[sarex] Space Station Grows With Addition of Truss Segment

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Space Station Grows With Addition of Truss Segment*

ISS's robotic arm, Orbital Boom Sensor System and Endeavour's robotic 
armmage above: The International Space Station's robotic arm prepares to 
hand off the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) to shuttle Endeavour's 
robotic arm. Image credit: NASA TV

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

Already the largest human-made object orbiting the Earth, the 
International Space Station continued its on-orbit growth spurt with the 
addition of the Starboard 5 (S5) truss segment. The S5 was attached 
Saturday during STS-118’s first spacewalk.

The S5 will serve as a spacer segment between the Starboard 4 and 6 (S6) 
segments. The S6 and its solar arrays will be attached during a future 
shuttle mission. The S5 is the newest piece of the station’s backbone, 
called the Integrated Truss Structure, which will eventually span the 
length of a football field and contain four sets of solar arrays.

Three more spacewalks will take place during STS-118’s stay at the 
station. One of the tasks during the upcoming spacewalks is the 
replacement of a faulty attitude control gyro. The two crews are also 
transferring cargo between Space Shuttle Endeavour and the station.

Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg 
Kotov and Clay Anderson welcomed the seven-member STS-118 crew aboard 
the station Friday at 4:04 p.m. EDT. The STS-118 crew arrived at the 
station a couple of hours earlier when Space Shuttle Endeavour docked at 
2:02 p.m.

STS-118’s stay at the station is slated to wrap up when Endeavour 
undocks Aug. 20.

*Command and Control Computer Shuts Down, Backup Takes Over*

The main command and control computer in the International Space 
Station’s Destiny Laboratory shut down about 3:52 p.m. EDT Saturday. The 
primary backup computer immediately took control and assumed the backup 
duties. There was no impact to the spacewalk being conducted by the 
STS-118 crew. Flight controllers are working to resolve the issue.