Reilly Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Married, Three children. Born in Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, USA. PhD

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 15 - 1995. Active Entered space service: 9 December 1994. Number of Flights: 3.00. Total Time: 35.44 days. Number of EVAs: 5.00. Total EVA Time: 1.28 days.

NAME: James F. Reilly, II (Ph.D.)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born March 18, 1954, Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. Considers Mesquite, Texas, to be his hometown. Married to the former Jo Ann Strange, a native of Dallas, Texas. Three children. He enjoys flying, skiing, photography, running, soccer, hunting and fishing. His father, James F. Reilly, resides in Rockwall, Texas. His mother, Billie N. Ruether, resides in Tyler, Texas. Her parents, Robert and Mildred Strange, reside in Dallas, Texas.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Lake Highlands High School, Dallas Texas, in 1972. Bachelor of science degree in geosciences from University of Texas-Dallas, 1977. Master of science degree in geosciences from University of Texas-Dallas, 1987. Doctorate in geosciences from University of Texas-Dallas, in 1995.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

SPECIAL HONORS:

Awarded the Antarctic Service Medal, 1978. US Navy ROTC scholarship, 1972.

EXPERIENCE:

After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in 1977, Reilly entered graduate school and was selected to participate as a research scientist specializing in stable isotope geochronology as part of the 1977-1978 scientific expedition to Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica. In 1979, he accepted employment as an exploration geologist with Santa Fe Minerals Inc., in Dallas, Texas. From 1980 to the time he was selected for the astronaut program, Reilly was employed as an oil and gas exploration geologist for Enserch Exploration Inc., in Dallas, Texas, rising to the position of Chief Geologist of the Offshore Region. He has experience in exploration and operation activities in both international and domestic regions, primarily in the deep-water regions of the Gulf of Mexico. Concurrent with his duties as an exploration geologist, he was actively involved in the application of new imaging technology for industrial applications in deep water engineering projects and biological research. As part of this work, Reilly has spent approximately 22 days in deep submergence vehicles operated by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution and the US Navy. Concurrent with his employment with Enserch, Reilly received his Master of Science degree in geosciences in 1987, and has completed his dissertation on the geologic controls on the distribution of chemosynthetic communities in the Gulf of Mexico, receiving his Doctorate in geosciences in 1995.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in December 1994, Reilly reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995, has completed a year of training and evaluation, and is qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. He was initially assigned to work technical issues for the Astronaut Office Computer Support Branch. Reilly is currently assigned as a mission specialist on the crew of STS-89, scheduled for a January 1998 launch on Space Shuttle Discovery. STS-89 is the eighth of nine planned missions to dock the Space Shuttle with Russia's Mir space station.

• 23 January 1998 Flight: STS-89. Flight Up: STS-89. Flight Back: STS-89. Flight Time: 8.82 days.

• 12 July 2001 Flight: STS-104. Flight Up: STS-104. Flight Back: STS-104. Flight Time: 12.77 days.

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

9 June 1995 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 15 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.. 10 pilots and 9 mission specialists, 6 civilians and 13 military officers, chosen from 2,962 applicants, of which 122 screened in June-August 1994. 4 additional international astronauts.

Payloads included:

• Orbiter middeck: CEBAS (German/US biological module with fish and snails); dinosaur skull (part of a museum educational program)
• Bay 1: Tunnel Adapter
• Bay 3: Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
• Bay 4-7: Transfer Tunnel
• Bay 8-12: Spacehab Double Module (payloads included supplies for Mir, X-ray crystallography detector planned for the International Space Station)
• Bay 13P: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-141, G-145 (German materials processing experiments)
• Bay 13S: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-093 (University of Michigan fluid dynamics experiment), G-432 (Chinese materials processing experiment)

Despite fits problems with his Sokol emergency spacesuit, Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as a Mir crew member on January 25. Endeavour undocked from Mir on January 29 at 16:57 GMT and made one flyaround of the station before departing and landing at Kennedy Space Center's runway 15 at 22:35 GMT on January 31.

• Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock - 2160 kg including 3 EMU spacesuits
• Bay 4-5: Spacelab Pallet (Fwd) with O2-1/O2-2 oxygen tanks - 2500 kg
• Bay 6-7: Spacelab Pallet (Aft) with N2-1/N2-2 nitrogen tanks - 2500 kg
• Bay 8-12: Station Joint Airlock Adapter beam (6064 kg) with IMAX Cargo Bay Camera (238 kg)
• Sill: RMS arm - 410 kg

The six tonne Airlock consisted of two cylinders of four meters diameter and a total length six meters. The Airlock could be pressurized by the externally-mounted high pressure oxygen-nitrogen tanks, and was to be the sole unit through which all future EVAs were to take place. (Until that point, all EVA entries/exits had been through a Russian module in ISS, with non-Russians having to wear Russian space suits). Another payload was the "EarthKAM" of middle/high school interest. It was to allow pupils to command picture-taking of chosen spots on Earth; they were expected to target 2,000 spots. The shuttle also carried out pulsed exhaust tests during maneuvers to enable better understanding of the formation of HF echoes from the shuttle exhaust. The echoes were obtained by ground based radars in an experiment called SIMPLEX (Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Local EXhaust). The STS-104 crew returned to Atlantis on July 22, and undocked at 0455 GMT. After flying around the station they departed the vicinity at 0615 GMT. Atlantis landed at 0338:55 GMT on July 25, touching down at Kennedy Space Center runway 15.

Atlantis Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Mission Specialists Janet Kavandi, Jim Reilly and Mike Gernhardt will spend their first full day in space checking equipment in preparation for the major events to come on their 11-day mission: Friday's docking with the station and Saturday's first of three space walks.

With Gernhardt and Reilly assisting during a seven-hour space walk, scheduled to begin around 9 p.m. Saturday, Flight Engineer Susan Helms will use the station's new robotic arm -- Canadarm2 -- to remove the Quest airlock from the shuttle's payload bay and attach it to the right side of the station's Unity connecting module. The new airlock will enable station crews to perform space walks in U.S. space suits without the shuttle being present. This ability will enhance the station's capabilities for maintenance and construction and complete a major milestone in the station's orbital construction.

The International Space Station crew - Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Helms and Jim Voss - awoke at 2 p.m. The station crew will spend its day preparing for the Friday docking of Atlantis and the Saturday installation of the Quest airlock. The Expedition Two crew has been in space since March 8 and in charge of the space station since it took over from the Expedition One crew March 18.

Atlantis Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Mission Specialists Janet Kavandi, Jim Reilly and Mike Gernhardt will install an airlock named Quest on the station, increasing the orbiting complex's onboard capabilities for maintenance and construction and completing a major milestone in the station's orbital construction. The International Space Station crew - Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms -- was informed of Atlantis' launch just minutes after liftoff. The station crew spent the day preparing for the shuttle's visit. Earlier in the week the station crew performed final checks of the orbiting outpost's Canadian-built mechanical arm, an arm that will be used to attach the airlock, and reported the arm in excellent condition.

Atlantis is planned to dock with the station at about 9:51 p.m. Central on Friday. After opening Atlantis' payload bay doors and preparing the shuttle for an extended stay in space, Atlantis' crew will go to sleep at 9:04 a.m. Central today. The space station crew, now in its fourth month aboard the complex, will begin its sleep period at about 5:30 a.m. Central.

