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_overview.html
+ The Integrated Truss Structure http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/its.html