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Flight Controllers Test Russian Computers;
by Arthur Rowe 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 *Flight Controllers Test Russian Computers; Management to Discuss Results* S117-E-07686 --- STS-117 and Expedition 15 crewmembers gather for a group portraitImage above: The STS-117 and Expedition 15 crewmembers gather for a group portrait during a joint crew press conference in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station while Space Shuttle Atlantis was docked with the station. Image credit: NASA TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html Russian and U.S. flight controllers this morning tested the ability of Russian navigation computers to handle attitude control of the International Space Station. If the flight controllers and mission managers like what they saw, space shuttle Atlantis and the STS-117 crew will undock from the International Space Station and begin the journey home on Tuesday. The STS-117 Mission Management Team is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. EDT to discuss the results of the test and an announcement of the decision about undocking is expected shortly after the meeting concludes. The STS-117 crew is scheduled to bid farewell today to the Expedition 15 crew before the hatches close at 6:23 p.m. between Atlantis and the station. Atlantis is slated to undock at 10:42 a.m. Tuesday. STS-117 arrived at the station June 10, delivering the Starboard 3 and 4 truss segment to the station. The crew installed the truss June 11 and conducted four spacewalks to activate the S3/S4 and assist in the retraction of a solar array on the Port 6 truss. During the third spacewalk, the crew repaired an out of position thermal blanket on the left orbital maneuvering system pod. Atlantis also delivered a new station crew member, Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson. He replaced astronaut Suni Williams, who is the new record holder for a long-duration single spaceflight for a woman. She arrived at the station in December with STS-116.

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Atlantis Departure Date Depends on Computer Test
by Arthur Rowe 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 Russian flight controllers will fire thrusters today to test the operation of the navigation computers that went offline last week. If the flight controllers and mission managers like what they see, space shuttle Atlantis and the STS-117 crew will undock from the International Space Station and begin the journey home on Tuesday. The test is set for 1428 UTC The STS-117 crew is scheduled to bid farewell today to the Expedition 15 crew before the hatches close at 2223 UTC between Atlantis and the station. Atlantis is slated to undock at 1441 UTC Tuesday. STS-117 arrived at the station June 10, delivering the Starboard 3 and 4 truss segment to the station. The crew installed the truss June 11 and conducted four spacewalks to activate the S3/S4 and assist in the retraction of solar array on the Port 6 truss. During the third spacewalk, the crew repaired an out of position thermal blanket on the left orbital maneuvering system pod. Atlantis also delivered a new station crew member, Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson. He replaced astronaut Suni Williams, who is the new record holder for a long-duration single spaceflight for a woman. She arrived at the station in December with STS-116.

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STS-117 Astronauts Conclude Fourth Spacewalk
by Arthur Rowe 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 STS-117’s final spacewalk came to an end at 2254 utc. During the 6-hour, 29-minute orbital stroll, Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson performed tasks to activate the International Space Station’s new truss segment and completed work that will help future spacewalkers. Forrester and Swanson began the excursion at 1645 utc. and quickly went to work preparing the Starboard 3 and 4 (S3/S4) truss segment for operation. The S3/S4 was installed onto the station on June 11. Most of the S3/S4 work centered on activating the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ), which will allow the S3/S4 arrays to track the Sun. Early in the spacewalk, Forrester verified the installation of the Drive Lock Assembly 2, one of two mechanisms that will drive rotation of the SARJ, while Swanson installed a TV camera and its support structure. Then, the duo removed the final launch restraints on the SARJ before removing a keel pin and drag link to clear the path for the station’s mobile transporter. The get-ahead tasks included the installation of a computer network cable onto the Unity module and the removal of a Global Positioning System antenna. The two astronauts also finished the installation of a piece of debris shielding on the Destiny laboratory. Mission Specialist Jim Reilly coordinated the spacewalk and Pilot Lee Archambault operated the robot arm. Forrester and Swanson conducted STS-117’s second spacewalk. Reilly and Mission Specialist Danny Olivas conducted the other two. Today’s spacewalk is the 87th devoted to station assembly and maintenance. Attention now turns to Atlantis' departure and the events leading up to undocking. The STS-117 crew is scheduled to exit the station Monday before the hatches close at 2223 utc. Atlantis is slated to undock at 1441 utc. Tuesday. However, mission managers may decide to add a day of docked operations for STS-117 if the Russian navigation computers do not perform adequately during test of Russian attitude control capabilities Monday morning at 1428 utc.