The station crew will awaken at 2 p.m. and Atlantis' crew will awaken at 5:03 p.m. today. When they awaken this afternoon, the shuttle crewmembers will spend their first full day in space checking out equipment in preparation for the major events to come on their 11-day mission: Friday's docking with the station and three space walks, the first to begin on Saturday, to install the new airlock.

The day's rendezvous operations began at 4:34 p.m. with Atlantis trailing the station by about 250 statute miles and closing the gap by 230 miles every orbit. Yesterday, the crew powered up the shuttle's docking mechanism and installed a centerline camera that will help line up the orbiter's docking mechanism with the station's docking port.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition Two crew Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms awoke at 4 p.m. The Expedition Two crew spent its orbital morning preparing the station for the arrival of Atlantis, and some initial cargo exchanges.

Another successful firing of Atlantis' orbital maneuvering system engines at 6 p.m. refined the shuttle's approach. A final burn, called the Terminal Intercept (Ti) burn, is scheduled for 7:33 p.m. when Atlantis is about 50,000 feet behind the station. After the Ti burn, the shuttle's rendezvous radar system will begin tracking the station and providing range and closing rate information to Commander Steve Lindsey and Pilot Charlie Hobaugh. When Atlantis reaches a point about a half mile below the station, Lindsey will take manual control of the shuttle and slow Atlantis' approach, flying to a point about 600 feet below the station. Mission Specialists Michael Gernhardt, Janet Kavandi and Jim Reilly will assist, operating additional range-finding tools and documenting the approach with an IMAX camera mounted in the cargo bay. Lindsey will trace a quarter-circle around the station, bringing the shuttle to a point a little more than 300 feet in front of the Destiny laboratory and Pressurized Mating Adapter 2. From that point, Lindsey will move Atlantis toward the station at a speed of one tenth of a mile per hour until the two vehicles are just 30 feet apart; there he will pause for a few minutes to check his alignment. Lindsey will gently close the distance until the shuttle's spring-loaded docking mechanism makes contact with the station. The mechanism will be retracted and latches commanded to close, completing the docking process.

After docking, the crews are scheduled to open the hatches between the two vehicles about 11:30 p.m. and greet one another in a brief welcoming ceremony.

Commander Steve Lindsey and Pilot Charlie Hobaugh fired Atlantis' steering jets periodically during the night to adjust the shuttle's course toward the station. Atlantis now is trailing the International Space Station by about 1,800 statute miles, closing the gap by 230 miles with each orbit of Earth, on track to dock with the complex at about 9:53 p.m. Central. Astronauts Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly powered up and tested the two space suits they will wear during the three space walks planned to install the Airlock Quest on the station after Atlantis arrives. Assisted by Hobaugh, they also checked a third, spare suit that will be left aboard the station.

During the suit checks, the crew noted a white substance in the vicinity of the spare space suit's battery. Mission Control instructed the crew to take several standard precautionary measures, such as donning rubber gloves and turning off several ventilation fans, as they cleaned the substance off of the suit, swapped the suspect battery with a fresh one and changed the carbon dioxide removal cartridge. The old battery was then stowed away, sealed in leak-proof bags. The substance did no damage to the space suit and it remains in excellent operating condition.

Mission Specialist Janet Kavandi powered up Atlantis' robotic arm, successfully checking its operation and surveying the Quest airlock in the shuttle cargo bay using television cameras on the arm. The shuttle's robotic arm will be used to maneuver the space walkers during their planned work outside Atlantis and the station. The crew also powered up the shuttle's docking mechanism, preparing it for the linkup tonight.

Atlantis is in an orbit with a high point of 235 miles and a low point of 182 miles, circling Earth every 90 minutes. All of the shuttle's systems are in excellent condition.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition Two crew Commander Yury Usachev, and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms reviewed the schedule for Atlantis' arrival later tonight. The shuttle and station crews will go to sleep at about 8:04 a.m. The shuttle crew will awaken at 3:04 p.m. and the station crew at 4:04 p.m. to begin the rendezvous and docking activities.

The Shuttle crew's day began at 4:04 p.m. with a wake-up call from Mission Control, playing the song "Space Cowboy" by N'Sync for Mission Specialist Janet Kavandi. On board the Space Station, Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms also awoke at 4:04 p.m.

During tonight's space walk, Gernhardt, designated EV1, will be identifiable by the red stripes around the legs of his spacesuit, while Reilly, EV2, will be wearing an all-white space suit. Atlantis' pilot Charlie Hobaugh will coordinate the space walk from within the shuttle cabin.

Gernhardt will begin the space walk by removing an insulating cover, nicknamed the "shower cap," from the airlock's berthing mechanism, as well as protective covers from the mechanism's seals. Reilly will work to install bars on the airlock that will be used to attach four High-Pressure Gas Tanks during two subsequent space walks later in the mission. Gernhardt will then disconnect heater cables that kept the airlock warm while in the payload bay, which Reilly will stow along with the shower cap and berthing mechanism covers.

When the airlock is ready for installation, Helms, from a control panel in the station and assisted by crewmate Voss, will attach the Canadarm2 to the Quest airlock and lift it out of Atlantis' payload bay. Grappling of the airlock by the station's robotic arm is scheduled to occur at 11:04 p.m., with removal of the airlock from the payload bay at 11:19 p.m. The airlock is scheduled to be attached to the right side of the Unity module at 2:04 a.m.

Throughout the space walk, Atlantis astronaut Janet Kavandi will operate the shuttle's robotic arm, using it to maneuver the two space walkers around the space station and to provide camera views to assist Helms and Voss with their work.

Atlantis brings a new airlock to the station. It will enable station crewmembers to conduct spacewalks from the station, using either Russian or U.S. spacesuits.

The hatch separating the Atlantis crew, Lindsey, Pilot Charles Hobaugh, and mission specialists Mike Gernhardt, Janet Kavandi and James Reilly, from Expedition Two crewmembers Yury Usachev, Jim Voss and Susan Helms was opened at midnight. After a safety briefing by Expedition Two Commander Usachev, both crews began an hour-long review of procedures for the first of three spacewalks of the STS-104 mission.

The spacewalk, by Gernhardt and Reilly, is to begin about 9:10 p.m. Saturday and last more than seven hours. Focus of the spacewalk is the berthing of the airlock, named Quest. Two subsequent spacewalks by Gernhardt and Reilly will attach high-pressure Oxygen and Nitrogen tanks to the airlock.

After the hour-long meeting on the spacewalk, robotic arms on both the station and Atlantis were put through a rehearsal of procedures to be used during removal of the airlock from the shuttle's cargo bay and its attachment to the station. Helms took the station's 58-foot-long robotic arm, Canadarm2, through a dry run of the berthing of the new airlock to the starboard docking port of the station's Unity node. Aboard Atlantis, Kavandi powered up the shuttle's robotic arm and practiced its spacewalk activities.

Early Saturday Gernhardt and Reilly checked the batteries of their spacesuits and found no evidence of potassium hydroxide leakage that was seen Friday as they checked a spare spacesuit. The battery was replaced and the suit cleaned. Managers decided to postpone temporarily the planned transfer of that suit to the station while they study the situation.

Hatches between Atlantis and the station were closed at 4:45 a.m. and the pressure in the shuttle's cabin reduced to 10.2 pounds per square inch in preparation for the first spacewalk.

Station Expedition Two crewmember Susan Helms lifted the airlock from the cargo bay of Atlantis using the station's Canadarm2 at 12:10 a.m. CDT. After a slow and carefully planned series of maneuvers with the arm, the airlock was maneuvered to the berthing port on the station's Unity node.

