Posted on 12/18/2006 7:38:17 AM PST by NormsRevenge
About 4.25 bays left, now. Hot dang!
The song "Right Now" by Van Halen just came up on my mp3 disk... talk about apropos. Sends a chill up the spine...
Three bays to go. Is there a reason they are doing this?
Jettisoning is a real bear, even if the arrays are retracted. As long as the risk is managed, this cuts down on cargo trades and possible whole changes in Shuttle missions.
Oh, AFAIK, the arrays are still good, so stowing them allows us to use them later, as planned.
Down to half a bay! Ya-HOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Final review. Almost there.
In the goalposts! yeah, baby.
They get it?
Very close. They have been performing some final inspections, and it looks like things are okay to finish up.
spaceflightnow.com
2345 GMT (6:45 p.m. EST)
Final inspections underway.
There are some issues with some blanket material not laying as flat as expected, but it may not be an issue in going to latching it together.
"Go" for final retract!
If they can't bounce a coin on the blanket, it will have to be done again.
LOL. That's why I always slept UNDER the bed.
Fine. You go tell 'em... Heh.
Seriously, this is good juju.
Ooops. A center guide cable is hanging out of the box. Sombody call Larry... Git 'er done.
Beamer has fixed the wire loops. All Is As It Should Be.
Awesome.
Great Job!!
Astronauts finish folding up solar array
RASHA MADKOUR, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061219/ap_on_sc/space_shuttle
HOUSTON - Two spacewalking astronauts finished folding up a stubborn, accordion-like solar array Monday, resolving the only complication in space shuttle Discovery's otherwise smooth mission to the international space station.
Shuttle astronauts Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang managed to get the last section of the 115-foot array folded into a box about five hours into the spacewalk. It was the fourth venture outside for Discovery's astronauts during their visit to the orbiting outpost.
Workers in Mission Control applauded when the final section fell into the box. Curbeam radioed back that a wire was still loose, and he continued trying to fold it up.
"You have a magic touch, Christer," Discovery commander Mark Polansky told Fuglesang.
The pair used a scraper to try to get the array unstuck, shook the panel and used pliers to tighten the wire that folds it up. It was a stop-and-go process with astronauts inside the space station repeatedly sending remote-controlled commands to fold up the array.
The addition of Monday's impromptu spacewalk forced NASA to delay Discovery's return home by a day to Friday.
The electricity-generating array became stuck Wednesday in the halfway-retracted position as it was being folded up by remote control. After repeated efforts to get it to retract — including attempts to shake it loose by having an astronaut exercise vigorously aboard the space station — NASA decided to send two cosmic mechanics out to fix it.
It was Curbeam's fourth spacewalk of the mission, the most by any astronaut during a single shuttle flight.
The array was part of the space station's temporary power source. The space agency had to retract it to make room for a newly installed array that will be part of the space station's permanent power source.
The array posed no danger in the half-retracted position. But NASA wanted to take advantage of the extra hands on deck to get it taken care of now, instead of asking the space station crew members to make a spacewalk.
Also, another array on the station is scheduled to be similarly retracted on a future mission, so NASA figured it would use this opportunity to learn how to troubleshoot the problem.
In a worst-case scenario, NASA could simply jettison the array.
Grommets — metal eyelets through which a guidewire runs — were the source of the problem. Bunches of the grommets stuck together.
The Discovery crew awoke to the Beach Boys hit "Good Vibrations."
"We sort of thought that the wake-up music this morning summed up our hopes for the day," Mission Control said.
The astronauts, scheduled to land on Friday after a 13-day mission, have completed their main tasks: rewiring the station; installing a 2-ton, $11 million addition to the orbiting space lab; and replacing space station crew member Thomas Reiter of Germany with American astronaut Sunita Williams, who will spend the next six months in orbit.
spaceflightnow.com
0034 GMT (7:34 p.m. EST Mon.)
Both solar array blanket boxes have been closed and latched. Retraction of the solar wing is complete!
The other wing on the P6 truss is scheduled to be folded up during the March shuttle flight. Then, the entire truss will be unbolted and moved outboard for installation to the P5 truss next fall.
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