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STS-116 Flight Day 2,3 and 4 highlights [Dec. 13th, 2006|02:00 am]
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On Flight Day 2, the STS-116 crew of Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein, and mission specialists Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Bob Curbeam, Sunita Williams and Christer Fuglesang (European Space Agency) carried out inspections of the shuttle's Thermal Protection System. Early indications are that the TPS is fine, but no official word has been given. Flight Day 2 also saw continuing engine firings as the Shuttle closed the distance to the International Space Station.

Flight Day 3 was docking day - all went smoothly as Discovery docked with the ISS, leak checks were carried out to verify proper mating of the ISS and Shuttle, and then the hatches were opened as the Shuttle crew greeted the ISS crew of Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter (ESA). Williams became an official crewmember of the ISS Expedition 14 when her customized seat liner was placed in the ISS's Soyuz capsule, the lifeboat in case of emergency aboard the ISS. Reiter joins the STS-116 crew for his ride home after about 6 months in orbit.

Flight Day 4 saw the first spacewalk of the mission. With Higginbotham controlling the robot arm, the P5 truss segment was guided into place on the truss. Spacewalkers Curbeam and Fuglesang removed launch restraints from the P5 truss segment and then bolted the P5 truss segment onto the truss once everything was aligned. Power cables were hooked up between the P4 truss (delivered on the last shuttle mission, STS-115) and the P5 truss segment and a camera on the S1 segment of the truss was replaced.

Coming up on Flight Day 5 is the retraction of the port-side solar array of the P6 truss segment on the zenith (upper) side of the ISS and if that goes well, the SARJ (solar array alpha joint) activation should occur, allowing the P4 truss segment solar arrays to rotate to track the sun.
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