 This is Mission Control Houston. This view is of Northern Australia as an endeavor Continues on a course now taking across the northern part of the continent Just a inland from the north coast again these views of Northern Australia endeavor crossing the northern territory It's course taking it to just inland a lot from the northern coast of the continent inland that from the Gulf of Carpenteria Great views of the land down under that endeavor now moving into the mountains along the Eastern coast of Australia the great dividing range And no dogs could cogitate This is Mission Control this view from payload cameras Payload Bay cameras aboard the shuttle endeavor showing the Spartan science satellite sitting on its trust structure in the cargo bay on The left side of the screen is the task board a work site Upon which Jim Voss and Mike Guernhardt spent several hours yesterday during their spacewalk Conducting a number of tasks to develop techniques and to prove out procedures Which are expected to be used in some assembly sequences for the International Space Station Thank you for joining us gentlemen Commander Walker, I'll get right with it with you a word about the complexity and the The busy timeline which you had on this mission. I think before you left you said you'd be happy if you Completed 80% of your chores up in orbit. How close did you come to that figure? I haven't kept that close to track. We've been pretty busy I think we've gotten most of the major objectives done But the the guys on the ground really have the have the running tally much better than I do I will say that I'm extremely proud of the work that their mission control team Has done in helping us stay with this timeline and as my crew of course for for hanging in there and keeping up with it Payload commander Colonel Voss and let's have you weigh in on this for a moment Did you at any point along this mission get the sense that you're attempting to do too much? I think we knew that right from the start We've known all along we had a full plate and we've been preparing for it knowing and that We were going to be extremely busy hoping that we could accomplish everything that we'd set out to do plus even some extra And I think we've done a pretty good job of that any time that you have any difficulties or problems in a flight It slows you down and could prevent you from Accomplishing all of your objectives But I think that the ground team and the crew have both gone to extremes to make sure that we bring back as Much science data as we possibly can Of course when there's a problem such as you had with the wake shield facility when you have a tight timeline like you You've had on this mission It just gives you less of an you have fewer backstop fewer options to fall back on How how much did that make the problem worse? Let's say with the wake shield facility having such a tight timeline Every time we plan a flight We know that we're using a very valuable national asset and we want to plan the timeline just as tightly as we possibly can To be able to accomplish everything that we can while we're up here. We don't want to waste any of our time We go into it very optimistically Assuming that everything is going to work properly when it doesn't we have a team on the ground every night And their sole job is to replan for us during the day and make sure that we can still get in just as much Of the science objectives as possible and they send us up a new plan in the morning And then we start to execute it and through our training and their preparation We are well prepared to do that and that's what we've done on this flight I'm curious. How would you grade the performance of the wake shield facility? You were able to grow four thin films You wanted to do seven was that good enough as far as you're concerned given the constraints of the mission and the performance of the platform experimental Object like wake shield and a program that's in its infancy, which we hope is going to result in the whole lot of Greater benefits later on. I think it's a mistake to Try and grade it too harshly. It's kind of like a brand new kid in the block You want to give it a few few tries before you start keeping score? I would say that wake shield definitely gets an A for effort The people involved with it are tremendously dedicated. Our mission control team certainly gets an A for effort When you don't know exactly what you're going to get as you often don't in the science project of this type It's inappropriate to try and give it a grade on product I believe the fact that the wake has Been able to be characterized that we've made this fairly complex manufacturing facility work That it was controlled successfully Interactively both from the shuttle and from the ground despite numerous problems. Those were overcome. I Think that speaks very well for the future of such facilities both the wake shield itself and others of that type I Suppose some of the issues here might be a matter of expectations The fact it or a half full half empty type of thing given the faster better cheaper approach Which was used in in building the wake shield with fewer redundancies and perhaps might have been used in the past Was was this what we should have expected as far as that mission went? any time that you have an experimental program like this that's Making new steps in areas that we don't fully understand we have to expect to go slowly and the wake shield has done that their first flight They did a lot of work on the arm. They weren't deployed this flight. We deployed them their Control system worked very well. They had some problems, but they learned a tremendous amount next time they fly We hope that things are going to go even more smoothly We learn a lot every time that we fly a space shuttle and the same thing is applied with the wake shield Every time they fly they will learn a lot more. They'll do a lot better And we hope that over time they will develop it into a commercial facility for growing Semiconductors like this you can't do it overnight and until they've done it a few times They don't know all the problems. They have to overcome I believe that they'll continue to progress right along and like any experimental program. They'll get better as they do it more with respect to better faster and cheaper your point well, I think is Is it worth it? Well, if you're gonna go better faster and cheaper you do buy into some risk You do not have the same redundancies and backups that you often have and things occasionally will go wrong and Can be expected to go wrong more often than they will if you've got The kind of program where we put all the bells and whistles into it, but you can't have it both ways If you believe as we believe that you've got to conserve resources and take a little risk to mission success Then you have to accept the consequences of occasionally having some things go wrong and that goes with this kind of a program Would you call it a significant step down the road toward the commercialization of space? Remembering that commercialization of space comes in all different flavors If if wake shield were able to produce eventually or facilities similar to wake shield were able to produce eventually the kind of semiconductor materials that Were impossible to produce on earth or impractical to produce at any sort of reasonable cost Then I think you'd find people Singing it's praises to find that out you've got to go ahead and take the first steps And I think that's what we've done and in that sense. I think it's very significant Colonel boss a few words about the EVA yesterday by all accounts it appeared to be quite a success What were you able to prove about the possibilities and the viabilities of actually doing construction work in space? We've done quite a few EVAs before that have demonstrated that we can work in space We were doing some very specific tasks on our EVA related to the construction of space station some maintenance tasks and Construction tasks we had various tools boxes that we've changed out and we use different methods for changing them out I think that we showed that some of the methods that we have Could be the easier methods such as pre-floating for certain tasks or some of the tools that we've been developing the rigid tether And the body restraint tether which are additional tools to help to control either devices our own bodies while we're out there Things that will help us to reduce the EVA time during the space station construction and make it an easier thing for us to do and Make it a lot cheaper for us in the long run so I think that we did prove that a lot of the objectives that we were looking at Were feasible and they will make it viable for us to do the construction of the space station and Just as a word of comfort were you it sounded like you were pretty warm with the thermal improvements Were you warm enough? Yes, neither Mike Gerhardt nor myself were cold anytime during our EVA One time I was when I deliberately turned my cooling to max cooling just to make sure that it would cool me And in fact it did and then I turned it back to warm again, and it warmed me right up We had several things that were done to the suits this time We have a device that bypasses our cooling completely so we have less cooling than ever before in the suits We had some new thermal undergarments We had some new glove heaters that were intended to heat our our hands up on previous flights People had reported their hands getting very cold when they handled metal objects And all of those worked extremely well even in the coldest attitude that we could have in the dark We were both very comfortable and had no problems at all And when we brought the equipment back inside even up to an hour after we had been back inside some of the Metal objects we touched were still extremely cold to the hand So the suit is doing a wonderful job and Glenn Lutz and all his folks there at the Johnson Space Center have done a wonderful job in improving them You must have been pleased to have such a successful Cap to the mission both of you gentlemen Were you happy to see that EVA go as it did? Well speaking as a commander I certainly was UVA is an important tool and we Need the opportunity to utilize it and practice it as much as possible to be ready to build station property But I felt kind of like a mother watching her kid go off to school I couldn't walk them to the school to the school or to the bus stop But I had to worry about them till they came back in so I was very happy to get those guys back inside Colonel box it was your oh, I'm sorry go ahead. I was just gonna add to that that of course It was a wonderful experience for us both Mike and myself. It was our first time out In this all we're trying to gain experience for more crew members Also, so that we'll have an experience cadre when we start building the space station and we certainly got that we finished up The EVA EVA a lot better than when we started it And so we now two more people who are ready to go and help to build space station You had a few words about the view out there Is it hard to concentrate on your work when you're in those surroundings? Our idea was very special with this the thermal evaluation that we had normally people go outside and like all our timelines They're very