, as the ISS's science officer Sandra Magnus explained: "The web was more or less three-dimensional and it looked like it was all over the inside of the spider hab."
Crew on Monday checked the pair, but could only see one inside the tangled silken matrix. NASA insisted, though, that the missing spider was probably somewhere amid the confusion. Kirk Shireman, NASA's deputy station program manager, said: "We don't believe that it's escaped the overall payload enclosure. I'm sure we'll find him spinning a web sometime here in the next few days."
NASA has STS-126 mission updates here. ®
COMMENTS
Missing Toolbag
My girlfriend is constantly misplacing her handbag, but luckily her phone is usually inside it, all I have to do is phone it and we play hunt the ring tone. It's a shame that ring tones don't work in space.
And don't get me started on the movie potential of a female astronaut lubricating the Canadarm2
Hey You
Hoo hoo!!! That spider is going to get radiated and will grow BIG and he will catch Heidi and buddies in his 3D web.
SHE - LOST THE FUCKING TOOL KIT.....
Giving them the vote was bad enough, and then they get licenses to drive cars... and look at how badly that has gone.... and now they are playing auto-mechanic on a space station... doing the grease and oil change and they even fuck that up..... and lose the fucking tool kit.
(Lost that is - until someone cops a supersonic spanner in the head after a de-orbiting tool bag reappears)
Lose the tool kit - Lose the fucking tool kit.... Well excuse me, since your up in orbit - you'll just have to jump in your car and drive a half mile down the road to the auto shop and buy a new kit of SPACE RATED fucking tools....
(and they are going to be really - really - really good tools as well)
Arrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh She LOST the fucking tool kit.....
She LOST the TOOL KIT.... SHE LOST IT!!!!!!!!!!!!1
(should never have allowed them to graduate beyond beyond breeding, piloting the stove and pushing a tea trolley.... )
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
Cloud storage: Lower cost and increase uptime
SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had
