Initially Atlantis' Mission was scheduled for eleven days, but two more days were added, because astronauts needed spacewalks.
Since the Russian computer was failed, astronauts needed to make spacewalk to fix the solar wings' rotating mechanism.
Astronauts Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson made the second spacewalk on Wednesday. The first spacewalk was made on Monday and got the solar wings installed.
The wings must rotate and track the sun. But they didn't succeed because the wings were not properly responding to the remote rotating command. Another spacewalk is needed to fix it.
During that spacewalk astronauts found a problem with a blanket that was covering engine but was pulled during shuttle launch. So one more spacewalk is scheduled for Friday to fix the blanket.
The blanket problem is not serious, but it needs to be fixed to avoid any single probability of shuttle failure. Besides, Atlantis needs to be in a perfect shape to make 12 more missions by 2010 before its retirement.
The third spacewalk by James Reilly and John "Danny" Olivas will also aim to retract old solar panels. Astronauts will possible take one more spacewalk on Sunday and finish the mission. They hope to complete it properly before they come back to earth. By Ruzan Harutyunyan For HULIQ
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