Thanksgiving in Space

International Space Station – November 23, 2007 – The work isn’t over yet. While the crew aboard the International Space Station took a day of rest on Thanksgiving, Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani will continue work Saturday, preparing the Harmony node 2 to anchor Europe’s permanent space laboratory, Columbus, which is scheduled to launch on Dec. 6. The work follows a seven-hour, 16-minute spacewalk Tuesday to outfit the Harmony node in its new position in front of the US laboratory Destiny. They completed scheduled tasks and did three get-ahead jobs in the spacewalk, which began about 50 minutes early. After leaving the Quest airlock and setting up tools and equipment, Whitson removed, vented and stowed an ammonia jumper, part of a temporary cooling loop. Removing it allowed the hookup of the permanent ammonia cooling loop on a fluid tray on the station's exterior. Tani meanwhile retrieved a bag of tools left outside on the station during the Nov. 9 spacewalk by Whitson and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko. Then he removed two fluid caps to prepare for connection of that permanent cooling loop. Next he reconfigured a circuit that was used for a Squib firing unit, a small pyrotechnical device that freed a radiator on the Port 1 truss for its deployment last Thursday. Much of the spacewalk was devoted to work with the Loop A fluid tray. That 300-pound, 18.5-foot tray was moved from its temporary position on the S0 truss, at the center of the station's main truss, to the Destiny Lab, atop the starboard avionics tray. Reuters reported that frozen bits of ammonia, which leaked out from a cooling line, bounced off Whitson’s spacesuit, but caused no danger. To prevent the ammonia from contaminating the station's air, the spacewalkers stayed in the airlock while it was purged. What’s for dinner? While most people ate turkey and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day, the crew aboard the International Space Station enjoyed: •Shrimp cocktail •Smoked turkey •Cornbread dressing •Mini breads •Lots of hot sauce Click here to see Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani talk about what they’re thankful for this holiday.

Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson (upper left) and Flight Engineer Dan Tani work outside the International Space Station during Tuesday's spacewalk. Image credit: NASA TV Flight Engineer Dan Tani works with fluid connection lines outside the Harmony module during a spacewalk, in this image from NASA TV November 20, 2007.Image credit: NASA/Reuters

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