Atlantis crew members train for flight STS-117 in March

 When the space shuttle Atlantis takes off for the International Space Station in March (the launch window opens on March 16), the mission will look familiar. The team members will install another component to the station avenue, install new solar collectors and fold the old ones

Pictured: STS-117 mission commander Rick Strokov practices in the space shuttle cockpit model at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Photo: NASA.

I jokingly refer to the previous flights as test flights for us," says Kelly Beck, flight manager for the STS-117 mission. And with the help of two successful missions that paved the way, everyone involved in the current flight hopes that this will be the best mission yet."

"We are fortunate in that we have someone to carry on," said Atlantis Commander Rick Storkov. Almost everything was great in these missions and what didn't go well we can learn from." Concluded.

 In the photo below: the space station today - with the two solar collectors on its left side.. The STS-117 crew will also install such solar arrays on its right side.

The new solar array that Strokov's crew, pilot Lee Archambault and astronauts Patrick Forrester, Steven Swanson, John (Danny) Olivas and Jim Reilly will install on the right side of the station will actually mirror those installed on its left side in September. And like the crew that installed those systems, STS-117 crew members will also be responsible for their retirement and preparation for solar tracking and power generation. It sounds like an easy thing to do but the first time the deployment of solar collectors in space was attempted, in 2000, it didn't go so smoothly. The panels stuck and stayed stuck.

The crew will be able to correct such a malfunction, if it occurs, but to prevent this, the deployment technology was changed when the second array was launched on flight STS-115. By slowing down the deployment rate, and performing the operation only when the station was in sunlight, it was possible to open the panels without problems - a situation that Atlantis crew members hope will return in March.

 Currently, the launch is scheduled for March 15.

For information on the NASA website