Avi Blizovsky - the science website
The first spacewalk of the Space Shuttle Atlantis crew on mission STS-115 ended today at the International Space Station. Astronauts Joe Tanner and Heidi-Marie Stephensin-Piefer worked outside the International Space Station and prepared the P3/P4 combined beam train. The spacewalk lasted about six hours and ended at 18:17 Israel time.
During the first stages of the spacewalk, the control center in Houston informed the shuttle crew that there was no need to conduct special tests of the Atlantis heat shield. The good news allowed the crew to proceed with the second spacewalk on Wednesday.
The new beam, which also includes a series of solar arrays, was connected to the station at 03:48 EST - 10:48 AM Israel time. Tanner and Piper began connecting beam P3/P4 to the main axis of the shuttle - beam P1 using screws. This task was completed at 04:35 (11:35 Israel time).
Other tasks on Tuesday's spacewalk included the installation of power and data cables between P1 and the new beam in preparation for the installation of the solar collectors. They also released the destroyers that blocked the movement of the box inside the solar collectors during the launch, and performed additional tasks to adapt the structure for the following operations.
The spacewalk coordinator was astronaut Dan Burbank. while Steve McLean and Jeff Williams operated the station's robotic arm.
The Burbank and McLean astronauts who performed the spacewalk are already preparing for the second spacewalk, this morning at 05:15 EST (12:15 Israel time). For this purpose they have already gone to the airlock where they will spend their sleeping hours.