Spacewalkers Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly observed the berthing procedure from above and below, providing additional guidance for Helms. The airlock was berthed to the station at 2:40 a.m. Gernhardt then attached cables from the station to its new airlock to provide heating for Quest while Reilly pre-positioned foot restraints for the second spacewalk scheduled for Tuesday.

The spacewalk, coordinated by Atlantis' pilot Charlie Hobaugh in the shuttle's cabin, began at 10:10 p.m. Saturday with the shuttle and the station 237 statute miles above the South Pacific east of New Zealand. After moving into the cargo bay, Gernhardt removed an insulating cover, called the "shower cap," from the airlock's berthing mechanism and other covers from its seals. Reilly installed bars on the 6½-ton airlock which will serve as attachment points for four high-pressure tanks, two oxygen and two nitrogen. The tanks will be installed during the two subsequent spacewalks. The mission's third and final spacewalk will be conducted from the new airlock itself.

After the airlock was securely attached and after installation of the cable to power its heaters, Gernhardt and Reilly returned to the shuttle's airlock after flight controllers confirmed that the airlock's heaters were functioning.

Official end of the spacewalk occurred with repressurization of Atlantis' airlock at 4:09 a.m. today. The spacewalk lasted 5 hours and 59 minutes.

Later, Expedition Two crewmembers Yury Usachev, Jim Voss and Helms opened the hatch to the airlock vestibule, the small area between the station and Quest's largest compartment, and began its outfitting.

Mission Specialist Janet Kavandi will assist Expedition Two Flight Engineer Jim Voss in troubleshooting the suspected leak in an Intermodule Ventilation (IMV) assembly. The IMV Assembly, a series of fans and valves that circulate air between station modules, connects the Quest airlock to the station's environmental control and life support system. The two astronauts will examine the valve seals for any debris or damage and determine if the valve will have to be replaced. Should replacement be necessary, a spare valve is available aboard the station.

Meanwhile, Atlantis Commander Steve Lindsey and Expedition Two Flight Engineer Susan Helms will test oxygen lines between the station and the airlock. The lines will be used during future shuttle missions to replenish the airlock's high-pressure oxygen tanks with shuttle-supplied oxygen.

The Atlantis crew was awakened for its sixth day in space at 4:19 p.m. today by the song "Nobody Does it Better" performed by Carly Simon, played by Mission Control for Mission Specialist Jim Reilly. The International Space Station crew of Commander Yury Usachev, Voss and Helms is in its 131st day in space.

Atlantis' space walkers Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly will spend today preparing for their two remaining space walks. They will review plans and set up equipment in both Atlantis' airlock and the station airlock. The second spacewalk, to begin Tuesday evening, will originate from Atlantis while the third spacewalk, to begin Thursday, will be the first to originate from the station's new Quest airlock. Both of the remaining space walks will focus on the installation of high-pressure oxygen and nitrogen tanks on the exterior of the Quest airlock.

Lindsey, Atlantis' Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Usachev will take a break from their work at 11:34 p.m. CDT for a 20-minute interview by news reporters from CBS, Space.com and KNBC-TV of Los Angeles.

After cleaning up about half a liter of water that spilled from a coolant line and getting rid of some air bubbles that caused the spill, the two crews installed valves that connect Quest to the station's environmental control system and a computer that will be used to run the airlock's systems. They also tested lines that will be used during future shuttle missions to replenish oxygen and nitrogen supplies, and removed bolt drivers from the airlock's berthing port, which are no longer needed now that the airlock is permanently attached to the station.

The extra time it took to get the coolant line working put the crews about an hour behind schedule, so a planned checkout of the airlock's space walk equipment was put off to another day. Station Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms were able to try out the airlock's audio communication systems, making the first radio calls to the ground from the airlock and two American space suits.

STS-104 Commander Steve Lindsey and Pilot Charlie Hobaugh fired the shuttle's engines for an hour Sunday night to boost the station to an altitude of 238 by 235 statute miles (383 by 375 kilometers). Mission Specialists Michael Gernhardt, Janet Kavandi and Jim Reilly also worked on equipment and supply transfers between the shuttle and station.

Gernhardt and Reilly made preparations for the second spacewalk of the mission, during which they will help install the first set of the High-Pressure Gas Tanks -- one oxygen tank and one nitrogen tank -- onto the airlock's shell on Tuesday. A third space walk, scheduled for Thursday evening, will see Gernhardt and Reilly use the new airlock for the first time.

The two crews will go to bed at 8:04 a.m., with a wake-up call scheduled for 4:04 p.m.

The practice run included a successful lowering of the airlock's pressure to 10.2 pounds per square inch for the first time in space.

Lead Flight Director Paul Hill said troubleshooting on the valve -- and work the day before to get air bubbles out of an airlock water cooling line -- have put the combined crew about half a day behind its timeline. Among the tasks delayed was a relocation of the hatch from the junction of the airlock and the Unity module to its final position between the airlock's crew and equipment lock sections.

The second space walk of the flight remains on schedule for Tuesday night. Mission Specialists Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly are scheduled to step out of the space shuttle's airlock about 9:30 p.m. The objective of the 5 ½ hour foray is to mount one high-pressure oxygen and one high-pressure nitrogen tank on the shell of the new airlock to provide consumables that would allow expeditioners to leave the station in American space suits for construction and maintenance work without a shuttle present. Russian space suits can be used from the airlock as well.

The crews closed the hatches between the two spacecraft at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday to begin lowering Atlantis' cabin pressure to that same 10.2 pounds per square inch mark. This measure helps purge nitrogen bubbles from the space walkers' bloodstreams, and is augmented by the space walkers pre-breathing pure oxygen. All crewmembers reviewed the procedures for the space walk prior to closing the hatch between the shuttle and the station's Destiny Laboratory.

Mission Specialist Janet Kavandi and Expedition Two Flight Engineer Jim Voss took the lead in troubleshooting the suspected leak in an Intermodule Ventilation (IMV) assembly. The series of fans and valves circulates air between station modules and connects the airlock to the station's environmental control and life support system. The pair wasn't able to pinpoint the problem with the valve, but did install a cap that stopped the leak. Should replacement be necessary, several valve replacement options are available to the flight control team and crew onboard.

The delays have led flight managers to study the possibility for an extra day of docked operations and a shuttle mission extension to ensure all of the mission's work can be completed.

Shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey, Atlantis' Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Station Commander Yury Usachev took time late Monday night to answer questions from reporters from CBS, Space.com and KNBC-TV of Los Angeles.

The eight people on orbit are scheduled to go to bed about 8 a.m. and awaken at 4:04 p.m.

Early this morning, mission managers decided to add an additional docked day to the flight between the second and third spacewalks. The mission's third spacewalk, which will be the first out of the Quest airlock, will now occur Friday evening on Flight Day 10 instead of Thursday evening.

The two crews are about half a day behind schedule due to a small water leak that occurred when the astronauts were linking the new airlock to the station's Moderate Temperature Loop. The crews also have been troubleshooting a leaky air valve in an Intermodule Ventilation (IMV) Assembly in the rear, right side of the station's Unity node. Troubleshooting efforts to pinpoint where the valve is leaking and why will continue tomorrow and for now the astronauts have installed a cap on the valve to stop the leak. Should replacement of the valve become necessary, several identical valves are available aboard the station.

The Atlantis crew was awakened at 4:08 p.m. by "Happy Birthday Darlin'" sung by Conway Twitty. It was played for Atlantis Mission Specialist Janet Kavandi who is celebrating a birthday today as she soars 235 miles above the Earth.

During tonight's spacewalk, Expedition Two Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss, working from a robotics workstation in the station's Destiny lab, will maneuver the station's robotic arm, the Canadarm2, over Atlantis' payload bay and grapple oxygen tank one. They will then maneuver the tank to Quest where the tank will be attached to the airlock by Gernhardt and Reilly. During the spacewalk, Gernhardt, wearing the spacesuit with the red stripes on the legs, will be on the end of the shuttle robotic arm, which will be controlled by Kavandi. Pilot Charlie Hobaugh will coordinate the spacewalk from inside Atlantis. The procedure will be repeated for nitrogen tank four. The remaining two tanks will be removed from Atlantis' payload bay Friday evening during the mission's third spacewalk.

Atlantis Commander Steve Lindsey and Expedition Two Flight Engineer Jim Voss will do the valve replacement. It will be tested for several hours to ensure it is not leaking. Atlantis spacewalkers Mike Gernhardt and Reilly, assisted by Pilot Charlie Hobaugh will continue testing equipment of the new airlock Quest. The three astronauts also will transfer equipment to Quest for the third spacewalk of the mission. That spacewalk is scheduled for Friday evening and will be the first out of the new airlock.

Atlantis Mission Specialist Janet Kavandi and Expedition Two Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms will install the Hatch between Quest's Crew Lock and Equipment Lock. The hatch is currently in its launch position at the interface between the airlock and the Unity node. After the hatch is installed in its new position, it will be tested for leaks for more than eight hours.

Station Commander Yury Usachev will spend his day working with one of the station's payload computers, performing periodic maintenance on several of the station's Russian systems and helping fellow crewmate Voss replace valves on the Airlock to continue linking the new module with the station's life support systems.

At about 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Lindsey will fire Atlantis' engines in a series of pulses during a one-hour period to boost the station's altitude. This will be the third and final reboost scheduled for this mission.

The Atlantis crew was awakened at 4:04 p.m. Wednesday by Sheryl Crow's "All I Wanna Do." The song was played for the entire crew from their training team.

Four of the arms belonged to space walkers Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly. Two robotic arms also were called into service - the shuttle's Canadarm and its big brother, the station's Canadarm2. Station Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss were at the station arm's controls, while Mission Specialist Janet Kavandi guided the shuttle limb.

The space walk got off to a slightly delayed start at 10:04 p.m. CDT Tuesday after the station's primary Command and Control computer had to be restarted. The computer, needed to guide the station arm as it lifted the high-pressure oxygen and nitrogen tanks out of the shuttle cargo bay and into position alongside the new airlock, was back in business shortly after 8 p.m., allowing first motion of the arm by 9 p.m.

Gernhardt and Reilly, supported by their six colleagues inside the shuttle and station, latched the first two dog house-shaped tank assemblies into place without difficulty, so shuttle and station Flight Directors Paul Hill and Mark Kirasich decided to move ahead with installation of the third tank at 1:41 a.m.

The second space walk of the mission concluded at 4:33 a.m. CDT Wednesday. It was the 66th space walk in shuttle program history, and the 23rd devoted to International Space Station assembly. So far, STS-104 space walks have lasted 12 hours, 28 minutes.

The crews will have an extra day to prepare for the third and final planned space walk of the flight, which now is scheduled for Friday. Mission managers decided Tuesday to add the additional docked day to give the joint crew adequate time to ready the new airlock for its first use.

The two crews are about half a day behind schedule due to a small water leak that occurred when the astronauts were linking the new airlock to the station's Moderate Temperature Loop. The crews will resume troubleshooting a leaky air valve in an Intermodule Ventilation (IMV) unit on the rear, right side of the station's Unity node after wakeup scheduled for 4:04 p.m. today.

With the space walk complete, STS-104 Commander Steve Lindsey and Pilot Charlie Hobaugh, who also was the inside coordinator for the space walk, began another hour-long series of automated steering jet firings to reboost the station's altitude.

Atlantis Commander Steve Lindsey and Mission Specialist Janet Kavandi will assist with the final checks of the airlock later in the morning. Subsequently, all eight crewmembers will gather to review the procedures for Friday's spacewalk, the third of the mission. During that spacewalk, Gernhardt and Reilly will attach the final nitrogen gas tank to the airlock, assisted by Voss and Expedition Two Flight Engineer Susan Helms who will be operating the station's robotic arm. At 10:11 p.m., the two crews will participate in a joint news conference with media representatives at several NASA centers and the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev. That conference will run for 26 minutes and will be shown live on NASA TV. In addition, Lindsey is scheduled to downlink a tour of the Quest airlock around 3 a.m.

Station Commander Yury Usachev will perform various periodic maintenance duties on the station's Russian systems, as well as help fellow crewmates Voss and Helms prepare for robotics operations related to Friday evening's spacewalk.

The Atlantis crew was awakened at 4:04 p.m. by the song "A Time To Dance" by Janet Giroux played by the Space Center Intermediate School Symphonic Band. The band was directed by Giroux and the song was played for Reilly.

That space walk is scheduled to begin about 10:30 p.m. Friday, pending a successful leak check of the crew lock while the crew sleeps today. Mission Specialists Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly will attach a fourth and final supply tank to the airlock's exterior, and move on to some get-ahead tasks made possible when they were able to attach a bonus third tank during Wednesday's space walk. Tasks added to Friday's space walk include an inspection of one of the station's solar array swivels and inspection of the Floating Potential Probe that measures plasma levels around the solar arrays.

STS-104 Commander Steve Lindsey and Expedition Two Flight Engineer Jim Voss finished replacing the Intermodule Ventilation (IMV) Assembly valve in the station's Unity module about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. With help from station Commander Yury Usachev, they replaced the leaking valve with another from the Destiny laboratory that won't be needed until the station's second node arrives in 2003.

Voss, Mission Specialist Janet Kavandi and Susan Helms moved the hatch from its initial location between the Unity module and the airlock's Equipment Lock to between the Equipment Lock and Crew Lock. The Equipment Lock will be used for storing and servicing space suits, while the Crew Lock will serve as the exit to space.

Usachev also worked with one of the station's payload computers, performing maintenance on several of the station's Russian systems, and Kavandi, Gernhardt and Reilly worked to transfer items between the shuttle and station while getting equipment and space suits squared away in the airlock. Helms also changed out a Command and Control computer that had been temporarily installed in place of a payload data computer in Destiny. The payload computer was cannibalized during the STS-100 mission and retasked when all three of the station's command computers broke down. The old computer will be returned to Earth on Atlantis for testing and analysis.

Lindsey and Pilot Charlie Hobaugh gave the station another boost using the shuttle's reaction control system jets, increasing the station's orbit about 5 miles to 244 x 240 statute miles. It was the final reboost planned for this mission. Atlantis will leave the station later this week about 10 miles higher than when it arrived.

During the mission's third spacewalk, Gernhardt and Reilly will install a second nitrogen tank on the Quest airlock. Three other tanks, two oxygen and one nitrogen, were installed during a previous spacewalk. Expedition Two Flight Engineer Jim Voss, assisted by Flight Engineer Susan Helms, will lift the final gas tank from the payload bay of Atlantis around 10:40 p.m. and slowly deliver it to Gernhardt and Reilly, who will be awaiting its arrival at the Quest airlock.

