Olivas Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Married, five children. Born in North Hollywood, California, USA.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 17 - 1998. Active Entered space service: 4 June 1998. Number of Flights: 1.00. Total Time: 13.84 days. Number of EVAs: 2.00. Total EVA Time: 0.59 days.

NAME: John D. Olivas (Ph.D.)

NASA Astronaut Candidate (Mission Specialist)

PERSONAL DATA:

Born May 25, 1966 in North Hollywood, California, but considers El Paso, Texas to be his hometown. Married to the former Marie K. Schwarzkopf, also of El Paso, Texas. They have 3 children. Recreational interests include running, weightlifting, hunting, fishing, surfing, and mountain biking. His parents, Juan and Carmen Olivas, reside in El Paso, Texas. Her parents, Donald and Dorothy Schwarzkopf also reside in El Paso, Texas.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Burges High School, El Paso, Texas, in 1984, received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas-El Paso in 1989, a masters of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Houston in 1993 and a doctorate in mechanical engineering and materials science from Rice University in 1996.

ORGANIZATIONS:

American Society of Materials International (ASM International), Texas Registered Professional Engineer, Sigma Chi Fraternity.

AWARDS:

Four NASA Class One Tech Brief Awards (1997 and 1998), Five JPL-California Institute of Technology Novel Technology Report Recognitions (1997 and 1998) Pan American Institute Scholarship Award (1995), NASA ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Award (1995), Rice University Scholarship (1994), Dow Life Saving Award (1992).

EXPERIENCE:

After graduating in 1989, Olivas worked until 1994 for the Texas Operations Division of the Dow Chemical Company in Freeport, Texas. While there, he was a mechanical/materials engineer responsible for performing equipment stress/failure analysis for over 80 operating facilities. After completing his masters degree in 1993, Olivas pursued his doctorate while supporting engine coating evaluations for C-5 maintenance operations at Kelly Air Force Base. In the Summer of 1995, he worked as a Summer Faculty Fellow for the Crew and Thermal Systems Directorate at NASA-Johnson Space Center, evaluating materials for application to the next generation Extravehicular Mobility Unit.

Upon completing his doctorate, in the Spring of 1996, he moved to Los Angeles, California, to join an aerospace materials consulting firm. In the Fall, Olivas was offered a senior research engineer position at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Quality Assurance Section, in Pasadena, California. His research included the development of tools and methodologies for nondestructively evaluating microelectronics and structural materials subjected to space environments. Shortly after, he was promoted to Program Element Manager of the JPL Advanced Interconnect and Manufacturing Assurance Program. This NASA sponsored research effort included scientific investigations aimed at evaluating the reliability and susceptibility of state-of-the-art microelectronics for use in future NASA projects. Additionally, he was the JPL lead for the NASA Safety Reliability and Quality Assurance Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) program and was the sole NASA representative investigating applications of NDE to microelectronics applications. Through his career, he has authored and presented numerous papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals and is principal developer of seven inventions.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in June 1998, he reported for training in August 1998. Astronaut Candidate Training includes orientation briefings and tours, numerous scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training and ground school to prepare for T-38 flight training, as well as learning water and wilderness survival techniques. Following a period of training and evaluation, Olivas will receive technical assignments within the Astronaut Office before being assigned to a space flight.

OCTOBER 1998

• 8 June 2007 Flight: STS-117. Flight Up: STS-117. Flight Back: STS-117. Flight Time: 13.84 days.

19 July 1985 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 17 selected.. The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.

Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Of 25 Americans, eight pilots and 17 mission specialists.

Shuttle Commander Rick Sturckow was the first to enter the station followed soon after by the rest of the STS-117 crew.

The shuttle and space station docked at 2:36 p.m. CDT while traveling 220 miles above the northeast coast of Australia. Atlantis’ stay is planned for seven days of joint operations. Hatch opening between the two spacecraft occurred at 4:04 p.m. CDT.