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Spacewalkers Complete S3/S4 Work
by Arthur Rowe 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 Spacewalkers Complete S3/S4 Work, Press Ahead With Other Tasks STS-117 spacewalk Image above: Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson check the Drive Lock Assembly 2 on the S3/S4 truss segment of the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA TV TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson completed their spacewalking tasks to activate the International Space Station’s new truss segment. They are now focusing on other work related to the assembly of the station. Forrester and Swanson began the excursion at 1625 UTC and quickly went to work preparing the Starboard 3 and 4 (S3/S4) truss segment for operation. The S3/S4 was installed onto the station on June 11. Most of the S3/S4 work centered on activating the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ), which will allow the S3/S4 arrays to track the Sun. Early in the spacewalk, Forrester verified the installation of the Drive Lock Assembly 2, one of two mechanisms that will drive rotation of the SARJ, and Swanson installed a TV camera. Then, the duo removed the final launch restraints on the SARJ before removing a keel pin and drag link to clear the path for the station’s mobile transporter. The remaining tasks for the spacewalkers include the installation a computer network cable onto the Unity module and the removal of a Global Positioning System antenna. The duo is also slated to complete the installation of a piece of debris shielding on the Destiny laboratory. Mission Specialist Jim Reilly is coordinating the spacewalk, and Pilot Lee Archambault is operating the robot arm. Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov is working with Reilly as he trains for upcoming spacewalks by the station crew in which he will serve as coordinator. The spacewalk is slated to conclude about 2230 UTC. Forrester and Swanson conducted STS-117’s second spacewalk. Reilly and Mission Specialist Danny Olivas conducted the other two. Today’s excursion is the 88th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance.

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Russian Navigation Computers in Stable Condition
by Arthur Rowe 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 *Russian Navigation Computers in Stable Condition* The Russian computers aboard the International Space Station are back in near normal, stable operation. Two of three channels of each computer are operating. A third channel is believed to be functioning well, but currently in standby. The Mission Control Center in Moscow has restarted all Russian systems except the Elektron oxygen generation system, which has been powered but not yet started. Flight controllers are planning to test Russian thrusters on Monday as they maneuver the station and Space Shuttle Atlantis to a water dump attitude. The Russian navigation computers provide one method of backup attitude control and orbital altitude adjustments. The station’s control moment gyroscopes are the complex’s primary attitude control system. The shuttle’s propulsion system also provides a backup attitude control system for the complex.

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Astronaut Suni Williams Sets the Record Straight, and Long
by Arthur Rowe 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 Astronaut Suni Williams Sets the Record Straight, and Long 06.16.07 ISS015-E-08337 : Sunita Williams with exercise device Call it a great leap forward for women in space. TO VIEW IMAGES GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/s_willia… After six years of people, three of whom have been women, living in space aboard the International Space Station, the female time-in-space endurance record set 11 years ago has been broken. And it was broken in a single flight. Image to right: Astronaut Sunita L. Williams, Expedition 15 flight engineer, wearing squat harness pads, poses for a photo while using the Interim Resistive Exercise Device (IRED) equipment in the Unity node of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams set a new record this morning at 12:47 CDT for the longest duration spaceflight by a woman. At that time, Williams surpassed Shannon Lucid’s mark of 188 days, 4 hours set in 1996. Williams began her record-setting flight when she launched with the crew of STS-116 in December 2006. The Massachusetts native remained onboard the station as a member of the Expedition 14 crew and then joined the Expedition 15 crew in April. Her spaceflight will come to a close when she returns to Earth aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis with the STS-117 crew. Although this is only her first spaceflight, Williams also became the record-holder for most hours outside a spacecraft by a female by completing four spacewalks during Expedition 15 with a total time of 29 hours, 17 minutes. ISS014-E-09992 : Sunita Williams conducts spacewalk “It was very exciting to watch her spacewalks and to watch her accumulate more spacewalk time than any other female in the universe,” said Lucid, who set the previous female space duration record while flying aboard the Russian Mir Space Station. “These [long-term] flights are providing the needed confidence so that some day in the near future we can depart low-Earth orbit and head on out to Mars.” Image to left: Astronaut Sunita Williams participates in the STS-116 mission's third planned spacewalk. Credit: NASA During her stay on orbit, Williams has worked with experiments across a wide variety of fields, including human life sciences, physical sciences and Earth observation as well as education and technology demonstrations. Some of these experiments give scientists critical insight into the effects of weightlessness on our bodies while others show ways to prevent effects we already know about like muscle and bone loss. In addition to rigorous exercise, Williams also collected and stored her blood while in space to add to an ongoing study on nutrition, another key element of living in space for long stretches of time. The results of this study may impact nutritional requirements and food systems developed for future ventures in space. “Her mission has been critically important to our overall space program,” said NASA Astronaut Eileen Collins, another female pioneer in spaceflight. Collins became the first woman to command a spaceflight mission during the STS-93 mission on Space Shuttle Columbia. “She truly is a space marathoner who shows young women everywhere that there's a place in the space program for them.” If her stay in space concludes as scheduled, with her return on Atlantis on June 21, Williams will have flown a total of 194 days in space.

