All Appears Ready For Shuttle Return

Ah, the staple. It's very small and it can be very sharp, and it can be deployed in such a manner - like in space - to fasten down a loose corner of a shuttle thermal blanket to allow the heat shield to do its job and permit the crew of STS-117 to return home Thursday.

And, to quote Staples, the office retailing giant, "That was easy!"

NASA mission managers have given the thumbs up to Shuttle Atlantis being cleared to land at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday. An additional inspection will be conducted before the return commences.

The mission might still be extended, however, as engineers in Moscow and Houston work to determine why the computer system on the Russian side of the ISS crashed last week. As ANN reported, the computers were restored Friday when cosmonauts bypassed a circuit board and switched on four of the six computers, allowing crucial systems to be reinstated.

Work Continue Aboard ISS

But before the trip home, there remains much work to do. Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson continued to activate the ISS's new truss segment during STS-117's fourth six-hour spacewalk Sunday.

Other tasks scheduled for the spacewalk included the installation of a computer network cable onto the Unity module and the removal of a Global Positioning System antenna. The two were also slated to complete the installation of a piece of debris shielding on the Destiny laboratory.

Sunday's excursion marked the 88th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance.

And Another Record Achievement

Astronaut Suni William broke the 11-year female time-in-space endurance record Saturday, surpassing Shannon Lucid's mark of 188 days, 4 hours set in 1996.

Williams began her record-setting flight when she launched with the crew of STS-116 in December 2006 and remained onboard the station as a member of the Expedition 14 crew and then joined the Expedition 15 crew in April. Her life in space will come to a close when she returns to Earth aboard Atlantis with the STS-117 crew.

Although only her first spaceflight, Williams also became the record-holder for most hours outside a spacecraft by a female by completing four spacewalks during Expedition 15 for a total time of 29 hours, 17 minutes.

"It was very exciting to watch her spacewalks and to watch her accumulate more spacewalk time than any other female in the universe," said Lucid, who set the previous female space duration record while flying aboard the Russian Mir Space Station.

"These [long-term] flights are providing the needed confidence so that some day in the near future we can depart low-Earth orbit and head on out to Mars."

During her stay on orbit, Williams worked with experiments across a wide variety of fields, including human life sciences, physical sciences and Earth observation, as well as education and technology demonstrations.

Some of the experiments give scientists critical insight into the effects of weightlessness on humans while others demonstrate ways to prevent the effects already known, like muscle and bone loss.

In addition to rigorous exercise, Williams also collected and stored her blood while in space to add to an ongoing study on nutrition, another key element of living in space for long periods of time.

The results of this study may impact nutritional requirements and food systems developed for future ventures in space.

"Her mission has been critically important to our overall space program," said NASA Astronaut Eileen Collins, another female pioneer in spaceflight. Collins became the first woman to command a spaceflight mission during the STS-93 mission on Space Shuttle Columbia.

"She truly is a space marathoner who shows young women everywhere that there's a place in the space program for them."

If her stay in space concludes as scheduled with her return on Atlantis on Thursday, June 21, Williams will have flown a total of 194 days in space.

FMI: www.nasa.gov