Jun 11 2007
From The Space Library
Two U.S. astronauts, Mission Specialists John D. Olivas and James F. Reilly II, conducted the first extravehicular activity (EVA) of STS-117. During the 6-hour-and-15-minute spacewalk at the ISS, the astronauts made power, data, and cooling connections on a new 16-tonne (17.6-ton or 16,000-kilogram) truss segment containing solar arrays. One of [[STS-117’s objectives was to deliver the new US$367 million solar-power module to the ISS. The ISS partners intended for the arrays to increase the ISS’s power generation substantially and to serve future European and Japanese science modules. Mission managers decided to extend STS-117 two days, in case the crew needed to repair the fabric heat shield on the orbiter’s left tail section. Managers feared that Atlantis’s tail section had sustained damaged shortly after launch.
NASA, “STS-117 (21st Space Station Flight)”; Jean-Louis Santini for Agence France-Presse, “US Atlantis Astronauts Step Out on Space Walk,” 12 June 2007; Houston Chronicle, “New Solar Array Being Unfurled on Space Station,” 13 June 2007.
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