NASA STS-117 Status
Report #18
(17 June 2007) For the fourth time in
less than a week, the astronauts on Space Shuttle Atlantis are about to venture
outside their spacecraft to press ahead with assembly of the International
Space Station.
The crew's wakeup call came at 6:38 a.m. CDT with
the theme song from "Band of Brothers," played for Mission Specialist Jim
Reilly.
Spacewalkers Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson begin their
second EVA of the flight at 11:33 a.m., with Reilly choreographing the
excursion from the shuttle flight deck. Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov will shadow
Reilly as intravehicular crewmember, training to take that role for an upcoming
station spacewalk.
The first task is to retrieve a TV camera stand from
a stowage platform attached to Quest and install it on the S3 truss. From there
the spacewalkers will move to the intersection of the S3 and S4 trusses to
prepare the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint for rotation. Forrester will verify the
installation of a second Drive Lock Assembly, the machine that turns the S4
truss so its solar array wings can track the sun. He will then help Swanson
remove the last six SARJ launch restraints to free the joint to turn.
To
clear the path on S3 for the Mobile Base System, Forrester and Swanson will
remove temporary rail stops and the hardware that secured the S3/S4 in the
shuttle payload bay. Then, they will translate back to the body of the station
for a few get-ahead tasks.
As time permits, the spacewalkers plan to
install a computer network cable on the Unity node, remove a Global Positioning
System antenna, tighten the gimbal locks on the S-band Antenna Support
Assembly, open the hydrogen vent valve on the Destiny laboratory that was
installed on Friday's spacewalk, and secure the orbital debris shield panel.
Today's spacewalk is scheduled to conclude at 6:03 p.m.
The Russian
central computer and terminal computers continue in stable operation, each
running on two of its three channels with the third in standby. Mission Control
in Moscow has restarted all Russian systems except the Elektron, which is
receiving power but not moded to generate oxygen, and is planning to fire
Russian attitude control thrusters in conjunction with a manoeuvre of the mated
stack to a water dump attitude on Monday.
The next STS-117 status report
will be issued Sunday evening after the spacewalk, or earlier if events
warrant.
(source: NASA Johnson Space Center)