rucial repairs of a torn thermal blanket on the body of the Atlantis space shuttle, which will bring back Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams home, will be the main task of the two astronauts when they undertake the third of the missions's four planned spacewalks.
James Reilly and Danny Olivas plan to come out of the International Space Station with which the Atlantis has been docked before midnight on Friday to staple down the blanket that peeled back during the launch of space shuttle Atlantis last Friday.
Sunita had spent a record six months in space.
The ISS had its own share of problems due to malfunctioning Russian computers though some communication with the systems was restored.
Seven visiting shuttle astronauts and three ISS crew members are currently living at the orbiting outpost and evacuation of the station is not being ruled out.
During the spacewalk, the shuttle's robotic arm will move Olivas to the tail of Atlantis where the thermal blanket covers an engine pod.
Engineers do not think the damaged section of the thermal blanket, which protects part of the shuttle from the blazing heat of re-entry, would endanger the spacecraft during landing. But it could cause enough damage to require schedule-busting repairs.
"This will be a great repair that brings Atlantis home safely," said Atlantis crew member Patrick Forrester, who will coordinate the spacewalk from inside the space station.
Ahead of her expected homecoming next week, more than six months after she left earth for her sojourn 250 miles up in the sky, Sunita's family eagerly awaits the big day.
At her parents' home in Falmouth, Massachusetts, where Sunita grew up and visits often, her mother Bonnie Pandya has been looking at the many photographs of her "little Suni" in the family living room, as she has done many times these last six months.
Bonnie Pandya plans to cook her youngest child's favourite dishes when Suni -- as her family calls the astronaut -- comes home in Falmouth, hopefully in August.
"It is great to know she is coming back after so many months. I am very excited and looking forward to seeing my child," Bonnie Pandya said.
Image: Astronaut Sunita L Williams (top). A puja being performed in Ahmedabad for Sunita's safe return (bottom).
Photograph: NASA via Getty Images and Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images
Also See:
Crucial 3rd spacewalk to repair Atlantis
Samosas, hot bath and NASA honour for Sunita Williams
The gap that's making NASA gasp!
'It is pretty awesome to leave the planet'
Ready to conquer space
Sunita Williams in Space
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