Shortly after welcoming the shuttle crew, station Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and shuttle Mission Specialist Clayton Anderson transferred Anderson’s customized Soyuz seat liner into the Russian spacecraft in place of that of Flight Engineer Suni Williams. The transfer at 7:55 p.m. CDT marked the official swap of Anderson for Williams as a station crewmember. Williams spent 181 days on the station and now is an Atlantis crewmember for the remainder of the mission. She has been in space for 183 days.

Prior to docking, Sturckow flew Atlantis through an orbital back flip while stationed about 600 feet below the space station. The maneuver was documented with long-range, high resolution cameras by Kotov and Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin to document the shuttle’s heat shield.

Mid-morning, Mission Specialist John “Danny” Olivas used a 400 mm camera to get up-close shots of the port orbital maneuvering system. He shot those photos from the crew cabin aft window. During a check Friday night, an area of insulation blanket on the pod was seen to be pulled away from the adjacent thermal tiles. Those photos were downlinked for review by imagery analysts and mission managers.

Following docking, Pilot Lee Archambault and Mission Specialist Patrick Forrester used the shuttle's robotic arm to grapple the 17.8 ton S3/S4 truss, lift it from its berth in the payload bay, and maneuver it for handover to the station's Canadarm2. The S3/S4 truss is the heaviest station payload the shuttle has carried, to date.

After hatch opening, Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Suni Williams used the Canadarm2 to take the truss from the shuttle’s robotic arm. That task was completed at 7:28 p.m. CDT marking the completion of handover of the new truss segment to the station. The truss will remain grappled to the station’s arm overnight and installed Monday in conjunction with the first spacewalk by Mission Specialists Jim Reilly and Olivas.

The first of three planned spacewalks is scheduled to begin just before 2 p.m. CDT Monday and will be staged out of the station’s Quest airlock. Archambault, Kotov and Forrester will position the truss at the edge of the S1 truss using the station’s arm. Reilly and Olivas will connect power cables on the truss, release restraints for the Solar Array Blanket Boxes that hold the solar arrays and the Beta Gimbal Assemblies that serve as the structural link between the truss’ integrated electronics and the Solar Array Wings.

Reilly and Olivas will spend tonight "camped out" inside the Quest airlock, with air pressure lowered to help purge nitrogen from their bodies in preparation for the excursion.

The shuttle crew was awakened at 8:08 a.m. with “Riding the Sky,” written and performed by Johnson Space Center employees David Kelldorf and Brad Loveall for Mission Specialist Clayton Anderson. At the same time, a wakeup tone sounded on the station for Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams. Rendezvous operations for the shuttle crew to bring their ship together with the station begin at 9:38 a.m., and the terminal initiation engine firing, which puts Atlantis on course to close the final nine miles to the station, is set for 12 p.m.

At 1:37 p.m., at a distance of 600 feet below the station, Atlantis Commander Rick Sturckow will fly the rendezvous pitch maneuver. The maneuver is a back flip that will allow Yurchikhin and Kotov to photograph heat shield tiles on the shuttle’s underside. The images will be transmitted to the ground for analysis.

After the hatches open, Kotov and Anderson will transfer Anderson’s customized Soyuz seat liner into the Russian spacecraft in place of that of Williams. The transfer will make Anderson an official station crew member, and Williams a member of the shuttle crew. Delivery of the flight's primary payload, the bus-sized S3/S4 truss element with its new solar arrays, will start at about the same time. Using the shuttle robotic arm, Pilot Lee Archambault and Mission Specialist Patrick Forrester will grapple the 35,678-pound truss section, lift it from the payload bay and hand it off to the station's robotic arm, controlled by Williams.

The truss section will be installed Monday in conjunction with the first spacewalk of the flight, conducted by Mission Specialists Jim Reilly and John “Danny” Olivas. Reilly and Olivas will spend tonight "camped out" inside the Quest airlock, with air pressure lowered to help purge nitrogen from their bodies in preparation for the excursion.

