Success

Two astronauts managed to free the solar panel on the International Space Station that had jammed while being retracted, finally getting it stowed away. The unscheduled extra spacewalk worked out just fine. Astronaut Robert Curbeam became the first person to ever complete four spacewalks in a single mission in the process.

The STS-116 crew folded the port solar array on the International Space Station’s P6 truss during the mission's fourth spacewalk. The 6-hour, 38 minute excursion by Mission Specialists Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang concluded at 8:38 p.m. EST.

Curbeam and Fuglesang freed up the array for retraction with several techniques — pulling guide wires, flipping grommets, and pushing panel hinges. The spacewalkers also shook the solar array panel. The final bay was folded about 6:54 p.m. EST.

One of the guide wires looped out of the proper configuration during the folding process and the spacewalkers tightened it before commands were sent to latch the arrays.

Another objective of today’s spacewalk, which was STS-116’s fourth, was to collect information that could prove useful when the opposite side of the array is retracted during the STS-117 mission in March.

The start of the spacewalk at 2 p.m. was a historic moment for Curbeam, who became the first astronaut to conduct four spacewalks during a single mission. This was Fuglesang’s third. Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams conducted one.

Four spacewalks in a single mission. Wow.

S116-E-06593 (16 Dec. 2006) — Astronaut Robert L. Curbeam, Jr., STS-116 mission specialist, participates in the mission's third planned session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction resumes on the International Space Station. Astronaut Sunita L. Williams, (out of frame), Expedition 14 flight engineer, also participated in the 7-hour, 31-minute spacewalk.