[AS] 10 Years Since STS-117 Changed the Face of the Space Station

[Orionid]

Masa wyniesionego orbitera z ładunkiem wynosiła 122,683 kg i była największa w programie STS.

‘Just Do It…Again’: 10 Years Since STS-117 Changed the Face of the Space Station (Part 1)
by Ben Evans


Atlantis launches on her longest space mission on 8 June 2007. Photo Credit: NASA

Ten years have now passed since STS-117 literally changed the face of the International Space Station (ISS), delivering and activating a new set of power-producing solar arrays, batteries and radiators. Aboard shuttle Atlantis in June 2007 for what would turn out to be the longest mission of her career, six NASA astronauts installed the gigantic S-3/S-4 component of the station’s Integrated Truss Structure (ITS) and performed no fewer than four sessions of Extravehicular Activity (EVA). On STS-117, an element of symmetry was afforded to the appearance of the ISS, as well as providing it with the electricity-generating capability to support the arrival of European and Japanese labs in 2008. (...)

STS-117 was not planned as a crew-rotation mission, partly because of the large payload demand of the S-3/S-4 cargo, but in April 2007 NASA announced that Anderson would join its crew, thereby allowing Williams to return to Earth in approximately the same timeframe as she would have done on the original STS-118. It was considered prudent, the agency noted, to return Williams and deliver Anderson, sooner rather than later. “I had an inkling that it was coming,” Anderson acquiesced in a pre-flight interview. He jokingly told Williams that he was her knight in shining armor; coming up to the ISS “to rescue her from her throes of her potential nine-month duration on-orbit”.
https://www.americaspace.com/2017/06/03/just-do-it-again-10-years-since-sts-117-changed-the-face-of-the-space-station-part-1/

[Orionid]

‘Knight in Shining Armor’: 10 Years Since STS-117 Changed the Face of the Space Station (Part 2)
by Ben Evans


John “Danny” Olivas is just barely visible at center-right, near the deploying Photovoltaic Radiator (PVR) on the S-3/S-4 truss during the first spacewalk of STS-117. Photo Credit: NASA

(...) Next was the unberthing of the 45-foot-long (13.7-meter) S-3/S-4 segment, which would form the next component of the station’s Integrated Truss Structure (ITS), holding batteries, radiators and a third pair of electricity-generating Solar Array Wings (SAWs). At the controls of Atlantis’ Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm, Archambault and Forrester grappled the payload—which, at 35,600 pounds (16,150 kg), represented one of the largest and heaviest ISS components ever taken into orbit—and positioned it for a robotic “handover” to the station’s Canadarm2 mechanical arm, operated by Williams. (...)

As well as turning out to be Atlantis’ longest mission, STS-117 saw Suni Williams establish a new record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. At 1:47 a.m. EDT on 16 June, she eclipsed fellow NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid’s achievement of 188 days and four hours, set at the close of her six-month voyage to the Mir space station a decade earlier. “I was just in the right place at the right time,” Williams remarked. “It’s an honor to be here.” She certainly remain in the “right place” later in her career, too. Although she eventually lost the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman to Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti in June 2015, Williams still stands as one of the most experienced female astronauts of all time. (...)
https://www.americaspace.com/2017/06/04/knight-in-shining-armor-10-years-since-sts-117-changed-the-face-of-the-space-station-part-2/