The work culminated in a 6 hour, 15 minute spacewalk by shuttle astronauts Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas, who focused on final attachment of bolts, cables, and connectors to begin the activation of the truss and ready it for deployment of its solar arrays.

The spacewalk began at 3:02 p.m. CDT and ended at 9:17 p.m. CDT and was the 84th devoted to station assembly and maintenance totaling 515 hours, 20 minutes.

The spacewalk was delayed for about an hour after the station temporarily lost attitude control when the station’s control moment gyroscopes went offline due to the mass of the new truss segment in the final stage of its attachment. The loss was not unexpected because of the station’s skewed asymmetry as the 17.8 ton bus-size S3/S4 truss was being moved toward the S1 truss.

Pilot Lee Archambault, Mission Specialist Patrick Forrester and Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov tightened the final of four bolts permanently mating the new 45-foot truss to the outboard end of the S1 truss. The installation paved the way for the start of the spacewalk – the fourth for Reilly and first for Olivas. Once completed, the truss will stretch 356 feet from end to end.

Once the spacewalk began, Reilly and Olivas moved quickly through their tasks of releasing the launch restraints on the four Solar Array Blanket Boxes, which house the folded solar arrays. Their work sets the stage for the deployment of the solar arrays Tuesday.

The day began at 8:08 a.m. with the wakeup song “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong, played for Mission Specialist Danny Olivas. Olivas and Mission Specialist Jim Reilly completed a 6-hour, 15-minute spacewalk yesterday to complete the hardware installation of the S3/S4 Truss segments, which cleared the way for flight controllers to activate the new components.

Overnight ISS flight controllers commanded the initial minimal deployment of both solar array wings. Starting at 10:43 this morning shuttle Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault and Mission Specialists Pat Forrester, Steve Swanson, Suni Williams, Olivas and Reilly are scheduled to observe and assist in the complete deployment of those solar arrays to their full 115-foot length.

After lunch the shuttle crewmembers all get a couple of hours off duty before beginning preparations for a spacewalk by Forrester and Swanson tomorrow. They will assist with the initial stages of retraction of the starboard side solar array on the P6 module before removing the remaining launch restraints on the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint on S3/S4. That’s required to permit the SARJ to rotate so the new solar arrays can track the sun while the station orbits the Earth.

The shuttle crew and the Expedition 15 crewmembers, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson, are awaiting word from the Mission Management Team on the plan for the mission’s third and fourth spacewalks. The MMT extended the mission by two days and added a fourth EVA to provide time to repair the raised thermal blanket on the Orbital Maneuvering System pod. A decision about whether that job will be done on EVA 3 or EVA 4 is expected today.

Meanwhile, managers approved a repair task for a damaged thermal blanket to be carried out during the next spacewalk Friday.

During the second spacewalk of Space Shuttle Atlantis’ mission, Forrester and Swanson today removed all of the launch locks holding the 10-foot-wide solar alpha rotary joint in place. The spacewalkers had planned to remove the joint’s launch restraints as well, but left them for a later spacewalk.

The spacewalkers ran into a problem when Forrester tried to install a drive-lock assembly and found that commands being sent to it were actually being received by a drive-lock assembly installed during the mission’s first spacewalk. Flight controllers confirmed that the drive-lock assembly installed earlier was in a safe configuration and are working to confirm that the newly installed assembly is as well.

Once fully activated, the drive-lock assemblies engage gears permitting the massive joint to rotate allowing the arrays to track the sun as the station circles the Earth.

To enable it to do so, spacewalkers also had to help retract an older solar array to clear the new array’s path. The process is delicate, as the panels of the solar arrays tend to get caught on their guide wires and fold in the wrong direction. Flight controllers started the retraction before the crew woke up, and were able to get seven and a half of the 31.5 solar array bays folded. Then, on the spacewalk, Forrester and Swanson were able to poke and prod another five and a half bays worth of panels into folding correctly before moving on to other tasks.

The astronauts also were able to make sure the arrays were in a good configuration for another try by flight controllers on Thursday. If necessary, the spacewalkers could provide more hands-on help during one of the mission’s remaining two spacewalks.

