This
story was updated at 8:59 p.m. EDT
HOUSTON --
Two astronauts primed the International Space Station's (ISS) newest solar
wings for full operations Sunday during an extra spacewalk by NASA's Atlantis
shuttle crew.
Atlantis
shuttle astronauts Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson spent more than six
hours outside the ISS on an excursion primarily aimed at unlocking a 10-foot
(three-meter) wide rotary joint and freeing the station's new
starboard solar arrays to track the Sun.
"That's
very good news," Forrester said when the primary tasks were complete. "It's
what we came here to do."
Sunday's
spacewalk began at 12:25 p.m. EDT (1625 GMT) from the station's Quest airlock,
marking the fourth extravehicular activity (EVA) for NASA's STS-117 shuttle
crew. The shuttle astronauts delivered the station's 17.5-ton Starboard
3/Starboard 4 (S3/S4) truss segments and solar arrays to the ISS last week.
"It's sure
pretty to see those arrays out there," said NASA astronaut James Reilly, who
choreographed the spacewalkers' movements from inside Atlantis.
Sunday's
spacewalk and two extra docked days at the ISS were added to the STS-117
mission to allow time for the repair
of a torn protective blanket on the orbiter's left aft engine pod during a
previous excursion.
A stubborn
micrometeoroid debris shield, which the spacewalkers had difficulty
reinstalling after routing computer cable between U.S. and Russian ISS modules,
marked the excursion's only hitch. Forrester and Swanson secured the panel with
tethers to keep it in place.
"It's
definitely not going to be flat enough to go down," Forrester said.
A similar
glitch occurred during a Friday spacewalk, when Reilly lashed a similarly
recalcitrant shield into place. Forrester added more tethers to that second
debris shield as well during Sunday's spacewalk.
Solar
wings set to turn
Forrester
and Swanson spent most of their six-hour, 29-minute spacewalk at the end of
station's new S3 truss, where a pair of vital gears for a rotary joint were
found to be cross-wired during
a previous spacewalk.
Known as
Drive Lock Assemblies, the gears drive the S3 truss' Solar Alpha Rotary Joint
(SARJ), which is designed to turn the station's new Starboard 4 (S4) truss and
later outboard segments like a Ferris wheel so their solar arrays always face
the Sun.
Forrester installed
one of the two gears during a June 13 spacewalk, when the wiring mismatch was
discovered. He completed installation of its counterpart Sunday, then helped
Swanson remove restraints that had locked the SARJ joint in place.
The SARJ
joint may make a five-degree test turn later tonight, ISS flight director Holly
Ridings said early Sunday. But it is not slated to begin fully tracking the Sun
until Monday, after Russian engineers determine that the station's main
computers governing its Russian-built attitude control system are again fully operational
after recent glitches, she added.
Forrester
and Swanson also installed a new video camera stanchion on the new S3 truss and
cleared structures along its face that originally supported the hefty S3/S4
segments inside Atlantis' payload bay. Their removal clears the path for the
station's railcar-like Mobile Transporter to roll across the S3 truss to a
workstation at its starboard-most edge.
Other tasks
included: removing bolts from station debris shields; opening a U.S. oxygen
generating system vent and securing its debris shield; running an Ethernet
cable between Russian and U.S. modules; as well as positioning some tools for use
on future spacewalks.
Spacewalk
tally
Sunday's
spacewalk marked the fourth for Forrester, who now has a total of 25 hours and
30 minutes of EVA time, and the second for Swanson, giving him a tally of 13
hours and 45 minutes, NASA officials said.
Altogether,
the STS-117 spacewalking teams of Forrester and Swanson, as well as Reilly and
NASA astronaut Danny Olivas, spent about 27 hours and 58 minutes working
outside the ISS, they added.
"They did
outstanding," said Keith Johnson, NASA's lead STS-117 spacewalk officer, of the
four-astronaut team. "It was just fun to watch."
In addition
to adding the new starboard solar arrays and trusses, the STS-117 astronauts
also helped furl a nearly
seven-year-old solar wing extending from the top of the station's mast-like
Port 6 (P6) truss to prepare the segment for later relocation.
Olivas also
repaired the damaged thermal blanket on Atlantis' left Orbital Maneuvering
System (OMS) pod using surgical staplers from medical kits aboard the shuttle
and the ISS.
Sunday's
excursion marked the 87th spacewalk devoted to the assembly or
maintenance of the ISS and the 59th to begin from the orbital
laboratory itself.
Despite the
busy day in orbit, astronauts aboard Atlantis and the ISS did not forget it was
Father's Day, and took time to wish their families well.
Both
Forrester and Swanson wished their fathers and paternal relatives a happy
Father's Day before reentering the space station's Quest airlock.
"Absolutely,
a lot of fathers on this flight and we're all enjoying a great Father's Day,"
added Reilly, whose own children chose the theme to the television show "Band
of Brothers" to awake the Atlantis crew Sunday.
Inside the
ISS, Expedition 15 astronaut Clay Anderson called Mission Control to say hello
to his daughter Sutton Marie and son Cole, and reminded flight controllers to
spend time with their own children after today's busy day in space.
"Happy
Father's Day to everyone downstairs," he said.
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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