Mission Specialists Michael Good and Garrett Reisman began the third and final spacewalk of the STS-132 mission at 6:27 a.m. EDT.

The spacewalkers' first task was the installation of an ammonia jumper on the port 4 and 5 truss. Then they finished the last of the battery replacement work, swapping the remaining two batteries and installing a battery that was left in a temporary stow position from the last spacewalk.

The final planned task is the retrieval of a Power and Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) from the orbiter's payload bay to bring inside the station at the end of the spacewalk. The PDGF will be installed to the Zarya module's exterior on a spacewalk later this summer.

The space shuttle crew gets a little break from the busy pace of the last several days. Today they are working with the new Rassvet module and preparing for a third spacewalk, but the shuttle astronauts will have some off-duty time as well.

The first tasks of the day focused on the new module, Mini-Research Module-1, also known as Rassvet, which was attached to the International Space Station Tuesday. Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Alexander Skvortsov performed leak checks in the Russian segment before opening hatches around 6:52 a.m. EDT.

The shuttle crew will have a few hours of off duty time in the afternoon, but otherwise, the day will largely focus on preparations for the third and final spacewalk. Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good and Stephen Bowen will gather and prepare the tools needed and configure the airlock. Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialist Piers Sellers will join them to review the procedures before Reisman and Good settle in to spend the night in the Quest module as part of the "camp out" for their excursion.

Mission Specialists Stephen Bowen and Michael Good began the second STS-132 spacewalk at 6:38 a.m. EDT.

Bowen adjusted a cable on the end of the orbiter boom. This brief task was added after discovering early in the flight that the cable was inhibiting a camera from maneuvering correctly. Bowen adjusted the cable and used a plastic tie to hold it in position.

The two spacewalkers are replacing three batteries on the station port solar array. Each of the batteries weighs more than 360 pounds and is requiring an intricate choreography between the spacewalkers to swap out safely. The spacewalk is expected to last six and a half hours.

Two astronauts are venturing outside the International Space Station today in the first of three planned spacewalks for the STS-132 mission. They are installing a second station space-to-ground Ku-band antenna and a spare parts platform on Dextre, the two-armed robotic Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator.

Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman and Stephen Bowen began the planned 6.5-hour spacewalk at 7:54 a.m. EDT. Mission Specialist Michael Good and Pilot Tony Antonelli, the intravehicular officer, are assisting the spacewalkers from inside the orbiting complex. Support for robotic arm operations is being provided by Mission Specialist Piers Sellers and Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson.

One of the final space shuttle visits to the International Space Station began at 2:20 p.m. Friday with the launch of Atlantis and six astronauts from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will deliver cargo, critical spare parts and a Russian laboratory to the station.

The third of five shuttle missions planned for 2010, this was the last planned launch for Atlantis. The Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 is inside the shuttle's cargo bay. Also known as Rassvet (dawn in Russian), it will provide additional storage space and a new docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. The laboratory will be attached to the bottom port of the station's Zarya module.

Fri, 07 May 2010 08:11:01 AM CDT

With liftoff now only a week away, final preps are under way for the launch of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-132 mission to the International Space Station. Launch officially is set for May 14 at 2:20 p.m. EDT.

At NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A, technicians will close shuttle Atlantis' payload bay doors in support of payload operations.

Commander Ken Ham will lead the six-member astronaut crew during the 12-day flight. The astronauts are enjoying a second day off today before going into quarantine tonight in preparation for their upcoming mission. They're scheduled to arrive at Kennedy on Monday evening.

NASA has delayed the last flight of the space shuttle Endeavour from July to November at the earliest to allow time to modify its cargo - a $1.5 billion science experiment - for a longer stay on the International Space Station.

Endeavour was initially targeted for a July 29 launch with a crew of six astronauts in order to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the space station.

The spectrometer will be installed on the exterior of the space station to study high-energy cosmic rays in the hunt for elusive antimatter and dark matter.

More than 200 researchers from 16 countries are working to build the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. The project is led by Nobel laureate physicist Samuel Ting of MIT.

With Commander Alan G. Poindexter and Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. at the controls, space shuttle Discovery descended to a smooth landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-131 crew members concluded their successful mission to the International Space Station when the shuttle touched down at 9:08 a.m. EDT.

Discovery arrived at the station April 7, delivering more than seven tons of equipment and supplies. During the 10-day stay, Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson conducted three spacewalks to install a 1,700-pound ammonia tank assembly on the station's exterior to replace a depleted predecessor. They also replaced a rate gyro assembly, retrieved a Japanese experiment and two debris shields.

Continued low cloud coverage at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility forced flight controllers to pass on STS-131's second landing opportunity Monday.

This was the last opportunity for space shuttle Discovery to land today.

The next Kennedy Space Center landing opportunity is Tuesday with a deorbit burn at 6:28 a.m. EDT and landing at 7:34 a.m.

Edwards Air Force Base in California also is expected to be called up for Tuesday landing opportunities.

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Space shuttle Discovery's seven-member STS-131 crew will begin its day by unloading the last transfer items in the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module and then closing the hatches between it and the Harmony node in preparation for its return to the shuttle's payload bay.

Overnight International Space Station and Space Shuttle mission managers agreed there is no need for a fourth spacewalk to replace the nitrogen tank assembly that has a jammed valve. Station ground teams have determined the station can operate for an extended period of time in the current configuration. The team is continuing to troubleshoot the stuck valve and is looking at options for future replacement of the nitrogen tank assembly should that be necessary.