Meanwhile, as the second spacewalk continued, mission managers decided that at least part of the third spacewalk, scheduled for Friday, will be dedicated to repairing a raised corner of a thermal insulation blanket that came loose from the shuttle during launch. Mission Specialist Danny Olivas will staple the corner to an adjacent blanket and use pins to secure it to a thermal protection tile.

Russian flight controllers will be working overnight to resolve a problem with the Russian segment computers that 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 providing backup.

Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson, who camped out in the Quest airlock as part of their spacewalk preparations, and their crewmates were awakened at 8:08 a.m. CDT with “Questions 67 and 68” by Chicago, played for Pilot Lee Archambault.

While Mission Specialists Danny Olivas and Suni Williams help the spacewalkers get ready, the other Atlantis astronauts will be working the early steps of retraction of the 2B solar array wing, on the starboard side of the P6 Truss. Commander Rick Sturckow, Archambault and Mission Specialist Jim Reilly will send commands and monitor the retraction for any repeat of the difficulties with folding panels and sticking guide wires that were encountered on a similar retraction last December.

When Forrester and Swanson exit Quest at 1:03 p.m. they’ll move up the P6 Truss to monitor the retraction and to assist if required. Forrester, who will be in a foot restraint on the station’s robot arm, and Swanson will have specially-prepared tools to use to help the panels of photovoltaic cells fold properly.

After 45 minutes the spacewalkers will move on to the primary job of the day, preparing the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint between the S3 and S4 Truss segments for rotation. Forrester and Swanson will remove all remaining locks and restraints that held the joint safely in place during launch so that the joint is free to rotate, enabling the new solar array wings on S4 to track the sun as ISS orbits the Earth. The spacewalk is scheduled to end at 7:33 p.m.

Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clayton Anderson are scheduled to work on the transfer of supplies, and Anderson has time in his schedule for handover briefings and familiarization with his new home in orbit.

While the crew worked in space, Russian flight controllers with assistance from counterparts in Mission Control, Houston, continue to troubleshoot why navigation computers in the Russian segment are not operating.

Commander Rick Sturckow, along with Pilot Lee Archambault, Mission Specialist Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson, meticulously retracted the solar array blanket atop the P6 truss another three bays worth of panels.

In parallel, Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas completed a review of procedures for Friday’s spacewalk, with the first task being to restore a thermal blanket on the shuttle’s left Orbital Maneuvering System pod to its preflight condition using hands, medical staples, and pins to secure it in place. That spacewalk is set to begin at approximately 12:38 p.m. CDT.

After completing that task – timelined to take about 2 hours – the two astronauts will turn their attention to assisting with the retraction of the remaining paper-thin panels of a solar array, which provided early power to the station’s pressurized modules, life support and avionics equipment.

Throughout Thursday, the crew carefully sent commands to retract the array as much as possible ahead of Friday’s spacewalk. By last count, 15½ of the 31½ bays remain to be folded into a 20-inch-deep protective box.

As the crew headed into the final hours of Flight Day 7, the seven shuttle and three station crewmembers reviewed procedures for Friday, focusing on the blanket repair task of the spacewalk. Olivas will perform the repair while in a foot restraint on the end of the shuttle’s robotic arm. The thermal blanket pulled loose during launch a week ago and was first noticed during a standard vehicle inspection by the crew shortly after launch.

The repair procedure will involve pressing down on the blanket and stapling one side of the 4-by-6-inch raised corner to an adjacent blanket. Olivas then will pin the other side of the blanket to a thermal tile. Engineers on the ground are conducting tests of the repair on mockups created to mirror the damaged blanket in space. The test articles are being subjected to heat loads and wind effects similar to what is expected for that part of the shuttle during reentry.

