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2nd Spacewalk Today for Solar Panels

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 June 2007, 06:01 CDT

By Traci Watson

Astronauts will step outside the International Space Station today to put the final touches on a new solar-panel system, needed to provide power for European and Japanese laboratories being added over the next 12 months.

Astronauts Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson will prepare a giant wheel that points the solar panels at the sun. Astronauts who worked on a mirror-image wheel in September ran into major problems with jammed bolts.

Forrester and Swanson are also prepared to do battle with existing solar panels that must be collapsed into tiny boxes for storage. Nearly identical panels balked in December when they were commanded to fold into their boxes.

Engineers in Mission Control plan to begin retracting the existing panels into their boxes about 7a.m. ET today. If the panels get stuck, the spacewalkers can prod and pull on them. Mission Control can also send commands to shake the pole supporting the panels.

On Monday, the two new solar panels unscrolled slowly but steadily out of their boxes until they reached their full height of 115 feet. Together, they'll provide the station's systems with an amount of electricity that could to power eight to 10 homes on Earth.

NASA officials will decide today when damage to the heat shield of space shuttle Atlantis, now docked to the station, will be fixed. Two crewmembers might make the repair on a spacewalk Friday. If not, Forrester and Swanson will tackle the job Sunday.

A heat-protection blanket on an engine casing near the shuttle's tail was loosened by the aerodynamic forces of barreling through the atmosphere during launch, according to deputy shuttle program manager John Shannon.

If the blanket isn't fixed, the engine casing could be eroded during the shuttle's fiery return through the Earth's atmosphere. That prompted shuttle managers to decide Monday that a loose blanket corner needs to be tucked in before the shuttle's return June 21.

Atlantis commander Frederick Sturckow said Tuesday that though the crew isn't worried about the damage, the repair is "the right thing to do. ... (The shuttle) is an expensive piece of gear, and we should do everything we can to protect it."

NASA has been cautious about damage to the shuttle's skin since Columbia crumbled during re-entry in 2003 because of an unnoticed 10-inch hole in its heat shield. The crew of seven died. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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