Astronauts Joe Tanner and Heidi Piper completed the third and final spacewalk on mission STS-115 successfully completing their missions
Astronauts Joe Tanner and Heidi Piper successfully completed the third and final spacewalk on mission STS-115. During six hours and 42 minutes, the two continued their efforts to prepare the new beam P3/P4 for operational activity and also completed other tasks necessary for the assembly and maintenance of the station. The spacewalk ended at 19:42 Israel time.
As soon as the spacewalk began at around 13:00 Israel time, Tanner and Piper returned the materials of an experiment in the framework of which they were exposed to the conditions of space into the station and performed maintenance on the old beam P6. The astronauts then moved to the new beam P3/P4 and prepared its radiator for operation. The flight controllers deployed the radiator, a device that is supposed to remove the heat from the station at 15:11.
Tanner and Piper also installed a wireless TV antenna at the station and replaced a damaged antenna on the S1 beam. Towards the end of the spacewalk, the two years made an attempt to evaluate the tips of Atlantis' wings using infrared video footage. They also performed a task designed to make it easier for astronauts to perform several missions on future spacewalks.
Earlier, the astronauts knew of several problems - first, there was a malfunction in the air lock, during which water entered the air conditioning system as a result of an electrical short, but the controllers determined that it was a short that resulted from a one-time electrical pulse and not a serious, long-term malfunction.
Earlier, on Thursday, the installation of the array of solar collectors on board the International Space Station was temporarily halted, due to a technical fault in the joint of one of the collector arms that were installed earlier yesterday (Wed). The scientists of the American space agency, NASA, decided not to continue the mission as planned, after a technical fault was discovered that prevented the proper functioning of the array of collectors designed to increase the production of electricity for the shuttle.
In the last few hours, the astronauts, in cooperation with the ground team, are trying to activate the system and try to fix the defect that was discovered. Eventually, the defect was corrected and the spacewalked astronauts were able to complete the task of assembling the station's new systems
