STS-122
Report #07
Sunday, February 10, 2008 - 3:00 p.m. CST
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON - Atlantis' crew spent the day performing a detailed inspection of the shuttle's thermal blanket over the right Orbital Maneuvering System pod as well as preparing for tomorrow's spacewalk.

Mission Specialists Rex Walheim, Stanley Love, Alan Poindexter and Hans Schlegel focused most of the day on finalizing the checklists for the spacewalk, which is scheduled to begin at 8:35 a.m. CST tomorrow. In advance of tomorrow's activities, Love and Walheim will "camp out" inside the Quest airlock tonight in order to purge nitrogen from their bodies.

Tomorrow's events will focus on installing the Columbus laboratory by mating it to the Harmony module. Walheim and Love will first install a grapple fixture onto Columbus while it rests inside the shuttle's payload bay. Astronauts will then use the space station's robotic arm to attach to Columbus and move it into place on the starboard side of Harmony.

Once the detailed inspection is complete and all images are captured, analysts at Mission Control in Houston will examine the data to ensure there are no issues with the shuttle's thermal protection system.

The crew is scheduled to wake at 3:45 a.m. tomorrow morning.

The next STS-122 status report will be issued Monday morning or earlier if events warrant.