Astronauts Complete First STS-129 Spacewalk

Mission Specialists Mike Foreman and Robert Satcher completed the first spacewalk of the STS-129 mission.

The 6-hour, 37-minute spacewalk wrapped up at 4:01 p.m. EST. Foreman and Satcher installed a spare S-band antenna structural assembly brought up in Atlantis’ cargo bay. The equipment is being stored on the Z1 segment of the station’s truss system, and to get it there Satcher rode the station’s robotic arm, driven by Mission Specialist Leland Melvin, Commander Charles Hobaugh and Pilot Barry Wilmore.

Foreman next installed a set of cables along the Destiny laboratory for the station’s future space-to-ground antenna and swapped out a handrail on the Unity node with a bracket that will be used to route an ammonia cable to the Tranquility node when it arrives next year. Meanwhile Robert Satcher lubricated the latching snares on the station’s mobile base system.

The spacewalkers also deployed the outboard Payload Attach System (PAS) on the Earth-facing side of the Starboard 3 truss. The PAS will allow future missions to store spare parts to the station’s truss segment for future use.

Meanwhile, inside the station, further work is going on to prepare the station for the arrival of the Tranquility node. Station Commander Frank De Winne and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams are working at the port hatch of the Harmony node to rewire data, power and cooling lines and air flow connections that will be connected to Tranquility. De Winne and Williams will continue working on the project over several days during the STS-129 mission.