Two spacewalking astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery were scheduled to work on a jammed solar wing yesterday while their counterparts inside the international space station and in Mission Control sent real-time instructions for the impromptu foray into space.
It was to be the fourth spacewalk of this now 13-day mission -- NASA added it to the schedule on Saturday after several attempts to fully fold the solar array were unsuccessful. The mission was originally set for 12 days.
Astronaut Robert Curbeam of the US was poised to set a new record for the most spacewalks completed on a mission by one crew member, the latest being his fourth.
Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, who paired up with Curbeam on two earlier spacewalks, was to assist as Curbeam attempted to free the array.
NASA began retracting the accordion-like structure on Wed-nesday to make room for new solar arrays that were to begin generating electricity by rotating with the sun's movement.
The new arrays would begin providing power after astronauts rewired the station over two spacewalks.
Reconfiguring the orbiting space lab's interim power system to a permanent electricity grid was a primary goal of the Discovery mission. The old array, part of the interim system, retracted half-way before stalling. That was enough to allow the new arrays to rotate, but NASA needs it to fold fully into a box so it can be moved on a later shuttle flight to its permanent position.
On the last scheduled spacewalk, which took place on Saturday, Curbeam and Sunita Williams headed over to the array after completing their main tasks and spent about two hours shaking it, trying to coax apart the problem grommets.
They partially succeeded and other astronauts were able to command the array to retract several degrees more. But more grommets got stuck and the spacewalking duo's time ran out.
This time, with several hours on their hands solely for this task, Curbeam and Fuglesang hoped to put an end to the array saga, the only glitch on this otherwise successful mission.
Asked by a reporter how important it was to get the arrays retracted, crew member Joan Higginbotham, who will be operating a crane-like robotic arm during the spacewalk, offered this assessment: "It's very important from a personal standpoint," she said.
"I think we're all very `type A' personalities -- I think my crew would agree with me there -- so we always like to accomplish the task that we are given," she said.
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