Astronauts complete first STS-117 spacewalk and extend mission to repair damaged blanket

James Reilly and Danny Olivas completed the first of four scheduled spacewalks on the International Space Station today, while NASA officials on the ground decided to extend the mission and repair damage space shuttle Atlantis suffered during liftoff.

Carpenter Newton reporting for Digital Journal –– The first of four spacewalks scheduled for mission STS-117 was completed today by astronauts James Reilly and Danny Olivas, slightly behind schedule because of a problem with the International Space Station’s control movement gyroscopes. The gyroscopes became “saturated,” meaning they temporarily lost ability to maintain control of the station’s orientation. The problem was fixed by using thrusters on space shuttle Atlantis to control orientation while the gyroscopes were reset on the ISS. Reilly and Olivas exited the space station at 4:02 p.m. EDT, a little over an hour behind schedule. The astronauts made electrical connections to the new S3/S4 truss segment that had been bolted onto the ISS before the spacewalk began. The two men also removed locks and restraints on the truss so a huge solar array can be unfolded on Tuesday. Once the new array is active, it will add about 14 kilowatts of power capability to the station. Olivas, participating in his first spacewalk, commented after floating into space, “It’s beautiful out here.” This spacewalk brings Reilly’s total up to three. The total time of the spacewalk was 6 hours, 15 minutes.

NASA Extends Mission to Repair Thermal Blanket While today’s spacewalk was taking place, Mission Management Team Chairman John Shannon announced that the STS-117 mission will be extended by two days, allowing for a fourth spacewalk. The additional time will allow the crew to repair a damaged insulation blanket on Altantis’ Orbital Maneuvering System pod. A decision will come tomorrow if the repair will be added to the third scheduled spacewalk or be part of an additional fourth spacewalk. “Based on our analysis today, we have upped our desire to fix this. We were looking at flight history, saying this doesn’t look like a big deal. Then you go look at your tools and say, ‘I could really damage the top surface of my structure,’ and I don’t want to do that,” Shannon said. “Let’s make a good effort to repair it before we come home.” Previous shuttle missions have survived re-entry with much more damage than Atlantis currently has, but NASA does not want to take any chances or subject the craft to time consuming repairs later. “It was a very easy decision,” Shannon said. The extension will mean Atlantis will now touch down at Kennedy Space Center on June 21.