SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468
*Spacewalkers Prep SARJ for Action*
Image above: Spacewalker Pat Forrester rides on the end of the station's robotic arm to assist with the retraction of a solar array. Image credit: NASA TV .
TO VIEW THE IMAGE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
Astronauts Patrick Forrester and Steve Swanson continue to work outside the International Space Station to activate the newly installed Starboard 3 and 4 (S3/S4) truss segment. They kicked off STS-117’s second spacewalk at 1828 UTC today.
The orbital duo is preparing the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) on the S3/S4 truss for operation by removing the remaining launch restraints. The SARJ will allow the arrays to track the sun.
The first major task of the spacewalk was to assist with the retraction of the starboard array on the Port 6 (P6) truss. The crew did not retract all of the 31 1/2 bays and will send commands Thursday to retract the remaining bays. Before moving on to the spacewalk’s next task, Forrester and Swanson “fluffed” the array to allow easier retraction on Thursday.
The retraction of the P6 array also clears the line of sight for the S3/S4 arrays to track the sun. A future shuttle crew will relocate the P6 from atop the space station to the end of the Port 5 truss.
Mission Specialist Jim Reilly is coordinating the spacewalk, and Pilot Lee Archambault is at the controls of the station’s robotic arm. Two more spacewalks are scheduled for STS-117. Today’s excursion is slated to wrap up about 0058UTC.
In other activities, Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clayton Anderson continue to transfer cargo between the station and Space Shuttle Atlantis.