HOUSTON --
Two spacewalking astronauts will staple a space blanket and help fold a
stubborn solar array Friday to repair part of the Atlantis orbiter and prime a
space station power truss for relocation.
Atlantis astronauts
Jim Reilly II and Danny Olivas are due to step outside the International Space
Station (ISS) at 1:38 p.m. EDT (1738 GMT) today on a spacewalk primarily aimed
at securing a torn
heat shield blanket on the space shuttle Atlantis and forcing an old solar
array into its storage boxes at the pinnacle of the orbital laboratory.
“We are set
to go tomorrow,” Reilly told Mission Control late Thursday.
Reilly and
Olivas are slated to spend more than six hours working outside the ISS on what
will be the third spacewalk of NASA’s STS-117 shuttle mission aboard Atlantis.
Commanded by veteran spaceflyer Rick Sturckow, the shuttle’s seven-astronaut
crew has delivered a new crewmember, starboard trusses and two expansive new
solar arrays to the ISS during their planned 13-day mission.
Aboard the
space station, the three-astronaut crew of Expedition 15 will spend much of the
early part of Friday working with Russian flight controllers in work aimed at recovering
a critical set of computers responsible for Russian segment ISS systems.
Shuttle
blanket surgery
First up
for Olivas will be the shuttle blanket repair, an ad hoc heat shield fix requiring
the use of medical staplers, a dental tool and wire pins.
The 4-inch
by 6-inch (10-centimeter by 15-centimeter) triangular flap of a protective
blanket on Atlantis’ left Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) tore loose during
Atlantis’ June 8 launch.
While not a
risk to the shuttle crew, the tear did expose a section of the OMS pod’s
internal structure prompting concerns that it could be damaged during reentry
and require a lengthy repair back on Earth that could be avoided.
From a
perch at the tip
of Atlantis’ robotic arm, Olivas is expected to pat down the uplifted
blanket, secure it to an adjacent blanket with two rows of medical staples, and
then anchor it into nearby heat-resistant tiles by using the dental tool to
poke holes for the pins.
“We feel
that’ll be a great repair and bring Atlantis home safely,” STS-117 mission specialist
Patrick Forrester told the television station KUSA TV Thursday on NASA
TV.
While
Olivas repairs the blanket, Reilly will install a vent valve for a U.S. oxygen
generator to NASA’s Destiny laboratory at the ISS.
More
solar array retraction
The bulk of
today’s spacewalk is reserved for the space station’s starboard-reaching solar
wing extending from the top of the outpost’s mast-like Port 6 (P6) truss.
For the
third day in a row, astronauts will work in concert to try and retract the
recalcitrant array.
Atlantis
astronauts Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson poked and prodded snagged areas
on the 115-foot (35-meter) array to clear it for retraction during
a Wednesday spacewalk, but fell short of a full furling. Attempts to reel
in the array via remote also made some progress, though jammed grommets held it
fast at about halfway retracted.
Like Forrester
and Swanson, Reilly and Olivas will carry orange tape-wrapped tools - including
an L-shaped piece dubbed the “hockey stick” - to nudge the array’s individual pleats
to ensure they fold away properly.
Because the
P6 array, known as P6-2B, initially crossed over the new starboard solar arrays,
it had to be retracted clear of them so those new solar wings could rotate and track
the Sun. Atlantis crew reached that benchmark on Wednesday, but now must furl
the array completely so the P6 truss can be relocated to its final position at
the end of the station’s portside in a later shuttle flight.
“The whole
team comes together for our third spacewalk,” Sturckow said Thursday. “We’re expecting
big things tomorrow.”
NASA is broadcasting
the space shuttle Atlantis' STS-117 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for mission updates and
SPACE.com's video feed.
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