The wakeup call from the Mission Control Center in Houston went up to the crew at 09:28 UTC to begin Flight Day 4.
Earlier in the morning, Mission Control also radioed commander Charles Hobaugh with the news that the crew won't need to perform follow-up inspections on Atlantis' heat shield during a period of time set aside on flight day 5.
The crew was told to use that "deleted time" to get ahead with shuttle-to-station cargo transfers.
Later on Thursday, NASA officials said that Atlantis' heat shield has been cleared for re-entry.

The major activity for the day was mission's first spacewalk (EVA 1) by astronauts Foreman and Satcher.
Foreman, the lead spacewalker wore a suit with solid red stripes while Satcher wore an all-white spacesuit.
Inside the space station Atlantis Mission Specialist Randolph Bresnik choreographed the activities and coordinated communications between the spacewalkers and Mission Control.
Since Foreman and Satcher completed their chores nearly two hours ahead of schedule, planners decided to add a "get ahead" task; Satcher to lubricate the Kibo robotic arm snares while Foreman to route a LAN cable on Zarya and mate power cables on a patch panel at the S0 truss.
Towards the end of EVA 1, while deploying the Payload Attach System (PAS) on the Earth-facing side of the Starboard 3 truss, the crew had difficulty loosening a steel bolt and removing a diagonal brace on the PAS.
After hammering on a bolt and wiggling the brace, they successfully deployed the PAS and reinstalled the brace.
The spacewalk marked: 228th spacewalk conducted by U.S. astronauts, the 134th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, 106th spacewalk out of the space station, the fourth for Foreman and the first for Satcher.

The focus of other Atlantis crew members was mostly on supporting the spacewalk or related activities.

Nicole Stott celebrated her 47th birthday in space.

The astronauts went into their sleep period at 00:28 UTC on November 20, 2009 as planned, however they were awakened at 01:36 UTC due to a false alarm indicating a sudden depressurization.
After checks on the ground and in orbit, flight controllers in Houston, Europe and Russia concluded the station was safe and the crews were not in danger.
To make up for the sleep they lost reacting to the alarm, crew sleep period was extended by 30 minutes.
The wakeup call from the Mission Control Center in Houston went up to the crew at 09:28 UTC to begin Flight Day 4. Earlier in the morning, Mission Control also radioed commander Charles Hobaugh with the news that the crew won't need to perform follow-up inspections on Atlantis' heat shield during a period of time set aside on flight day 5. The crew was told to use that "deleted time" to get ahead with shuttle-to-station cargo transfers. Later on Thursday, NASA officials said that Atlantis' heat shield has been cleared for re-entry.
The major activity for the day was mission's first spacewalk (EVA 1) by astronauts Foreman and Satcher. Foreman, the lead spacewalker wore a suit with solid red stripes while Satcher wore an all-white spacesuit. Inside the space station Atlantis Mission Specialist Randolph Bresnik choreographed the activities and coordinated communications between the spacewalkers and Mission Control. Since Foreman and Satcher completed their chores nearly two hours ahead of schedule, planners decided to add a "get ahead" task; Satcher to lubricate the Kibo robotic arm snares while Foreman to route a LAN cable on Zarya and mate power cables on a patch panel at the S0 truss. Towards the end of EVA 1, while deploying the Payload Attach System (PAS) on the Earth-facing side of the Starboard 3 truss, the crew had difficulty loosening a steel bolt and removing a diagonal brace on the PAS. After hammering on a bolt and wiggling the brace, they successfully deployed the PAS and reinstalled the brace. The spacewalk marked: 228th spacewalk conducted by U.S. astronauts, the 134th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, 106th spacewalk out of the space station, the fourth for Foreman and the first for Satcher.
The focus of other Atlantis crew members was mostly on supporting the spacewalk or related activities.
Nicole Stott celebrated her 47th birthday in space.
The astronauts went into their sleep period at 00:28 UTC on November 20, 2009 as planned, however they were awakened at 01:36 UTC due to a false alarm indicating a sudden depressurization. After checks on the ground and in orbit, flight controllers in Houston, Europe and Russia concluded the station was safe and the crews were not in danger. To make up for the sleep they lost reacting to the alarm, crew sleep period was extended by 30 minutes.
STS-129