NASA: Russians Attempt to Fix Space Station Computers

About an hour and 20 minutes before this morning’s scheduled wakeup call, the crews were awakened by a false alarm on the station.

Spacewalker Steve Swanson helps with the retraction of a solar array during the mission's second spacewalk. Image credit: NASA TV

(HOUSTON, TX) - As Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station sail above Earth today, the STS-117 and Expedition 15 crews will continue retracting solar arrays and preparing for repair work during Friday’s spacewalk.

STS-117 Mission Specialists Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas will review procedures and practice techniques they will use during the spacewalk set to begin at 1:38 p.m. EDT Friday.

The first task of the extravehicular activity is the repair of a thermal blanket that pulled away from the orbital maneuvering system pod on the rear of the shuttle.

This afternoon, the STS-117 crew will resume retraction of the starboard P6 solar array. Almost half of the 31½ array bays were retracted Wednesday.

If the arrays are not fully retracted today, efforts will resume Friday with the assistance of the spacewalkers.

About an hour and 20 minutes before this morning’s scheduled wakeup call, the crews were awakened by a false alarm on the station.

The alarm was triggered by the restart of Russian navigation computers that 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.

Reports From Iraq

Salem-News.com Top Stories
Environmental Protection Agencies: Federal and State Versions Under Siege

---

PTSD, Marijuana and the Atlantic Magazine

---

Paul Kagame: A General Without Generals

---

Confronting Intimidation, Working for Justice in Palestine

---

Misguided Buddhist Zealots

---

Name:

Enter the text from the image to confirm you are human.(Cookies are required)

HTML tags and certain characters are removed - (numbers, letters only or post may be cut short.) certain words are banned to stop spammers. All comments and messages are approved by people and self promotional links or unacceptable comments are denied.