Expansionary Institute

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

By Brad Liston

 
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Dec 4 (Reuters) - NASA hoped the International Space Station would have a pair of fully functional solar wings by the end of the night on Monday after one of them got hung up the day before.

The wings, stretching 240 feet (72.8 metres) from tip to tip, are lined with thousands of photoelectric cells that convert sunlight into electricity. They are absolutely essential to the continued construction of the $60 billion space station.

On Monday, one wing failed to unfold accordion-style because a computer command went unheeded by the array. Another wing deployed, but did not stretch taught as it was designed to do.

Even though the limp wing was generating adequate levels of electricity, NASA wanted the second wing to deploy as planned.

Space agency engineers went to their blackboards to work out a solution.

Each of the wings was bundled for more than nine months waiting for launch at the Kennedy Space Center. Some folds appeared to stick to one another on the wing that extended on Sunday. There was also a whip-like effect during deployment.

NASA decided to deploy the remaining wing in a halting fashion, using the on-off command to release each fold one at a time. Early Monday evening they were still refining their plan.

The 17-ton array rode to space in the payload bay of the space shuttle Endeavour. Mission Control overruled Endeavour commander Brent Jett who suggested waiting until Tuesday, when a pair of astronauts scheduled for a spacewalk could deploy the array using a hand tool.

The operation on Monday was hampered by a series of minor glitches that made for a frustrating day for the five Endeavour astronauts. A pair of spacewalkers, Carlos Noriega and Joe Tanner, spent hours getting the array tower functional.

At one point, Noriega had to use force to make a canister swing into place when it would not do so automatically. The pair were supposed to be on hand for a manual deployment if needed, but Noriega developed a painful eye irritation, forcing both astronauts back to their airlock.

During a series on interviews with broadcasters, Jett was philosophical about the troubles.

"When things go wrong and you can overcome them, it gives you a little satisfaction that your training was good and that you were prepared to execute the mission. Obviously, we'd like things to go better, but we're happy we've overcome most of them, and hopeful we'll get this last problem as well," Jett said.

As the five-man Endeavour crew does its work, the three-man Expedition One crew is living and working inside the space station. Although Endeavour is docked at the station, the hatches between them will not be opened until on Friday, after the last of three planned spacewalks, for safety reasons.

The two crews are even on different sleep cycles, with the Expedition crew of American commander Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalyov scheduled for sleep during the activities planned for Monday.

Joining Jett, Noriega and Tanner on Endeavour are pilot Michael Bloomfield and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Marc Garneau.

The International Space Station, still in the early stages of construction, is scheduled for completion in 2006. It is a joint project of the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan.

20:01 12-04-00

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