Compact and you stay so busy and you're focused on your work because you must be careful work slowly and really pay attention to what you're Doing out there a lot of times you don't have a chance to sit back and just enjoy the view But because we were up on the arm for 45 minutes in an attitude where we were very cold Outside and we were not supposed to be active. We were supposed to have a very low metabolism We had the opportunity to just sit up there and watch the world go by I called it EVA heaven because it gave you the opportunity to be outside have the most Unobstructed view possible and to see the world go by and I don't know if you heard but at one point I noticed that as I looked around I could turn around and see 360 degrees all the way around me and all I could see was water and clouds everywhere It was just amazing to to note that most of our world really is water and I could see it all at the same time Colonel boss one more question for you and this is on an entirely different subject, but you were Lofted to orbit on some SRB's which were modified because of concerns about the gas pads And I know you were involved in the challenger accident investigation, I'm curious how Pleased you are I'm assuming you are with the way the process Went this time around and what lessons has NASA learned perhaps from the challenger accident? Well, I think we learned our lessons well from the challenger accident Everyone listens when there are problems, and we go and fix them the management listened when there were problems We did not allow the shuttle launch until we had fixed the SRBs this time And I have the utmost confidence in our management team as well as the workers who prepare our vehicles Some of my commander and good friend Dave Walker has said that Really struck home to me is that we live by the skills and talents of the people who work at the Kennedy Space Center and the other places that prepare our hardware for flight And that's the truth and we all have complete confidence in their abilities to do that I'm sure that the solid rocket boosters that we rode were the absolute best possible Safest ones that could be produced by human beings, and I felt that way when I got on them and it proved to be the case They were safe, and they did a good job for us All right gentlemen, we're just about out of time here Thanks for taking time out of your dog-on busy schedule, and I know dogs always like to come home My dogs like to stick their heads out the window. I suggest you guys don't This is mission control Houston This view from payload bay cameras aboard endeavor shows astronaut Jim Newman moving the shuttle's mechanical arm He is maneuvering it to the position where he will wind up cradling the arm to put it to bed for the rest of This mission with its job done for the flight This all taking place as endeavor attracts from northwest to southeast over the Atlantic Ocean on the 155th orbit of the mission the robot arm was used extensively during this mission to Grapple deploy and retrieve the Spartan science satellite which is coming into your field of view on the left the gold foiled Satellite which studied the solar corona and the solar wind for two days on its own The robot arm also grappled deployed and ultimately retrieved the wake shield facility regrappled the wake shield on Friday to conduct a series of tests Regarding the electrical fields around the orbiter as a travel through space and then was used yesterday With a portable foot restraint attached to the end of the arm to hoist Astronauts Jim Voss and Mike Guernhardt about 30 feet above the payload bay and to position them towards deep space to gather data on The thermal effects of the cold of deep space and the thermal modifications made to their spacesuits To keep spacewalkers in the future Quite warm as they work on the space station assembly tasks The rest of Newman's colleagues are in the midst of a midday meal The crew was awakened over eight hours ago to begin its 11th day on orbit Earlier this morning in the wee hours commander Dave Walker and pilot Ken Cockrell Turned on one of the shuttles three auxiliary power units and conducted the flight control system check out they were able to exercise the Body flap ailerons rudder and speed brake on the orbiter It all checked out just fine and then fired many of the shuttles jet thrusters both primary and vernier's to make sure that All those systems are available for the entry and landing of Endeavour tomorrow at the Kennedy Space Center with that out of the way the astronauts now have begun the stowage of their crew cabin the Deactivation of some of the secondary experiments in the mid-deck area They are essentially packing up their ship for the return trip the crew will be going to bed at 209 p.m. Central time this afternoon about eight hours from now Call it a day and to get up late tonight just after 10 p.m. Central time to begin their deorbit Preparations, which will lead to their homecoming in Florida back at the Kennedy Space Center Once again this view of the shuttles robot arm built by spar industries of Toronto Canada as Astronaut Jim Newman maneuvers it into place on its cradle along the Port Laundromat of the cargo bay The arm was first used on the second shuttle mission sts-2 back in November of 1981 aboard the shuttle Columbia Commander Joe Engel and pilot dick truly who later went on to become NASA administrator Maneuvered the robot arm during that mission That flight only lasted two days, but the middle day that the astronauts were on orbit was devoted almost Exclusively to tests with the robot arm and it's been a staple item of most shuttle flights since then