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The Expedition 15 and STS-117 crews
by Arthur Rowe 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C#31468 *Crews Prep for Sunday Spacewalk; Shuttle Heat Shield Cleared* Crew News Conference Image above: The Expedition 15 and STS-117 crews participate in a crew news conference with reporters on Earth. Image credit: NASA TV . TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html Shuttle and Expedition 15 crew members prepared for STS-117’s fourth spacewalk and held a news conference Saturday. They also learned that flight controllers cleared Space Shuttle Atlantis’ heat shield for landing.

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Mission Control Clears Shuttle Heat Shield
by Arthur Rowe 16 Jun '07

16 Jun '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 *Mission Control Clears Shuttle Heat Shield; Williams Sets Spaceflight Record* Image above: Astronaut Sunita L. Williams, STS-117 mission specialist, uses a computer in the Unity node of the International Space Station during flight day five activities while Space Shuttle Atlantis was docked with the station. Image credit: NASA TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html The Mission Control Center in Houston told the STS-117 crew today that space shuttle Atlantis’ thermal protection system is cleared for re-entry. The astronauts got the good news about 11:20 a.m. EDT while they were transferring cargo between Atlantis and the International Space Station. The heat shield was cleared after STS-117 Mission Specialist Danny Olivas repaired a protruding thermal blanket on one of Atlantis’ orbital maneuvering system pods during Friday’s spacewalk. Atlantis is scheduled to leave the station on Tuesday and land Thursday. Early this morning, Mission Specialist Suni Williams set the record for the longest-duration single spaceflight by a woman. Williams passed the previous record of 188 days, 4 hours at 1:47 a.m. as STS-117 and Expedition 15 crew members slept aboard Atlantis and the station. Williams began her spaceflight in December when she traveled to the station with STS-116. She served six months as a space station crew member. The previous record was set by Shannon Lucid on a mission to the Russian Mir space station in 1996. + Read more about Williams' record-setting spaceflight <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/s_willia…> In addition to cargo transfers, today’s schedule includes spacewalk preparations and a news conference. The crews will get ready for STS-117’s fourth spacewalk by preparing tools and spacesuits that will be used by Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson. They will also review procedures for the spacewalk, which was added to the schedule after STS-117 arrived at the station. The excursion is set to begin at 12:53 p.m. Sunday. The traditional joint news conference is scheduled to begin at 7:43 tonight and will air live on NASA TV. *Navigation Computers Up, Troubleshooting Continues* International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini said things are going well with the efforts to bring Russian navigation computers back up to full operation aboard the International Space Station. “Currently, they have all six computers up while we do some additional troubleshooting to understand the environment and how it affects the computers,” he said. “The bottom line is it appears to everyone that the command and control type computers are functioning just fine.” Friday, Russian flight controllers and the station crew were able to power-up two lanes of the Russian central computer and two lanes of the terminal computer by using a jumper cable to bypass a faulty secondary power switch. Flight controllers began sending commands overnight to restart some systems. The central computer is now communicating with the U.S. command and control computer, and the terminal computer is communicating with U.S. navigation computers. The Russian navigation computers provide backup attitude control and orbital altitude adjustments. For now, the station’s control moment gyroscopes are handling attitude control, with the shuttle’s propulsion system providing backup. *STS-117 Mission* + The Crew <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/index.html> + The Mission <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/mission_ov…> + The Integrated Truss Structure <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/its.html>

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Williams Sets Spaceflight Record;
by Arthur Rowe 16 Jun '07

