WASHINGTON, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Russian and U.S. flight controllers and engineers are focusing on efforts for recovering the computers and options to maintain attitude control until the problem is resolved, according to a NASA news briefing early Friday afternoon.

    "I think we're in good shape," Mike Suffredini, NASA's International Space Station Program Manager, briefed reporters during the briefing about the status of troubleshooting efforts.

    "We still have a lot of options to go through to recover these machines. We've got a talented group of people to look at attitude control."

    The glitch appeared in Russian computers that control the ISS's critical oxygen and water supplies and the stability of the orbiting station.

    For now, the station's control moment gyroscopes are handling attitude control, with the shuttle's propulsion system providing backup.

    Russian space officials insisted on Friday that other life-support systems on the station were working normally and the crew had enough oxygen to last for 90 days.

    While experts struggled to bring the troubled computers back to full operation, Atlantis mission specialists James Reilly and John Olivas kicked off the third spacewalk at 1:24 p.m. EDT (1724 GMT).

    Three major tasks are planned for the excursion, including repair work on the shuttle's thermal blanket gap.