The seven astronauts of STS-126 Endeavour and the three crew members of the International Space Station have installed a toilet, a kitchen, two small bedrooms, exercise equipment and the water system and will start a second spacewalk today to continue outside repairs despite the loss of one equipment bag.
Today's spacewalk [NASA TV] will involve cleaning and relocation a railcar used on the space station's exterior rail track, and lubricate the end of the station's robotic arm by two astronauts lead by astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.
The single most important goal of STS-126 is to equip the orbital lab with sufficient accomadations to double the station's crew size from three to six in the spring of next year.
To see the Space Shuttle and the Space Station in orbit from your location on Earth, go to Space Weather's Satellite Tracker. Today marks the 10th anniversary of the first launch to build the International Space Station.
Only eight of the now remaining nine space shuttle flights are dedicated to the International Space Station construction according to the official flight manifest. President-elect Obama has advocated an additional space shuttle flight in 2010 to boost the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to orbit.
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