Mission

Assembly of Dextre (Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator: SPDM) was completed during today's spacewalk.

During the STS-123 mission's third extravehicular activity (EVA#3), two spacewalkers completed almost all the planned EVA tasks except for the installation of the MISSE-6 on the Columbus laboratory. Also, some of the multi-layer insulation (MLI) covers have remained on Dextre.

When the EVA crew tried to install the MISSE-6 suitcases on their connecting devices (called Lightweight Adapter Plate Assembly (LWAPA)) on the Columbus laboratory, he found it difficult to insert the pip pins* into the sockets of the LWAPA.

It seemed that the pip pins did not fit into the sockets. The ground team is now trying to figure out the cause of the problem for troubleshooting.
These uncompleted tasks may be rescheduled in the mission's rest of the EVAs if time allows.

Dextre will remain grappled by the station's robotic arm (SSRMS) overnight. Tomorrow (FD9), Dextre will be attached to a power and data grapple fixture (PDGF) installed on the Destiny laboratory.

* Pip pin is used for fastening the MISSE-6 suitcases on their attaching device, LWAPA.

Astronaut Doi's on orbit activities

Astronaut Doi continued the work inside Kibo's Experiment Logistics Module-Pressurized Section (ELM-PS).

Inside the ELM-PS, he retrieved to set the dummy panels that will be used temporarily when transferring the racks from the ELM-PS to Kibo's Pressurized Module (PM) on the STS-124 Mission.

After that, he has configured the display of the Kibo's laptop computers and removed the stowage bags from the racks in the ELM-PS. He also did some EVA support tasks while the EVA#3 was underway.

Additionally, astronaut Doi retrieved the boom of Kibo's external camera light assembly unit from its storage location. Kibo's external camera light assembly unit will be installed on the PM's external structure during the STS-124 Mission.

For further information, please refer to the NASA STS-123 Mission Status Report

*All times are Japan Standard Time (JST)