Final Spacewalk preparations by the Crew

The combined 12-member crew of Atlantis and the International Space Station will move the last of this mission’s spare hardware during the third and final spacewalk today.

Mission Specialists Randy Bresnik and Robert Satcher Jr. are scheduled to begin their six-hour spacewalk an hour late at about 8:18 a.m. EST. They will transfer an oxygen filled High Pressure Gas Tank (HPGT) from the EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 2, or ELC2, located on the starboard truss, to a spot on the outside of the Quest Airlock. The tank will be used to replenish atmosphere lost when spacewalkers enter and exit the station.
While Satcher is relocating the HPGT, Bresnik will install the seventh Materials International Space Station Experiment, or MISSE 7. This is the most advanced of the MISSE payloads to date and will be the first to receive power directly from the station and use the station’s communication system to send commands and downlink real-time data.

On Sunday, Bresnik told the flight controllers his new daughter, Abigail Mae Bresnik, had been born in Houston at 11:04 p.m. CST Saturday. He said his wife Rebecca and new daughter, 6 pounds, 13 ounces and 20 inches long, were doing well. Bresnik got the news by private phone patch through mission control shortly after the crew was awakened.