No fix yet for space station computers

[Neil D]

By MIKE SCHNEIDER and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press Writers

© 2007 The Associated Press

HOUSTON — NASA has no problem leaving an astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts on the limping international space station despite a serious computer meltdown, a U.S. space agency official said Friday.

"I think we're in good shape. We've still got a lot of options to work through," space station program manager Michael Suffredini said in an afternoon briefing.

He said there was no urgency now that would require the crew of the orbiting outpost to come home. "We have plenty of (oxygen) gas to keep the crew on orbit for some time," Suffredini said.

He refused to speculate about prospects long-term if the computers aren't back in service.

Meanwhile, two astronauts from the space shuttle Atlantis, which arrived one week ago to continue construction work on the space station, began a spacewalk with two assignments: to disconnect a connector on a newly installed power-conducting truss that is a key suspect in the computer glitch, and repair a torn thermal blanket that helps protect the shuttle from heat on its return flight to Earth next week.

NASA suspects the connector because the Russian computers blinked out at about the same time the connector went on line. The connector isn't required for station operations until a later power hook-up, Suffredini said.

"It's circumstantial,' he said. "We don't know if that's the cause."