Flight controllers also stayed busy on the ground troubleshooting a problem with Russian computers that provide backup attitude control and orbital attitude adjustment for the station’s control moment gyroscopes. Russian specialists are working closely with United States teams, concentrating on troubleshooting and restoring computer capabilities. They were able to get the computers working intermittently during the day and will continue working on the problem overnight. The station remains in a safe configuration, with attitude control handled by its control moment gyroscopes.

Before going to sleep just after 11 p.m., the crew also will talk about the mission with radio and television stations. That interview on NASA TV from the station’s Destiny laboratory is set to begin at 8:58 p.m. Reilly and Olivas then will head into the Quest airlock to begin their campout prebreathe protocol designed to reduce the amount of nitrogen in their bodies, thus shortening the time required Friday to breathe pure oxygen ahead of the start of their second spacewalk of the mission.

At 7:39 a.m. CDT Mission Control in Houston played the wakeup song “Indescribable” by Chris Tomlin for Mission Specialist Patrick Forrester, who completed a 7-hour, 16-minute spacewalk with Mission Specialist Steven Swanson yesterday. The crews had been awakened at 6:23 a.m. by a false fire alarm in the Zarya module, which was the result of troubleshooting Russian segment navigation computers which had just been successfully restarted by Mission Control in Moscow.

Beginning at 10:38 a.m. Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson joins Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault, Swanson and Mission Specialist Suni Williams to resume commanding the retraction of the solar array wing on the starboard side of the P6 Truss, which was about half retracted yesterday before and during the spacewalk. That job is on the schedule for the latter half of spacewalk 3 on Friday if it is not completed today.

In the meantime Forrester will work with Mission Specialists Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas to review the procedures for that spacewalk. Olivas will get in a foot restraint on the shuttle robot arm to repair the orbital maneuvering system pod thermal blanket that pulled away from the adjacent thermal tiles on launch last week. There is time in the schedule this afternoon for the crewmembers to practice the repair technique, and then this evening to conduct a tagup with spacewalk specialists in Houston before the spacewalkers begin their campout prebreathe protocol in the Quest airlock.

At 8:58 p.m. Sturckow, Archambault, Forrester and Swanson will discuss the progress of their flight in interviews with Fox News Radio and Denver television stations KMGH-TV and KUSA-TV.

Mission Specialists Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas worked outside the station for 7 hours, 58 minutes and completed all their planned tasks. Olivas spent two hours stapling and pinning down a thermal blanket on Atlantis’ orbital maneuvering system pod. A 4-by-6-inch corner of the blanket peeled up during the shuttle’s launch last week.

Meanwhile, Reilly installed the hydrogen vent valve of a new oxygen generation system on the Destiny laboratory. The system will separate oxygen from water to provide breathing air, while dumping the remaining component – hydrogen – overboard.

When those tasks were completed, the two astronauts joined forces with their colleagues inside the shuttle and station and flight controllers in Houston to complete the delicate process of folding an older solar array so that it can be moved from its temporary location to its permanent home during a shuttle mission this fall.

Armed with lessons learned from last December’s shuttle mission when the other half of the array posed an identical challenge, the STS-117 mission team followed well-trained procedures to retract the array into its protective box. The retraction was completed and latches closed at 7:40 p.m. (7 hours, 15 minutes into the spacewalk). Reilly and Olivas provided hands-on assistance throughout the process.

The retraction sequence today required 28 commands, bringing the total for the retraction to 45.

Behind the scenes while the spacewalk was ongoing, Russian flight controllers were troubleshooting two Russian computers that provide backup attitude control and orbital altitude adjustments for the station’s control moment gyroscopes. Station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov were able to get two of three lanes in both computers up and running after bypassing with external cabling what appeared to be a faulty power switch.

The computers are now being monitored for proper operation, awaiting additional data evaluation overnight when the station passes over Russian ground stations for detailed telemetry downlink. Each computer requires only one lane running to perform its duties.

One final spacewalk is planned for Sunday, when Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steve Swanson will perform get-ahead tasks and finish preparing the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint for activation. Its function is to allow a new pair of solar arrays to track the Sun as the station circles the Earth.

