During the second spacewalk, the astronauts continued to operate the systems of the new component and handled the solar collectors
Astronauts Patrick Forrester and Steve Swanson continued the work started by their predecessors to activate the S3/S4 component of the space station on the second spacewalk of mission STS-117. The operation lasted seven hours and 16 minutes and ended at 21:44 EST (04:44 Israel time on Thursday). Meanwhile, NASA administrators have approved a spacewalk to take place on Friday, during which the astronauts will repair the shuttle's heat shield.
In the first part of yesterday's spacewalk, the two astronauts helped fold the old solar array onto the P6 component. They still left the launch harness attached to the solar collector rotation system on the S3/S4 Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ). Flight controllers request a closer look at the SARJ's lock. After removing the harnesses that prevent the system from breaking free during launch on the next launch walk, the engine will allow the solar array on S3/S4 to track the sun as it orbits the Earth.
13 of the 31.5 arrays of the solar collector on P6 were folded tonight and the crew members will send an order today to fold the rest of the parts. The two shook the solar collector to make it easier to fold. Folding the solar collector array of P6 will direct a line of sight to the new solar collector array to track the sun and prepare the ground for the transfer of the P6 component by one of the following crews from the head of the station to the end of the P5 component.
In other activities meanwhile, Hal Station 15 Crew Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kutov and Clayton Anderson continued to transfer cargo between the station and the shuttle Atlantis. Flight controllers in Russia worked through the night to resolve a problem with the Russian part of the station's computers that provide backup to the altitude and attitude adjustment systems. Currently, the drive system of the shuttle Atlantis serves as a backup to the station's drive system.
