[sarex] Spacewalkers Prep SARJ for Action

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Spacewalkers Prep SARJ for Action*

Image above: Spacewalker Pat Forrester rides on the end of the station's
robotic arm to assist with the retraction of a solar array. Image 
credit: NASA TV .

TO VIEW THE IMAGE GO 
TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Astronauts Patrick Forrester and Steve Swanson continue to work outside 
the International Space Station to activate the newly installed 
Starboard 3 and 4 (S3/S4) truss segment. They kicked off STS-117’s 
second spacewalk at 1828 UTC today.

The orbital duo is preparing the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) on the 
S3/S4 truss for operation by removing the remaining launch restraints. 
The SARJ will allow the arrays to track the sun.

The first major task of the spacewalk was to assist with the retraction 
of the starboard array on the Port 6 (P6) truss. The crew did not 
retract all of the 31 1/2 bays and will send commands Thursday to 
retract the remaining bays. Before moving on to the spacewalk’s next 
task, Forrester and Swanson “fluffed” the array to allow easier 
retraction on Thursday.

The retraction of the P6 array also clears the line of sight for the 
S3/S4 arrays to track the sun. A future shuttle crew will relocate the 
P6 from atop the space station to the end of the Port 5 truss.

Mission Specialist Jim Reilly is coordinating the spacewalk, and Pilot 
Lee Archambault is at the controls of the station’s robotic arm. Two 
more spacewalks are scheduled for STS-117. Today’s excursion is slated 
to wrap up about 0058UTC.

In other activities, Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and 
Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clayton Anderson continue to transfer 
cargo between the station and Space Shuttle Atlantis.