Summary Points from Thursday's Mission Status Briefing

Fri, 15 May 2009 15:54:34 GMT

The shuttle's Thermal Protection System and Reinforced Carbon Carbon are cleared for reentry. We are adding a tile survey tomorrow that should last about 45 minutes. We had a little "pan and tilt" error and missed some tile. There isn't an issue. We just want to look at it.

We had an issue on today's spacewalk with a bolt critical to removing the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. We tried using different tools and were eventually able to remove the bolt using a reconfigured ratchet tool.

If the bolt broke, there's nothing else we could have done. We would not have been able to install The Wide Field Camera III.

The WFPC 2 will eventually end up at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.

They replaced the SIC&DH unit as well. That, with the WFC III installation, makes two of our three top priorities accomplished. The third priority is the installation of the new gyroscopes.

We were able to install one of the three latch-over center kits. This was a get-ahead task for EVA 3. They had some difficulty with the other two, installing a latch repair on one of the bolts, and partially installed a second lock. That door is now secure for when it's revisited on the mission's third spacewalk.

source: nosa.gov

counterfactual

Summary Points from Thursday's Mission Status Briefing