International   

Atlantis: crucial repairs during third spacewalk

— Photos: AP, PTI

PRAYERS FOR SUNITA: Schoolchildren in Ahmedabad pray for the safe return of U.S. astronaut of Indian origin Sunita Williams and others aboard the Atlantis, on Friday .

Houston: Crucial repairs of a torn thermal blanket on the body of the Atlantis Space Shuttle which will bring back Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams back home will be the main task of two astronauts when they undertake third of the missions's four planned spacewalks.

James Reilly and Danny Olivas plan to come out of the International Space Station (ISS) with which the Atlantis has been docked before midnight Thursday (IST) to staple down the blanket that peeled back during the launch of space shuttle Atlantis last Friday. Sunita had spent a record six months in space.

The ISS had its own share of problems due to malfunctioning Russian computers though some communication with the systems was restored. Seven visiting shuttle astronauts and three ISS crew are living at the orbiting outpost. The shuttle's robotic arm will move Olivas to the tail of Atlantis where the thermal blanket covers an engine pod.

Training for spacewalk tasks can take months, but Olivas has only had a day to prepare for the repair job. Mission Control had only a few days to develop the procedures, which will use a medical stapler and loop-headed pins to secure the blanket corners in place against protective tile.

Meanwhile, engineers continued testing whether a bad power feed going into the Russian side of the international space station was causing failures in computers that control the outpost's orientation and produce oxygen.

Cameras, computer laptops and some lights on Atlantis were turned off on Thursday to save energy in case it needs to stay an extra day at the station to help maintain the outpost's orientation while the problem with the Russian computers is addressed. The mission had already been extended from 11 to 13 days to repair the thermal blanket.

This type of massive computer failure had never been seen before on the space station, although individual computers do fail periodically.

— PTI

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Hamas takes over Gaza
Amnesty plea on rights in Sri Lanka
9 die in Quetta attack
Camp destroyed
BAE appoints ethics panel to review business practices
Atlantis: crucial repairs during third spacewalk
India, Russia sort out differences on flights
India, Indonesia to enhance defence ties

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu