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Atlantis astronauts unfurl new solar arrays on space station
Houston (AFP) Texas, Sept 14, 2006 Like a giant, golden accordion, astronauts stretched out a new set of solar arrays on the International Space Station Thursday, which will eventually double the orbiting laboratory's power capabilities, NASA said. It was the latest success on the 11-day space shuttle Atlantis mission launched Saturday to resume construction of the ISS, the first such mission since the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster. Astronauts fell behind schedule by a few hours earlier in the day after a software glitch interfered with the maneuvering of the arrays' rotation arm. The first pair of array panels was opened at 5:26 am (1026 GMT) and the second set at 7:45 am (1245 GMT), said a commentator on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's television service. The new set of solar arrays measures 240 feet (73 meters) and will ultimately provide a quarter of the ISS's power once the orbiting laboratory is completed in 2010. It will not be activated until the next scheduled shuttle mission, by Discovery, in December. US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp. manufactured the new arrays as well as the identical original set. The 2000 installation of the first set was beset by problems. On Tuesday, astronauts used a robotic arm to attach a 16-tonne truss segment with the solar arrays, called P3/P4 and costing 372 million dollars, to the orbiting laboratory. That step marked the resumption of construction of the ISS for the first time since the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster. The last construction mission was in 2002. On Wednesday, two Atlantis astronauts went on a seven-hour spacewalk, the second of three in their mission, to remove launch restraints on the solar arrays that prevented damage when Atlantis lifted off Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The third and final spacewalk is scheduled Friday to complete the installation of the new set of solar arrays. Astronauts Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, the only woman on the six-member crew, will install radiator attachments to prevent overheating of the solar batteries. The additional electricity furnished by the new arrays is expected to be sufficient to power the European Columbus laboratory and the Japanese Kibo laboratory, which are to be installed later. At the end of ISS construction in 2010, once the four sets of double arrays are in place, they will generate a combined 110 kilowatts of electricity, the equivalent to the consumption of 55 average households. Atlantis, whose protective thermal shield was declared in perfect shape for reentry, is scheduled to land on September 20 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The last ISS assembly work was in November 2002 after the Columbia accident forced NASA to work on improving flight safety. Columbia was doomed by foam insulation that peeled off its external fuel tank during liftoff and pierced its heat shield, causing it to disintegrate as it returned to Earth in February 2003. js/vs/mac
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New Station Crew Poised To Launch From Baikonur
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 15, 2006Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin of the 14th International Space Station crew are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan a few minutes after midnight EDT on Sept. 18 to begin a six-month stay in space. |
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