All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below.

Crewmembers Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin completed RS-EVA-2, the first extravehicular excursion from the new Pirs module, very smoothly and without a hitch. Due to their leisurely work pace, a one-orbit extension was added to the original schedule, and the functional test of the Strela-1 cargo boom was deferred to a future EVA. It was the 27th spacewalk of the ISS Program and the 100th Russian spacewalk in the Russian space program since Alexey Leonov's first egress into space from Woschod 2 in March 1965.

After hatch closing between the SM's transfer section PkhO and its main compartment RO on one side, and the FGB cabin on the other side at about 8:15am (all times EDT), Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin climbed into their Orlan-M spacesuits through their back hatches and closed the backpacks. Depressurization of the DC1/PkhO volume began about 9:46am. With CDR Frank Culbertson remaining in the FGB to monitor the external activities, EV1 and EV2 waited through a 30-min O2 prebreath period for denitrogenizing, then got the Go for hatch opening. DC1 hatch #1 was opened at 10:23am.

All planned outside activities were successfully completed. Among else, they included hooking up the Transit-B data/telemetry cable from DC1 to SM (good dataflow was received immediately at TsUP/Moscow), followed by installation of supplementary handrails, a 6-ft DC-1-to-SM ladder serving as a permanent EVA aid, the operator post/base for the GStM1 Strela-1 crane at the DC1's wall (11:40am), the Klest 103Ts video camera, the GStM1 Strela boom itself, a pole with two Kurs automated docking system antennas, and a docking target. The EVA was covered in excellent detail by the Klest camera, two SSRMS/Canadarm2 video cameras and a camcorder mounted at the docked Soyuz spacecraft's aft window. During the three orbital "night" periods of 34 min duration each (one more than originally planned), the cosmonauts rested and evaluated their spacesuit gloves' thermal insulation properties when holding on to specific handrails. The EVA ended with ingress in DC-1, closure of the hatch at 3:21 pm and repressurizing of the Pkh/DC1 volume to 600 mmHg from the SM RO. It had taken 4 hours 58 minutes. [For the three ISS-based spacewalks to date (Internal EVA in June '01, first Joint AL egress, and today's RS-EVA-2), this brings total duration to 9 h 19 m, for all 27 ISS spacewalks together to 172 h 22 m.]

Before the EVA, the crew had worked since 1:00am wakeup on final preparations of the ISS systems, specifically deactivations of the food and water supply systems, SM ventilation, Vozdukh CO2 removal apparatus, SM toilet system, pressure alarm sensors, integrated control panel, directional air flow sensors in the PkhO hatchways and air conduits. All systems were reactivated after the EVA later in the day, including the reinstallation of the B3 fan and ventilation ducts in the DC-1. IV crewmember Frank Culbertson had instructions and vacuum access jumpers (VAJ) in place for emergency activatation of the Joint Airlock's CrewLock (CL) for crew ingress in case of a contingency with the DC-1.

Both EVA crewmembers underwent Russian MedOps assessments MO-8 (body mass measurements) and MO-9 (biochemical urine test) before and after the spacewalk, assisted by Culbertson as CMO. They also had special medical recommendations for pre- and post-EVA solid and liquid nutrition.

Current ISS flight attitude is LVLH (+Z-axis in the local vertical and +X-axis pointing in flight direction). When the station maneuvered from XPOP to LVLH on Saturday, 10/6, there were two caution alerts from the BGAs (beta gimbal assemblies) of the solar array wings. This was part of their transition from Autotrack to Rate mode after the maneuver, and it was expected because of the limit settings on actual vs. commanded rate in the software, which are set very "tight" and are sometimes exceeded during transitions.

As reported before, U.S. CMG 2 (control moment gyroscope #2) has been exhibiting an angular measurement bias of about 20 degrees ever since Increment 2. MCC-H is planning some control system testing to determine the exact bias. The test is to begin at 3:00pm today and will involve removing CMG 2 from the steering law, moving it to a specific position and then alternating between some attitude modes (hold, momentum management and very brief periods of free drift). The test lasts until 1:00 am on Wednesday (10/10) morning, when CMG 2 will be returned to the steering.

Crew earth observation (CEO) opportunities today were the Yangtze River Delta (sunset view of the North China Plain, the Chinese heartland, and the Yangtze River delta, where spectacular smog events have been documented recently), S. African aerosols (opportunity to document air mass evolution on the southern African plateau where very high loadings of industrial pollutants and smoke from burning savanna vegetation often occur. Denser vegetation on the wetter side of the plateau should correlate with higher frequency of fires), Chilean glaciers (best winter sun illumination in the glacier tongues and icebergs in Patagonian lakes, east of the Andes), and Europe Smog (documentation of any smog, dust or smoke loading in the Mediterranean basin, with good visibility due to low sun angle).

Source: NASA