Spacewalkers wrap up their exterior chores
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Two astronauts carried out home-improvement tasks Sunday on the international space station, wrapping up a series of challenging spacewalks.
The main goal for Steve Swanson and Patrick Forrester was to prepare the machinery that will turn a newly installed pair of solar arrays like a paddlewheel. This will allow them to track the sun and produce electricity for the outpost.
The giant arrays were delivered to the station last week by shuttle Atlantis, which launched June 8 from Kennedy Space Center.
If all goes well today in tests of the station’s maneuvering system, Atlantis is to leave the station Tuesday and return to Kennedy Space Center on Thursday.
The tests are needed after last week’s crash of key Russian computer systems that control steering thrusters and other functions on the orbital home.
“We’ll make sure the computers are still talking to the thrusters and prove to ourselves that we’ve got everything we need in order to undock safely,” flight director Holly Ridings said.
On Sunday, Forrester and Swanson carried out the fourth spacewalk of Atlantis’ construction flight. They had a long list of tasks designed to ready the solar arrays and prepare for future expansions.
They removed launch restraints from the solar alpha rotary joint that turns the arrays; added foot restraints for future spacewalkers; ran computer cable outside a module; and erected another debris shield to protect the U.S. Destiny laboratory from micrometeoroids.
After a busy Father’s Day at work, the men floated back in the station’s airlock shortly before 7 p.m. EDT after 6 1/2 hours outside.
Forrester is a retired Army colonel and father of two; Swanson is a computer scientist with three children. Before launch, Swanson said he was taking a small Lego spaceman crafted by his son into orbit.
Earlier Sunday, astronaut Clay Anderson sent good wishes to all the fathers “downstairs.” Anderson, a first-time flier, arrived at the station as part of Atlantis’ crew but will remain behind for a prolonged mission with cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov.