Spacewalker Danny Olivas is attached to Atlantis' robot arm as he works to repair a displaced thermal blanket on the shuttle's left orbital maneuvering system pod, June 15, 2007. (File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
WASHINGTON, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Russian navigation
computers on the International Space Station received a passing grade following
a test Monday morning. As a result NASA mission managers gave the Atlantis crew
the nod to undock the shuttle from ISS on Tuesday, according to NASA mission
updates.
During the computers meltdown last week, the
shuttle's thrusters were used to help the station maintain its position. The
test was to determine if the revived Russian computers were ready to control the
station's orientation.
Now, the Atlantis crew is scheduled to bid farewell
to the Expedition 15 crew before the hatches close at 6:23 p.m. EDT (2223GMT)
Monday between Atlantis and the station. Atlantis is slated to undock at 10:42
a.m. (1442 GMT) Tuesday and land at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. on Thursday.
The crew will conclude final transfers before saying
goodbye to their hosts, the Expedition 15 crew.
Atlantis arrived at the station June 10, delivering
the new truss segment to the orbiting outpost. The crew installed the truss June
11 and conducted four space walks to activate the new component and assist in
the retraction of an old solar array. During the third space walk, the crew
repaired an out of position thermal blanket on the left orbital maneuvering
system pod.
Atlantis also delivered a new station crew member,
Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson. He replaced astronaut Sunita Williams, who is
the new record holder for a long-duration single space flight for a woman. She
arrived at the station in December with shuttle Discovery.
WASHINGTON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Two astronauts finished the fourth spacewalk of Atlantis mission, safely re-entering the International Space Station at 6:54 p.m. EDT (2254 GMT) on Sunday, according to NASA TV.
Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson began the excursion at 12: 25 p.m. EDT (1625 GMT) and quickly went to work preparing the new truss segment for operation. The new component was installed onto the station on June 11. Most of the truss work centered on activating the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ), which will allow the new truss solar arrays to track the Sun. Full Story
WASHINGTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The six faulty computers at the International Space Station's (ISS) Russian segment has been all restored on Saturday, according to a top NASA official.
"Currently, they have all six computers up while we do some additional troubleshooting to understand the environment and how if affects the computers," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's ISS program manager. Full story
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