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Russian computer system partially revived BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: June 14, 2007 Engineers have re-established communications with at least one part of the space station's Russian guidance and command-and-control computers. They are receiving a full stream of telemetry and have been able to restore power to critical systems. The navigation system and command computers feature three redundant data paths and only one path, or lane, has been re-established. Troubleshooting continues, but engineers have restored station power to systems in the Zvezda and Zarya modules. The crew's Soyuz lifeboat, which was put on internal power late Wednesday as a precaution, also was switched back to station power. Details were sketchy, but a NASA official said commanding to the one restored computer lane had been restored and the Russians could, if necessary, use it to adjust the space station's orientation by firing Russian rocket thrusters. Attitude control is critical to keeping the lab's solar arrays properly oriented and to preventing sensitive systems from getting too hot or too cold. The guidance computer system must be operational before the shuttle Atlantis departs next week. During the station's next pass over Russian ground stations later this morning, commands will be uplinked in a bid to restart lanes two and three. It is not yet clear whether the Russians have tracked down the root cause of the problem or whether it could happen again. Russian engineers speculated Wednesday that the failures may have been related to the installation of a new U .S. solar array Monday. Early today, they isolated the Russian segment from U.S. power while they worked to restart the computers. U.S. power later was restored with no apparent problem.
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VIDEO:
SECOND SOLAR WING FULLY DEPLOYED 