The International Space Station spread its new solar wings on Tuesday, boosting power generation capacity after astronauts of the US shuttle Atlantis wired them up during a space walk.
Television pictures broadcast by NASA showed the vast panels unfurling after they were put in place by the space station's robotic arm and connected by two space walkers on Monday.
The accordion-like installations, brought from Earth in the hold of Atlantis to the station hundreds of kilometers above the Earth, then finished their slow, delicate spreading on Tuesday at 1900GMT, the US space agency said.
PHOTO: AP
They will boost the capacity of the station to generate power so it can host new modules from Europe and Japan.
The next foray outside the station was to be held yesterday.
Mission specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson were due to step out yesterday at 1803GMT on the second of the mission's four space walks.
During a scheduled outing of six-and-a-half hours, the astronauts plan to fold up another, older solar array to allow the new array to rotate and catch a maximum of sunshine for electricity production. The older array is to be installed on a different part of the station on a future shuttle mission.
NASA said on Monday that it would add two days to the mission to allow astronauts to repair a thermal blanket on the vessel's exterior, which was slightly damaged by the extreme air pressure of blasting through Earth's atmosphere.
Astronauts may use a sewing kit normally reserved for space-suits to repair the 10cm-by-15cm peeled-back section, which is over an engine pod near the spacecraft's tail, NASA managers said.
No final decision has been made on when the repair will be made or what repair technique will be used.
Engineers have looked at using duct tape or other adhesives to secure the blanket, but are leaning toward a method which would use stainless steel wire as thread and an instrument with a rounded end resembling a small darning needle.
"Duct tape doesn't work in the vacuum of space," John Shannon, the mission management team's chairman, said on Tuesday.
NASA engineers planned to try out the different method in heat and wind tunnel tests.
The thermal blankets are used to protect the shuttle from searing heat during re-entry. Engineers do not think the intense heat could burn through the graphite structure underneath it and jeopardize the spacecraft.
But it could damage the shuttle, requiring post-landing repairs that could delay the three flights to the space station that NASA has scheduled for the remainder of the year.
"This is the right thing to do," commander Rick Sturckow said from space on Tuesday night.
The rest of the shuttle appeared to be in fine shape, NASA said.
Shannon said an investigation has started into how the blanket was secured before launch.
Two sensors on the shuttle wing's leading edge had detected what seemed to be an impact by space debris, but engineers don't believe anything actually hit the spacecraft's wing. The highly sensitive sensors have been known to register "ghost" detections in the past from other causes.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS