page_title: STS-117
section_title: 15 June (Flight day 8 – EVA 3)
hierarchical_section_title: STS-117 / Mission timeline / 15 June (Flight day 8 – EVA 3)
caption_attribution_description: English: Anchored to a foot restraint on Space Shuttle Atlantis' remote manipulator system (RMS) robotic arm, astronaut John "Danny" Olivas, STS-117 mission specialist, moves toward Atlantis' port orbital maneuvering system (OMS) pod that was damaged during the shuttle's climb to orbit last week. During the repair, Olivas pushed the turned up portion of the thermal blanket back into position, used a medical stapler to secure the layers of the blanket, and pinned it in place against adjacent thermal tile.
context_page_description: STS-117 was a Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis, launched from pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center on 8 June 2007. Atlantis lifted off from the launch pad at 19:38 EDT. Damage from a hail storm on 26 February 2007 had previously caused the launch to be postponed from an originally-planned launch date of 15 March 2007. The launch of STS-117 marked the 250th orbital human spaceflight.
  Atlantis delivered to the International Space Station the second starboard truss segment and its associated energy systems, including a set of solar arrays. During the course of the mission the crew installed the new truss segment, retracted one set of solar arrays, and unfolded the new set on the starboard side of the station. STS-117 also brought Expedition 15 crewmember Clayton Anderson to the station, and returned with ISS crewmember Sunita Williams.
  On 11 June 2007, NASA mission managers announced a two-day extension of the mission, adding a fourth extra-vehicular activity. These two days were inserted into the mission timeline after flight day 8. This possibility had been discussed prior to launch.
context_section_description: The crew's wakeup call came at 7:41 am CDT. Flight day 8 was dedicated to mission's third spacewalk (EVA 3) to repair the thermal blanket on Atlantis and assist in folding up a solar array on the space station.
  Spacewalkers James Reilly and John Olivas began EVA 3 when the two astronauts switched their spacesuits into internal battery power and exited into space from the Quest airlock. It was the 86th EVA dedicated to ISS assembly and maintenance and the ninth for year 2007. While Olivas anchored to the end of Atlantis' robot arm was repairing the OMS pod, Reilly installed an external hydrogen vent for the oxygen generating system inside Destiny laboratory. By using his helmet camera, Olivas beamed down close-up views of the torn insulation and surrounding blankets to help flight controllers assess the system's condition. Olivas spent two hours stapling and pinning down a thermal blanket on the OMS pod.
  Flight controllers from Houston also radioed Reilly that they had decided to have him disconnect the P-12 connector that was installed during EVA 1 since the Russian flight controllers were planning to make an attempt to restart the problematic computers in the ISS. Even though the connector was not in use at that time, engineers decided to have Reilly disconnect it to make sure that it was not causing any electrical noise or grounding issues that might have played a role in the computer trouble.
  When those tasks were completed, the two astronauts along with their colleagues inside the shuttle and station and flight controllers in Houston completed the final retraction of the starboard P6 truss element. The retraction that required 28 commands was completed and latches closed seven hours, 15 minutes into the spacewalk at 7:40 pm CDT. The successful folding paved the way to relocate the P6 truss to its permanent location during STS-120. All tasks were completed successfully on during the 7 hours, 58-minute EVA activities.
  Earlier on the day, U.S. and Russian engineers disconnected U.S. electrical power from the Russian computer system. But isolating the computers from U.S. power did not resolve the problem. The primary Russian computers were brought back online by bypassing a circuit. Secondary systems were left offline pending further work.
caption: Astronaut John Olivas moves toward Atlantis' port OMS pod.
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