16 Jun '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 *Williams Sets Spaceflight Record; Spacewalk Preps, News Conference on Tap Today * S117-E-07052 --- Sunita Williams uses a computer in the Unity node Image above: Astronaut Sunita L. Williams, STS-117 mission specialist, uses a computer in the Unity node of the International Space Station during flight day five activities while Space Shuttle Atlantis was docked with the station. Image credit: NASA TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html Early this morning, Mission Specialist Suni Williams set the record for the longest-duration single spaceflight by a woman. The workday schedule for Williams and her crewmates is filled with cargo transfers, spacewalk preparations and the Joint Crew News Conference. Williams passed the previous record of 188 days, 4 hours at 1:47 a.m. EDT as the STS-117 and Expedition 15 crew members slept aboard space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station. Williams began her spaceflight in December when she traveled to the station with STS-116. She served six months as a space station crew member. The previous record was set by Shannon Lucid on a mission to the Russian Mir space station and had stood since 1996. The crews will get ready for STS-117’s fourth spacewalk by preparing tools and spacesuits that will be used by Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson. They will also review procedures for the spacewalk, which was added to the schedule after the STS-117 crew arrived at the station. The excursion is set to begin at 1653 UTC Sunday. The crews will transfer cargo between Atlantis and the station before holding the news conference at 7:43 tonight. The conference will be aired live on NASA TV. *Russian Flight Controllers Send Commands to Computers* Efforts to bring the Russian navigation computers back to full operation will continue today. Friday, Russian flight controllers and the station crew were able to power-up two lanes of the Russian Central Computer and two lanes of the Terminal Computer by using a jumper cable to bypass a faulty secondary power switch. Flight controllers began sending commands overnight to restart some systems. The Central Computer is now communicating with the U.S. command and control computer, and the Terminal Computer is communicating with U.S. navigation computers. The plan calls for more system restarts today. The Russian navigation computers provide backup attitude control and orbital altitude adjustments. For now, the station’s control moment gyroscopes are handling attitude control, with the shuttle’s propulsion system providing backup. *STS-117 Mission* + The Crew <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/index.html> + The Mission <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/mission_ov…> + The Integrated Truss Structure <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/its.html>

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Navigation Computers Troubleshooting Efforts Continue
by Arthur Rowe 15 Jun '07

15 Jun '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C#31468 *Navigation Computers Troubleshooting Efforts Continue* This afternoon, the crew inside the International Space Station was able to power-up two lanes of the Russian Central Computer and two lanes of the Terminal Computer by using a jumper cable to bypass a faulty secondary power switch. The current plan is to allow the computers to operate overnight and analyze the data Saturday morning. Earlier in the day, International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini told reporters Russian and U.S. flight controllers and engineers are focusing on efforts for recovering the computers and options to maintain attitude control until the problem is resolved. “I think we’re in good shape,” Suffredini said. “We still have a lot of options to go through to recover these machines. We’ve got a talented group of people to look at attitude control.” The navigation computers provide backup attitude control and orbital altitude adjustments. For now, the station’s control moment gyroscopes are handling attitude control, with the shuttle’s propulsion system providing backup. *Crews Work Together on Station, Shuttle* The S3/S4 truss and solar array viewed from the shuttle The Expedition 15 and STS-117 crews continue to conduct joint operations aboard the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Atlantis. Throughout the week, the two crews have been activating the Starboard 3 and 4 (S3/S4) truss segment that was attached to the station on Monday. The STS-117 crew has conducted two spacewalks to prepare the new segment for activation and to retract arrays on the Port 6 (P6) truss. The P6 will be relocated from atop the station to the end of the Port 5 truss by a future shuttle crew. The S3/S4, which is 45 feet long and weighs 35,678 pounds, contains a new set of solar arrays that will increase the station’s power-generation capabilities. The S3/S4 also contains a rotary joint that will allow its arrays to track the sun. In addition to a new truss segment, NASA Astronaut Clayton Anderson joined the Expedition 15 crew on Sunday, replacing Flight Engineer Suni Williams. Anderson arrived at the station as a member of Space Shuttle Atlantis’ crew. Atlantis docked to the station on Sunday. Williams spent six months as an Expedition crew member. STS-117 arrived at the station June 10 and is scheduled to undock June 19. + Read more about Expedition 15 <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.ht…> + View crew daily timelines <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html>

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