The crew will spend part of Saturday getting ready for the last spacewalk and discuss the mission during the traditional news conference at 6:43 p.m.

The crew’s wakeup call came at 7:41 a.m. CDT with the song “Radar Love” by Golden Earring, played for Mission Specialist Steve Swanson.

Spacewalkers Jim Reilly and John “Danny” Olivas spent the night in the Quest airlock at reduced atmospheric pressure as part of the spacewalk preparation protocol. They’ll go out the door at 12:38 p.m. and Reilly will help Olivas set up to make repairs to a thermal blanket on Atlantis’ port orbital maneuvering system pod that was damaged during the shuttle’s climb to orbit last week.

Supported by the shuttle robot arm, Olivas will push the turned up portion of the thermal blanket back into position, use a medical stapler to secure the layers of the blanket, and pin it in place against adjacent thermal tile.

At the same time, Reilly will install a hydrogen vent valve in the forward section of the Destiny laboratory for a new oxygen generating system being installed there. The system separates water into its chemical components of oxygen and hydrogen, venting the hydrogen overboard and supplying the oxygen for the station crewmembers to breathe.

When they complete those tasks the spacewalkers will move to the top of the P6 Truss to assist in retraction of the remaining 15 mast bays of the starboard side solar array wing. Armed with tools specially designed for the task, Reilly and Olivas will keep the solar panels folding properly and unstick any stuck grommets on guide wires as their crewmates command the mast to retract. If they’re able to get the array completely retracted, Reilly and Olivas have a list of other jobs to do before ending the spacewalk.

Russian flight controllers are still troubleshooting a problem with Russian computers that provide backup attitude control and orbital attitude adjustment for the station’s control moment gyroscopes. Commands were sent early this morning to start the computers but only one lane of the central computer booted up; all three lanes of both the central computer and the terminal computer were deactivated just before 5 a.m. CDT. The current plan is to leave them turned off today while the teams in the Russian Mission Control Center compare notes and develop a forward plan of action. The station remains in a safe configuration, with attitude control handled by its control moment gyroscopes.

At 12:47 a.m. CDT, Astronaut Suni Williams’ time in space since her launch last Dec. 9 reached 188 days and 4 hours, matching the mark for the longest single spaceflight ever by a woman space traveler. That mark was set by Astronaut Shannon Lucid on her flight to the Mir space station in 1996.

The wakeup call featuring the University of Texas at El Paso Fight Song, performed by the UTEP Pep Band, was played for Mission Specialist (and UTEP alumnus) John “Danny” Olivas at 7:38 a.m. CDT.

Today the four spacewalkers will spend time configuring the spacesuits and EVA tools used on Friday’s 7-hour, 58-minute EVA by Olivas and Mission Specialist Jim Reilly, and then preparing the Quest airlock for Sunday’s spacewalk by Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson.

The plan for EVA 4 includes verification of Drive Lock Assembly 2, one of a pair of mechanisms which will drive rotation of the S3/S4 Truss Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, and removal of the final launch restraints on the SARJ to enable its rotation so the solar arrays on S4 can track the sun. The spacewalkers will also remove a keel pin and drag link from S3, complete bolting down a piece of debris shielding on the Destiny laboratory, install a computer network cable on Unity, and remove a Global Positioning System antenna.

Crewmembers will spend time today transferring supplies between ISS and Atlantis, and at 5:18 p.m. will review the timeline for Sunday’s spacewalk. At 6:43 p.m. all 10 astronauts and cosmonauts get together in the Destiny laboratory for the Joint Crew News Conference.

Mission Control Moscow restarted the Russian computers that provide backup attitude control and orbital attitude adjustment for the station’s control moment gyroscopes Friday afternoon and confirmed that they were stable. This morning the Russian flight controllers began sending commands to restart some systems in the Russian segment of ISS.

The Russian central computer is now communicating with the U.S. command and control computer, and the Russian terminal computer is again talking to the U.S. navigation computers. Additional commanding and systems restarts are anticipated today as Russian specialists pore over operations data from the two computers.

