NASA STS-117 Status
Report #17
(16 June 2007) In a continuing
improvement of the onboard Russian computer system, all six channels are now
operating in the two Russian command-and-control and the
guidance-and-navigation computers that stopped operating three days
ago.
During a news briefing from the Johnson Space Center
Saturday afternoon, International Space Station Program Manager Michael
Suffredini said, "We're having a great day on orbit today."
Yesterday,
station Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov were able to
re-enable four of the six channels in the computer systems after bypassing what
appears to be a faulty power switch with external cabling.
The Russian
cosmonauts repeated that same modification today on the last two channels,
which were originally suspected to have failed. They are continuing to checkout
and troubleshoot the computers. Meanwhile, the forward plan is to keep the
original four channels active and keep the other two channels in "stand by"
mode.
Engineering teams also plan to test the Russian attitude control
system as early as Sunday morning, in order to confirm that it is operating and
working well in concert with the U.S. system. The specifics of the test are
still being defined but once executed, the teams will determine when shuttle
Atlantis will depart the station. Undocking is currently scheduled for Tuesday
morning.
Onboard, the rest of the crew today focused on transfer
activities as well as preparations for a fourth spacewalk tomorrow. The ten
astronauts, including Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Clay Anderson, and shuttle
Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault, and mission specialists Pat
Forrester, Steven Swanson, Danny Olivas, Jim Reilly and Sunita Williams, also
participated in a joint crew news conference.
During their crew sleep,
Williams established a new record for the longest single spaceflight by a
female. At 12:47 a.m. CDT, Williams surpassed the longstanding 188 day and 4
hour record set by astronaut Shannon Lucid at the Mir space station in
1996.
"I was just in the right place at the right time," said Williams
of the record. "It's an honour to be here."
The four spacewalkers spent
time working on the U.S. spacesuits. Olivas and Reilly finished their
post-spacewalk spacesuit reconfiguration tasks, while Forrester and Swanson
configured their suits and tools for their second spacewalk. The final
spacewalk of the flight is set to begin Sunday morning at 11:33 a.m.
CDT.
The spacewalk will include a few wrap up tasks associated with the
new truss segment, including installation of the Drive Lock Assembly 2, which
with a second DLA, drives rotation of the S3/S4 Truss Solar Alpha Rotary Joint.
The spacewalkers also will remove the final six launch restraints on the SARJ
to enable its rotation and remove a keel pin and drag link from S3. They'll
also complete installation of a debris shield on the Destiny laboratory,
install a computer network cable on Unity and remove a Global Positioning
System antenna.
The next STS-117 status report will be issued Sunday
morning or earlier if events warrant.
(source: NASA Johnson Space
Center)