More Bad Space News
Astronauts successfully bolted a new solar power tower to the International Space Station today. Everything went well until the started to unfurl the second solar panel. A rip was spotted in the panel when it was about 3/4 extended.
The solar panels on the 17 1/2-ton girder that was installed at its new location Tuesday were folded up like an accordion for the move, and the first one slowly was unfurled as the seven-hour spacewalk wrapped up, gleaming like gold in the sun.
The crew kept spacewalker Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock apprised of the first solar wing's unfurling as they floated back inside. Their reaction: "Wow, that's great," and "Awesome!"
"It's a good day's work right there," Parazynski said.
The astronauts abruptly stopped the unfurling of the second panel, however, as soon as they saw the rip right next to the edge. By then, the panel was about three-quarters of the way out. The astronauts beamed down photos of the torn and crumpled section so Mission Control could analyze them and determine the extent of the damage.
At Mission Control's request, the astronauts retracted the wing just a bit to ease the tension on it.
On the bright side, the inspection of the other rotary joint did not show any metal flakes or wear. Still, this hasn't been a great mission so far.
By NortonPete, Tuesday, 30 October , 2007 @ 2:28 pm
Because of a lack of anything else to do I watched most of the NASA briefing on their NASA channel. They of course tried to put a positive spin on the days events, citing all the work that did go well. I saw the rip in the solar panel, its about 2 feet by 2 feet. I think the array is 110+ feet long. The issue is did this rip damage the power transmission wires? Stay tuned tomorrow but it isn’t being described as a show stopper right now.