SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468
*Thermal Blanket Repair Complete; Spacewalkers to Assist Array Folding*
STS-117 spacewalker Danny Olivas completed repair work on a thermal
blanket that was out of position on space shuttle Atlantis. He and his
partner, Mission Specialist Jim Reilly, will assist with the retraction
of the Port 6 (P6) solar array before the completion of today’s spacewalk.
The orbital stroll began at 1:24 p.m. EDT with the duo tackling separate
tasks. Olivas, while attached to the shuttle robot arm, tucked the
blanket back into place and then used a medical stapler to secure it to
adjacent blankets on Atlantis’ left orbital maneuvering system pod.
Meanwhile, Reilly went to work outside the International Space Station
with the installation of a hydrogen vent on the Destiny Laboratory. The
vent is for a new oxygen generation system.
During the second half of the spacewalk, they will be on top of the P6
to assist with the retraction of the starboard solar array. Over a
two-day period, the crew has folded about half of the array bays. A
future shuttle crew will relocate the P6 to the end of the Port 5 truss.
If time allows, Reilly and Olivas will tackle other tasks outside the
station. The spacewalk is scheduled to wrap up just before 8 p.m.
Mission Specialist Pat Forrester is coordinating today’s spacewalk
activities. Pilot Lee Archambault and Mission Specialist Steve Swanson
are the robot arm operators.
*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.
