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Truss installed on station, spacewalk underway BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: June 11, 2007 Running about an hour behind schedule, the Atlantis astronauts successfully bolted a new 36,000-pound solar array truss and rotary joint to the international space station today, setting the stage for a spacewalk by Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas to activate and outfit the new equipment.
As the claw pulled the S3/S4 segments in tight, alignment guides ensured four motorized bolts lined up properly. By 3:11 p.m., three of the bolts had been successfully driven home - a requirement for pressing ahead with today's spacewalk - and a few minutes later, Archambault, operating the robot arm, released the now-firmly-attached truss. The fourth bolt was in place by 3:38 p.m. The work ran about an hour behind schedule after the space station's control moment gyroscopes became "saturated," losing their ability to maintain the station's orientation. This is a routine issue with gyroscope systems and after using the shuttle's thrusters to maintain control, the station gyros were reset and able to resume control. Reilly and Olivas (prono: oh-LEE-vus) switched their spacesuits to internal battery power at 4:02 p.m. to officially begin a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The goal of the excursion is to electrically connect a newly attached solar array truss segment to the station's power system and to remove a variety of launch locks and restraints so the huge blankets can be unfurled Tuesday. This is the 84th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the seventh so far this year and the first of at least three EVAs by the Atlantis astronauts. It is the first spacewalk for Olivas and the third for Reilly. "It's beautiful out here," Olivas marveled as he floated out of the Quest airlock module. Reilly and Olivas began today's spacewalk an hour and six minutes late because of work needed to reset the space station's control moment gyroscopes earlier in the truss attachment sequence. Here is an estimated timeline of today's activities based on the actual start time of the EVA (in EDT and elapsed time; subject to change): EDT........HH...MM...EVENT 04:02 PM...00...00...Spacesuits to battery power 04:12 PM...00...10...Airlock egress 04:27 PM...00...25...Reilly: Connect S1-S3 nadir electrical cables 04:47 PM...00...45...Olivas: Release solar array blanket box restraints 05:02 PM...01...00...Reilly: S3 computer shroud removal 05:32 PM...01...30...Reilly: Connect S1-S3 zenith electrical cables 06:02 PM...02...00...Reilly: Keel pin rotate 06:32 PM...02...30...Reilly: Release solar panel gimbal assembly 06:47 PM...02...45...Olivas: Release radiator locks 07:12 PM...03...10...Reilly: Unstow forward solar array blanket box 07:17 PM...03...15...Olivas: Unstow aft solar array blanket box 07:32 PM...03...30...Reilly: Install rotary joint drive motor (1 of 2) 07:37 PM...03...35...Olivas: Remove unneeded insulation blankets 08:07 PM...04...05...Olivas: Rigidize internal truss braces 08:32 PM...04...30...Reilly: Remove rotary joint launch locks 08:47 PM...04...45...Olivas: Remove rotary joint launch locks 09:47 PM...05...45...Cleanup and ingress 10:27 PM...06...25...Airlock repressurization
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