During a news briefing from the Johnson Space Center Saturday afternoon, International Space Station Program Manager Michael Suffredini said, “We’re having a great day on orbit today.”

Yesterday, station Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov were able to reenable four of the six channels in the computer systems after bypassing what appears to be a faulty power switch with external cabling.

The Russian cosmonauts repeated that same modification today on the last two channels, which were originally suspected to have failed. They are continuing to checkout and troubleshoot the computers. Meanwhile, the forward plan is to keep the original four channels active and keep the other two channels in "stand by" mode.

Engineering teams also plan to test the Russian attitude control system as early as Sunday morning, in order to confirm that it is operating and working well in concert with the U.S. system. The specifics of the test are still being defined but once executed, the teams will determine when shuttle Atlantis will depart the station. Undocking is currently scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Onboard, the rest of the crew today focused on transfer activities as well as preparations for a fourth spacewalk tomorrow. The ten astronauts, including Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Clay Anderson, and shuttle Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault, and mission specialists Pat Forrester, Steven Swanson, Danny Olivas, Jim Reilly and Sunita Williams, also participated in a joint crew news conference.

During their crew sleep, Williams established a new record for the longest single spaceflight by a female. At 12:47 a.m. CDT, Williams surpassed the longstanding 188 day and 4 hour record set by astronaut Shannon Lucid at the Mir space station in 1996.

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” said Williams of the record. “It’s an honor to be here.”

The four spacewalkers spent time working on the U.S. spacesuits. Olivas and Reilly finished their post-spacewalk spacesuit reconfiguration tasks, while Forrester and Swanson configured their suits and tools for their second spacewalk. The final spacewalk of the flight is set to begin Sunday morning at 11:33 a.m. CDT.

The spacewalk will include a few wrap up tasks associated with the new truss segment, including installation of the Drive Lock Assembly 2, which with a second DLA, drives rotation of the S3/S4 Truss Solar Alpha Rotary Joint. The spacewalkers also will remove the final six launch restraints on the SARJ to enable its rotation and remove a keel pin and drag link from S3. They’ll also complete installation of a debris shield on the Destiny laboratory, install a computer network cable on Unity and remove a Global Positioning System antenna.

Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault, and Mission Specialist and Flight Engineer Steven Swanson checked out Atlantis’ hydraulic systems and flight control surfaces beginning at 8:58 a.m. today. That was followed closely by the steering jet tests at 10:08 a.m.

All seven astronauts spent the day stowing equipment for the landing, and then came together just after 2 p.m. to discuss their mission with NBC, ABC and CNN. The crew is scheduled to go to sleep at 8:38 p.m. and wake up at 4:38 a.m. Thursday.

The Mission Management Team worked into the early evening to ensure the shuttle is safe for landing. Some fuzz from a gap filler poking out on the outer edge of the left wing was noticed during Tuesday’s late inspection and deemed safe for reentry based on its location and measured protrusion of about 4/10 of an inch. Also, the MMT reviewed additional data presented on the thermal blanket damaged during launch on June 8. The blanket was repaired during the third spacewalk of the mission and cleared for reentry.

Discussions centered around thermal models developed by engineers to assess whether any damage may have occurred to underlying structure, but photographs taken by Danny Olivas – who affected the repair – clearly showed no heat effects.

Entry Flight Director Norm Knight indicated that the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, would be the only landing site considered Thursday, based on consumables that provide flexibility to land as far out as Sunday. The weather forecast shows a chance of rain showers within 30 miles of the runway at landing time with a cloud deck at 5,000 feet – both are landing violations. The plan calls for a deorbit engine firing at 11:50 a.m. for the 12:55 p.m. landing and a 1:25 p.m. deorbit burn for the 2:30 p.m. landing opportunity.

If landing is moved to Friday, two landing opportunities would be available in Florida and two in California at the Edwards Air Force Base. Three sites would be available Saturday in order of preference – Florida, California or at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.