Atlantis Pilot Charlie Hobaugh assisted by Station Commander Yury Usachev will coordinate the nearly five-hour spacewalk. Commander Steve Lindsey will operate the shuttle's robotic arm.

The Atlantis crew was awakened at 4:04 p.m. by the song "I Could Write A Book" from the motion picture When Harry Met Sally. The song was played for Lindsey. All systems aboard both Atlantis and the International Space Station continue to function normally as the two spacecraft orbit the Earth at an average altitude of 240 statute miles.

STS-104 Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Mission Specialists Mike Gernhardt, Janet Kavandi and Jim Reilly also got together with Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss in Quest to answer questions from reporters in the U.S. and Russia.

Voss reported tracking down and sealing a minor leak discovered during an overnight pressure check. Air had found a path from the Equipment Lock segment of the new airlock to its Crew Lock, which is the segment the orbital construction workers will open to the vacuum of space when they step outside about 11:09 p.m. CDT Friday.

Flight Directors Paul Hill and Mark Kirasich talked with the crew about 1 a.m. Friday, going over the final details and sending up the good news that both the shuttle and station flight control teams agree all systems are "go" for the first station-based excursion out of the airlock. Lindsey sent down a video tour of the fully outfitted Quest module about 4:50 a.m.

The entire crew then reviewed the plan for Friday's five-hour space walk by Gernhardt and Reilly. On their third foray outside this mission, the pair will attach the final nitrogen gas tank to the airlock and climb to the top of the station's solar array truss to check on a swivel joint that allows the arrays to track the sun. If time allows, they'll also take a look at the nearby Floating Potential Probe that measures the plasma created as the arrays drag through the rarified atomic oxygen at 240 miles up.

Meanwhile, Usachev performed some periodic maintenance duties on the station's Russian systems, and helped Voss and Helms prepare for their work with the Canadarm2 robotic arm's operations related to Friday evening's space walk.

After some time off to rest up after a very busy week, the crews were scheduled to turn in at 8 a.m. Their alarm clock is scheduled to go off at 4:04 p.m.

The space walk also was the first to be supported primarily from the space station Flight Control Room in Houston, and the first demonstration of a new pre-breathing protocol that uses vigorous exercise to help purge nitrogen bubbles from the space walkers' bloodstreams and prevent what is known as "the bends."

Mission Specialists Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly exited the new airlock at 11:35 p.m. CDT Friday and were back inside by 3:37 a.m. Saturday. Working in tandem with the station's Canadarm2 operator and Expedition Two Flight Engineer Jim Voss and shuttle arm operator and Atlantis Commander Steve Lindsey, the space-age construction workers attached a nitrogen supply tank to the airlock's shell. This completed the installation of two nitrogen and two oxygen tanks that will be used to pressurize the airlock and resupply space suits. Atlantis Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Station Commander Yury Usachev coordinated the space walk from inside, while Flight Engineer Susan Helms supported station arm operations.

Depressurizing the airlock took longer than expected - about 40 minutes instead of the anticipated 7 minutes. Flight controllers and engineers have not yet identified what caused the pressure equalization valve on the Crew Lock's hatch to react so slowly, but are continuing to evaluate data and reports from the crew.

During the mission's third spacewalk, Gernhardt and Reilly also moved hand-over-hand up the station's solar array truss to take a look at a gimbal assembly mechanism that allows the arrays to swivel with the Sun. They reported no visible signs that could account for high-current readings being witnessed by flight controllers on the ground.

The successful construction foray brings the total time for space station-based walks to 4 hours, 21 minutes. There have been 24 space walks devoted to station assembly, a combined total of 155 hours, 39 minutes.

The crews will go to bed at 8:04 a.m., and awaken at 4:04 p.m. to begin preparations for an undocking at 11:54 p.m. CDT Saturday. The Atlantis and Expedition Two crews will say good-bye and close the hatches at 8:59 a.m.

The Atlantis crew, Commander Steve Lindsey, Hobaugh and Mission Specialists Janet Kavandi, Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly, will leave behind the Expedition Two crew of Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms, who are in their 136th day in space.

The Expedition Three crew, Commander Frank Culbertson and Flight Engineers Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikail Tyurin, will replace the Expedition Two crew next month during the STS-105 mission.

Atlantis will undock from an International Space Station that is ready to begin independent operations. Since July 2000, 77 tons of hardware has been added to the station, including the Zvezda module, the Z1 Truss Assembly, Pressurized Mating Adapter 3, the P6 Truss and its 240-foot long solar arrays, the U.S. laboratory Destiny, the Canadarm2 and the Quest airlock.

The Atlantis crew was awakened at 4:14 p.m. Saturday by the song "Who Let The Dogs Out" sung by the Baha Men. The song was played for Hobaugh. All systems aboard both Atlantis and the International Space Station continue to function normally as the two spacecraft orbit the Earth at an average altitude of 240 statute miles.

Pilot Charlie Hobaugh was at the shuttle's aft flight deck controls for the fly-around, which allowed the shuttle crew to take a parting look at the newly installed airlock, Quest, and the four large air supply tanks they had delivered.

Commander Steve Lindsey, Hobaugh and Mission Specialists Janet Kavandi, Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly, had spent 196 hours, 46 minutes - or more than 8 days - docked to the station, working with Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms to install, checkout and christen the station's newest asset.

A final separation burn at 1:14 a.m. CDT Sunday put Atlantis on its initial course for home, with landing scheduled for 11:37 p.m. CDT Monday at Kennedy Space Center.

The entire Atlantis crew took time out to discuss the mission with CNN and Fox News early Sunday, then got ready for bed about 7:30 a.m. The shuttle astronauts will awaken at 5:34 p.m. CDT Sunday and begin stowing gear and testing Atlantis' systems that will be used during re-entry and landing.

Back on the station, the Expedition Two crew will go to bed about 1 p.m. Sunday, then enjoy a day of off-duty time following the busy shuttle stay and begin shifting back to its regular schedule. So far, the Expedition Two crew has spent 136 days in space. The trio will be replaced by Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson and Flight Engineers Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin next month during Discovery's STS-105 mission.

All systems aboard both Atlantis and the International Space Station continue to function normally as the two spacecraft orbit the Earth independently once again.

Lindsey and Hobaugh will do a test firing of the reaction control system jets that will be used to maneuver Atlantis as it begins to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. The pair also will check out the orbiter's flight control surfaces that will be used to maneuver Atlantis when it reaches the lower portions of the atmosphere. Finally, they will test Atlantis' communications systems.

Kavandi, Gernhardt and Reilly will put away some of the equipment they used during their eight days docked to the International Space Station. They also will stow some of the 2,550 pounds of equipment they are bringing home from the station. Atlantis is almost 100 statute miles ahead of the space station and increasing the separation by almost nine miles per 90-minute orbit.

Atlantis is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday at 11:37 p.m. CDT. Another landing opportunity is available on the subsequent orbit, which would see Atlantis touch down at 1:13 a.m. Tuesday. Though the outlook was improving, forecasts for landing time still carried the possibility of clouds and rain.

During the afternoon, Russian flight controllers performed the first two firings of thrusters of the Progress resupply vehicle docked at the rear of the station's Service Module. These burns and three subsequent firings of the Progress thrusters this week will adjust the inclination of the station's orbit. The slight adjustment is being made to prepare for arrival of Discovery on the STS-105 mission and the next Progress, both in August, and the launch of the Russian Docking Compartment in September. The Atlantis crew was awakened at 4:36 p.m. Sunday by the song "Orinoco Flow" sung by Enya. The song was played for Mike Gernhardt. All systems aboard Atlantis continue to function normally as the spacecraft orbits the Earth at an average altitude of 240 statute miles.

Preliminary weather forecasts show generally favorable conditions at the Shuttle Landing Facility tonight, with only a possibility of low clouds and rain within 30 miles of the runway.

The crew will begin its final deorbit preparations around 6:30 p.m. Atlantis' payload bay doors are slated to be closed at 7:49 p.m. and computers on the shuttle will be switched to landing mode at 8:01 p.m. with the crew scheduled to climb into their seats at 9:29 p.m. for the first of tonight's two landing opportunities.

The first opportunity to return to Florida begins with a deorbit burn at 10:29 p.m. resulting in an 11:37 p.m. CDT landing Monday (12:37 a.m. eastern time Tuesday.) If weather precludes a landing on the first opportunity, there is a second landing opportunity beginning with an engine firing at 12:08 a.m. and a landing at 1:14 a.m. Tuesday. For the second landing opportunity, Houston area residents would have an opportunity to watch Atlantis streak through the sky on its return to Florida. Atlantis would pass over the Houston area moving from southwest to east beginning at 12:57 a.m. Atlantis and its plasma trail should be visible in the skies for approximately two minutes as it flies at speeds between Mach 10-12 at an altitude of 130,000 feet, with less than 20 minutes to touchdown in Florida.

Aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition Two crew enjoyed a quiet day on orbit with no scheduled work, though they did spend some time working on items from their Task List. Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss went to bed at 1 p.m. and are scheduled to awaken at 9:30 p.m.

Both spacecraft continue to orbit the Earth in excellent condition at an average altitude of 240 statute miles.

Atlantis Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Mission Specialists Janet Kavandi, Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly will awaken at 3:04 p.m., and begin deorbit preparations at 6:30 p.m. The shuttle's payload bay doors are slated to be closed at 7:49 p.m. Computers on the shuttle will be switched to landing mode at 8:01 p.m., and the crew will climb into its seats at 9:29 p.m.

Since the shuttle's supplies will support several more days on orbit, Entry Flight Director Wayne Hale has elected to activate landing support only at Kennedy Space Center for tonight. Forecasters are predicting generally favorable conditions at the Shuttle Landing Facility, but are watching out for the possibility of thunderstorms and rain within 30 miles.

There are two Florida landing opportunities Monday night and Tuesday morning. The first begins with a deorbit burn at 10:29 p.m. and concludes with landing at 11:37 p.m. CDT Monday. The second commences with an engine firing at 12:08 a.m. ending with landing at 1:14 a.m. CDT Tuesday.

Lindsey and Hobaugh on Sunday conducted successful tests of the reaction control system jets used to maneuver Atlantis as it begins to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. They then checked out the flight control surfaces that become effective once the orbiter's computers sense aerodynamic drag on the vehicle.

Kavandi, Gernhardt and Reilly put away the bulk of the equipment they used during their eight days docked to the station and stowed the 2,550 pounds of equipment they are bringing home from the station.

Aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition Two crew enjoyed off-duty and exercise time. Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss did spend time talking with flight controllers in Houston and Moscow about the work ahead of them to get squared away after Atlantis' visit, and to get ready for the next shuttle mission and their replacement crew. The crew is scheduled to go to bed at 1 p.m. CDT today.

Both spacecraft continue to orbit the Earth at an average altitude of 240 statute miles.

The Atlantis crew, Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Mission Specialists Janet Kavandi, Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly, spent eight days docked to the station during their almost 13-day flight. Reilly and Gernhardt completed three spacewalks to help with Quest's installation and its fitting out with four high-pressure tanks, two oxygen and two nitrogen.

Lindsey and Hobaugh fired Atlantis' orbital maneuvering system engines at 9:32 p.m. CDT to drop the shuttle out of orbit for the 10:39 p.m. landing at KSC on the 3-mile-long Shuttle Landing Facility runway. Their landing was the 55th shuttle landing and the 13th night landing at KSC. Florida weather cooperated beautifully, with none of the rain showers that caused waveoff of two landing opportunities a day earlier.

The Atlantis crew is expected to return to Houston on Thursday for a 4 p.m. public welcome home at Ellington Field's Hangar 990. For updates on crew arrival time at Ellington, please call 281 483-8600.

Aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition Two crew, Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss, will be awakened just before midnight to resume their full work schedule after two light days of activity. Flight controllers in Moscow successfully performed the fourth of five scheduled orbital adjustment burns using jet thrusters on the Progress supply vehicle docked at the rear of the Service Module Tuesday afternoon. The maneuvers are designed to optimize the station's orbit for the arrival of the next Progress vehicle in August and the Russian Docking Compartment in September.

The station is in excellent condition, orbiting at an average altitude of about 240 statute miles.

Atlantis will try again Tuesday night. The first of two opportunities for KSC would see a landing at 10:39 p.m. CDT on the 200th orbit of the mission. The second opportunity for the Florida landing site would see Atlantis touch down on orbit 201 at 12:15 a.m. Wednesday. Weather forecasts for Florida called for improving conditions.

Conditions late Monday and early Tuesday were marginal at the Cape, but very nearly improved enough to permit landing. Showers near the landing strip prevented Atlantis' homecoming, and the decision was made to back off and try again Tuesday night without calling up landing support in California.

Atlantis Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Mission Specialists Janet Kavandi, Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly reopened the shuttle's payload bay doors as they moved through procedures to back out of the landing configuration. The crew was scheduled to go to bed just after 6 a.m. Tuesday, and to be awakened a few minutes after 2 p.m. to begin landing preparations again.

On the International Space Station, the Expedition Two crew awakened about 9:30 p.m. CDT Monday for another day of light duty following the hectic pace of joint operations with the shuttle crew. Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss were informed of their colleagues' delayed return to Earth. About the only activities scheduled were continued unloading and stowage of the 2,500 pounds of supplies delivered by the Atlantis crew.

Both the shuttle and station continue to orbit at an average altitude of 240 statute miles with all systems working well.

The forecast for Kennedy Space Center calls for a few scattered clouds and no rain for both landing opportunities this evening.

Atlantis Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Mission Specialists Janet Kavandi, Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly began final deorbit preparations around 5:40 p.m. for the first landing opportunity at KSC. Atlantis' payload bay doors are to be closed at 6:52 p.m. Crewmembers will climb into their seats just after 8:30 p.m. Atlantis' orbital maneuvering system engines will begin firing at 9:32 p.m. to drop the shuttle out of orbit for a 10:39 p.m. CDT landing at KSC on the 3-mile-long Shuttle Landing Facility runway.

A second landing opportunity at KSC would see a deorbit burn at 11:08 p.m. and touchdown at 12:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition Two crew, Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss, will be awakened just before midnight to resume their full work schedule after two light days of activity. Flight controllers in Moscow successfully performed the fourth of five scheduled orbital adjustment burns using jet thrusters on the Progress supply vehicle docked at the rear of the Service Module Tuesday afternoon. The maneuvers are designed to optimize the station's orbit for the arrival of the next Progress vehicle in August and the Russian Docking Compartment in September.

Both spacecraft are in excellent condition, orbiting at an average altitude of about 240 statute miles.

Atlantis' climb to orbit was flawless, carrying a seven-member crew. Aboard Atlantis are Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault, and mission specialists Patrick Forrester, Steven Swanson, John “Danny” Olivas, Jim Reilly and Clayton Anderson.

As Atlantis launched, the International Space Station flew 220 miles above the southern Indian Ocean, southwest of Australia. On the station awaiting Atlantis’ arrival are Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams. The station crew watched Atlantis’ launch on a video link sent by Mission Control.

Atlantis will link up with the station on Sunday to begin a joint mission that will increase the complex’s power generation capability. Using the shuttle and station robotic arms and conducting three spacewalks, the astronauts will install another set of giant solar array wings on the station and retract another array, preparing it for a future move.

Anderson and Williams will switch places within hours after Atlantis arrives. Anderson will begin a four-month stay on the station. Williams will journey home on Atlantis. Williams has been on the station since December and will return to Earth with a record for the longest female spaceflight in history.

After reaching orbit, Atlantis’ crew began procedures to open the shuttle’s payload bay doors and set up computers and other equipment. They also will power up the shuttle's robotic arm to check its operation. They will use the arm on Saturday to inspect Atlantis’ heat shield. On Sunday, Atlantis is scheduled to dock to the station at about 2:36 p.m. CDT. The shuttle crew begins a sleep period at 12:38 a.m. CDT Saturday and will awaken for their first full day in space at 8:38 a.m. CDT Saturday.

“Big Boy Toys” by Aaron Tippin, sounded on board the orbiter at 9:10 a.m. CDT, played for Commander Rick Sturckow. The crew was given an extra half hour to sleep this morning after being kept up late to finish downloading in-cabin video.

Today Pilot Lee Archambault and Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson will use the shuttle’s robotic arm to unberth the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) for a detailed examination of Atlantis’ thermal protection system. Last night they took a closer look at an area of insulation blanket on the port orbital maneuvering system pod that was seen to be pulled away from adjacent thermal tiles during the robot arm checkout late Friday.

In parallel to today's inspection, Mission Specialists John “Danny” Olivas, Jim Reilly and Clayton Anderson will conduct a thorough checkout of the spacesuits to be worn during the three spacewalks planned for the docked operations at ISS and prepare them and other EVA hardware for transfer to the station.

Later, in preparation for docking, the crew will install a centerline camera, extend the outer ring of the Orbiter Docking System, and check out rendezvous tools. Sturckow is scheduled to fly Atlantis to a docking with ISS at 2:36 p.m. Sunday.

After hatch opening and welcome, Anderson will transfer his seat liner into the Soyuz spacecraft docked to the Zarya module and officially become a member of the station’s Expedition 15 crew, joining Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov. Flight Engineer Suni Williams, who’s been in space since her launch last Dec. 9, joins the shuttle crew and will return to Earth with them.

Delivery of the S3/S4 Truss segment, which includes a new pair of giant solar arrays for power generation, begins shortly after docking tomorrow when the shuttle robot arm is used to lift it from the payload bay and hand it off to the station’s robotic manipulator. Installation of the truss segments occurs Monday in conjunction with the first spacewalk of the mission, conducted by Reilly and Olivas.

Pilot Lee Archambault and Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson used the shuttle’s robotic arm and an extension boom-mounted sensor system to inspect the heat shield on Atlantis’ wing leading edges and nose cap.

Last night the crew used the robotic arm to take a closer look at an area of insulation blanket on the port orbital maneuvering system pod that was seen to be pulled away from adjacent thermal tiles.

Prior to stowing the boom, the crew utilized the added reach to send Mission Control engineers up-close video of the displaced portion of the blanket. It will be analyzed along with the video from Friday night.

In preparation for Sunday’s docking, the crew extended the shuttle’s docking ring and checked out the rendezvous tools. The crew also installed a docking system centerline camera that will be used by Commander Rick Sturckow to align Atlantis with the station’s docking port.

While the robotic arm survey proceeded, Mission Specialists Danny Olivas, Jim Reilly and Clay Anderson checked and prepared the spacesuits they’ll wear during the three spacewalks on the fourth, sixth and eighth days of the mission. The major objective of the spacewalks is to install the station's newest component, the Starboard 3 and 4 (S3/S4) truss segments, unfurl a new set of solar arrays and fold and pack the right side of the Port 6 solar array.

On the space station, Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Suni Williams prepared the orbiting laboratory for Atlantis’ arrival tomorrow. She readied the digital cameras that will be used to take high-resolution photos of the shuttle's heat shield. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin pressurized the docking port at the back end of the U.S. laboratory, Destiny.

Tomorrow as Atlantis makes its final approach to the station, Sturckow will take control of Atlantis and begin a slow back-flip rotation allowing Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov to photograph the shuttle’s heat shield. Williams will videotape the maneuver.

Once the back-flip is complete, Sturckow will maneuver Atlantis to docking, setting the stage for a week of joint operations between the two crews.

After hatch opening and welcome, Anderson will transfer his seat liner to the Soyuz spacecraft and officially become a member of the station’s Expedition 15 crew, joining Yurchikhin and Kotov. Williams, who’s been in space since her launch last Dec. 9, will return home with Atlantis’ crew.

Delivery of the S3/S4 Truss segment, which includes a new pair of giant solar arrays for power generation, begins shortly after docking tomorrow when the shuttle robotic arm is used to lift it from the payload bay and hand it off to the station’s robotic manipulator. Installation of the truss segments occurs Monday in conjunction with the first spacewalk of the mission, conducted by Reilly and Olivas.

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.

Most of the crewmembers got an 8:08 a.m. CDT wakeup call with the song “It Probably Always Will” by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, played for Mission Specialist Steven Swanson. Spacewalkers Jim Reilly and John “Danny” Olivas, who spent the night in the Quest airlock under reduced atmospheric pressure to facilitate the purge of nitrogen from their bloodstreams, were allowed to sleep in until 8:38 a.m.

Starting shortly after 10 a.m. Pilot Lee Achambault, Mission Specialist Patrick Forrester and Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov will use the station’s Canadarm2 to maneuver the S3/S4 Truss to the outboard end of the S1 Truss and into position so that four bolts can be driven to form a hard mate between the two components.

Activation of the new truss segments will be done during the spacewalk starting at 1:53 p.m., when Reilly, designated EV1 and wearing the suit with red stripes, and Olivas, EV2 and wearing a suit with no stripes, emerge from the Quest airlock.

Over the course of the next 6½ hours they will connect power, data and cooling cables between S1 and S3; release the launch restraints from and deploy the four solar array blanket boxes on S4 and release the cinches and winches holding the photovoltaic radiator on S4. They also will rotate the keel pin on S3; rigidize four Alpha Joint Interface Structure struts and install one Drive Lock Assembly on the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint; and remove some of the SARJ launch locks and restraints.

In parallel to those activities the ISS Flight Control Team in Mission Control Houston will begin the commanding to activate the two new power channels and to deploy the new truss’ radiator. The spacewalk is scheduled to conclude at 8:23 p.m. CDT.

While the spacewalk proceeds the newest member of the ISS crew will be learning about his new home on orbit. Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson is scheduled for handover briefings with his predecessor, astronaut Suni Williams, and has unstructured time to facilitate his adaptation to his new surroundings.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The crew’s wakeup call came at 6:38 a.m. CDT with the theme song from “Band of Brothers,” played for Mission Specialist Jim Reilly.

