[sarex] Williams Sets Spaceflight Record;

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468


	
	*Williams Sets Spaceflight Record; Spacewalk Preps, News Conference on 
Tap Today *

S117-E-07052 --- Sunita Williams uses a computer in the Unity node Image 
above: Astronaut Sunita L. Williams, STS-117 mission specialist, uses a 
computer in the Unity node of the International Space Station during 
flight day five activities while Space Shuttle Atlantis was docked with 
the station. Image credit: NASA

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

Early this morning, Mission Specialist Suni Williams set the record for 
the longest-duration single spaceflight by a woman. The workday schedule 
for Williams and her crewmates is filled with cargo transfers, spacewalk 
preparations and the Joint Crew News Conference.

Williams passed the previous record of 188 days, 4 hours at 1:47 a.m. 
EDT as the STS-117 and Expedition 15 crew members slept aboard space 
shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station. Williams began her 
spaceflight in December when she traveled to the station with STS-116. 
She served six months as a space station crew member. The previous 
record was set by Shannon Lucid on a mission to the Russian Mir space 
station and had stood since 1996.

The crews will get ready for STS-117’s fourth spacewalk by preparing 
tools and spacesuits that will be used by Mission Specialists Patrick 
Forrester and Steven Swanson. They will also review procedures for the 
spacewalk, which was added to the schedule after the STS-117 crew 
arrived at the station. The excursion is set to begin at 1653 UTC Sunday.

The crews will transfer cargo between Atlantis and the station before 
holding the news conference at 7:43 tonight. The conference will be 
aired live on NASA TV.

*Russian Flight Controllers Send Commands to Computers*

Efforts to bring the Russian navigation computers back to full operation 
will continue today. Friday, Russian flight controllers and the station 
crew were able to power-up two lanes of the Russian Central Computer and 
two lanes of the Terminal Computer by using a jumper cable to bypass a 
faulty secondary power switch.

Flight controllers began sending commands overnight to restart some 
systems. The Central Computer is now communicating with the U.S. command 
and control computer, and the Terminal Computer is communicating with 
U.S. navigation computers. The plan calls for more system restarts today.

The Russian navigation computers provide backup attitude control and 
orbital altitude adjustments. For now, the station’s control moment 
gyroscopes are handling attitude control, with the shuttle’s propulsion 
system providing backup.

*STS-117 Mission*
+ The Crew 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/index.html> 

+ The Mission 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/mission_overview.html> 

+ The Integrated Truss Structure 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/its.html>