Spacewalkers Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson begin their second EVA of the flight at 11:33 a.m., with Reilly choreographing the excursion from the shuttle flight deck. Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov will shadow Reilly as intravehicular crewmember, training to take that role for an upcoming station spacewalk.

The first task is to retrieve a TV camera stand from a stowage platform attached to Quest and install it on the S3 truss. From there the spacewalkers will move to the intersection of the S3 and S4 trusses to prepare the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint for rotation. Forrester will verify the installation of a second Drive Lock Assembly, the machine that turns the S4 truss so its solar array wings can track the sun. He will then help Swanson remove the last six SARJ launch restraints to free the joint to turn.

To clear the path on S3 for the Mobile Base System, Forrester and Swanson will remove temporary rail stops and the hardware that secured the S3/S4 in the shuttle payload bay. Then, they will translate back to the body of the station for a few get-ahead tasks.

As time permits, the spacewalkers plan to install a computer network cable on the Unity node, remove a Global Positioning System antenna, tighten the gimbal locks on the S-band Antenna Support Assembly, open the hydrogen vent valve on the Destiny laboratory that was installed on Friday’s spacewalk, and secure the orbital debris shield panel. Today’s spacewalk is scheduled to conclude at 6:03 p.m.

The Russian central computer and terminal computers continue in stable operation, each running on two of its three channels with the third in standby. Mission Control in Moscow has restarted all Russian systems except the Elektron, which is receiving power but not moded to generate oxygen, and is planning to fire Russian attitude control thrusters in conjunction with a maneuver of the mated stack to a water dump attitude on Monday.

The spacewalk was the 87th in support of station assembly and maintenance, the 59th staged out of the station and the 36th out of the Quest airlock. Eleven spacewalks have been completed this year and 14 remain.

Forrester and Swanson began the spacewalk at 11:25 a.m. The two made quick work of retrieving a TV camera and its support structure from a stowage platform attached to Quest and installing it on the S/3 truss. They then verified the Drive Lock Assembly (DLA) 2 configuration and removed the last six Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) launch restraints.

Inside, Mission Specialist Jim Reilly choreographed the outside work from the shuttle flight deck, shadowed by Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov who will assume that role for the July 20 spacewalk by Clay Anderson and Fyodor Yurchikhin.

By 3:17 p.m., the two had cleared the path on S3 for the Mobile Base System by removing temporary rail stops and hardware that had secured the S3/S4 in the shuttle’s payload bay, thus completing the major tasks slated for the STS-117 mission. The spacewalkers then began some of the get-ahead tasks mission managers had hoped to complete.

The two spacewalkers also installed a computer network cable on the Unity node, opened the hydrogen vent valve on the Destiny laboratory that was installed on Friday’s spacewalk, and tethered two orbital debris shield panels on the station’s service module.

Tomorrow morning at approximately 9:28 a.m., Mission Control in Moscow plans to fire Russian attitude control thrusters. The thrusters have not been used since the Russian central computer and terminal computer went down earlier in the week. Those computers continue in stable operation.

Also tomorrow, astronauts onboard Atlantis will have a much deserved day off, bidding farewell to the Expedition 15 crew and closing the hatch between the two vehicles at 5:23 p.m. Atlantis will undock from the station at 9:42 a.m. CDT Tuesday, circling the orbiting complex once as it departs.

Today’s wakeup call came at 5:38 a.m. CDT with “Feelin’ Stronger Every Day” by Chicago, played for Pilot Lee Archambault. Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clayton Anderson were awakened on board ISS at the same time.

At 7:45 a.m. Archambault and Mission Specialist Patrick Forrester will begin powering on shuttle systems that have been turned off to conserve power during the docked phase of the flight, and at 8:28 Mission Specialists Steven Swanson and Jim Reilly will set up the centerline camera in the orbiter docking system.

At 9:42 a.m. the hooks and latches holding Atlantis and ISS together will release, and springs in the ODS will push the shuttle away. Archambault will fire shuttle thrusters to move 450 feet in front of the station before starting a full flyaround at 10:07 a.m. to get a good look at the reconfigured spacecraft.

At 11:25 a.m. another firing of Atlantis’ thrusters will begin the final separation of the two spacecraft for this flight. At a range of 46 miles Archambault, Forrester and Swanson will use the shuttle robot arm to lift the Orbiter Boom Sensor System from the starboard payload bay sill and conduct a late inspection of the thermal protection system on both wings and the orbiter’s nose cap.

Today and tomorrow Mission Specialist Suni Williams, in the 192nd day of her spaceflight, will be scheduled for more exercise to help prepare her for Thursday’s scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Center, when her body will feel the pull of gravity for the first time since her launch last December.

The astronauts’ wakeup call came at 5:08 a.m. with “If I Had $1000000” by Barenaked Ladies, played for Mission Specialist Suni Williams, who’s in the 193rd day of her spaceflight.

The entire crew will be involved in routine deorbit preparations by 8:10 a.m., starting by stowing items in the crew cabin.

At 8:58 a.m. Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault, and Mission Specialist and Flight Engineer Steven Swanson will power up one of the auxiliary power units and conduct a checkout of the orbiter’s flight control surfaces, and at 10:08 a.m. begin a test firing of each of Atlantis’ reaction control system jets to ensure that both systems are ready for deorbit and landing. All seven crew members gather for a deorbit briefing at 11:28 a.m.

The shuttle astronauts take a break from packing at 2:03 p.m. to talk about the flight in interviews with NBC News, ABC News and CNN Live, then return to packing up for landing. The schedule calls for stowage of the Ku-band communications antenna at 5:58 p.m., just before Mission Specialist Jim Reilly and Williams set up a recumbent seat on the middeck for Williams to use during entry and landing.

The International Space Station’s crew is enjoying a day off duty as they shift their sleep cycle. Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson are scheduled to go to sleep at 4:30 p.m. and get up at 1 a.m. tomorrow, returning to the normal station wakeup time.

It was the 51st shuttle mission to end with a landing at the Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Atlantis touched down on concrete runway 22 at 2:49:38 p.m. concluding a 13 day, 20 hour, 12 minute flight. NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft will deliver Atlantis back to Florida in about a week so that it can be prepared for a December flight carrying the next laboratory module to the station on behalf of the European Space Agency.

The crew spent the morning in the world’s largest holding pattern as flight controllers kept a close eye on weather. Showers, thunderstorms and low clouds at Kennedy Space Center knocked Florida out of the running on both the first and second landing opportunities of the day, so flight controllers took their first chance at Edwards, where weather was pristine.

Atlantis crew members, Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault, and Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester, Steven Swanson, Danny Olivas, Jim Reilly and Sunita Williams, who is returning home after 194 days, 18 hours, 58 minutes in space, will return to Houston on Saturday. A welcoming ceremony for the crew's return to Houston is planned for 4:15 p.m. Saturday at NASA Hangar 276 at Ellington Field.

During Atlantis’ mission to the International Space Station, the crew performed four spacewalks during which they worked with the station crew to build the station into a near-symmetrical configuration, adding a new starboard truss segment and solar array pair, while folding another array in preparation for its relocation later this year.

Atlantis also delivered Clay Anderson, the station’s newest flight engineer, who will spend the next six months living and working on the station.

The next shuttle mission, targeted for early August, will see the return to flight of space shuttle Endeavour to deliver another segment of the station’s truss and 5,000 pounds of food, clothing, supplies and spare parts. Endeavour’s last mission was in December 2002.