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BBC News

Space station unfurls solar wings
By BBC News, 20 March 2009


• Interactive: Building the Space Station


Ten years after its construction began, the International Space Station now has full power capability. Mission controllers commanded the unfurling on Friday of the platform's fourth and final pair of solar arrays. The huge solar wings had been delivered to the ISS by the Discovery shuttle and installed by its astronauts with the help of the station's robotic arm.

When taken up to full capacity, the station's arrays should now generate as much as 120 kilowatts of electricity. The addition of the final set of solar wings will double the amount of power available for scientific experiments aboard the station - from 15kW to 30kW. The unfurling of the 73m-long (240ft) structures went very smoothly. "It's just really amazing," commented Mike Fincke, the space station's commander. He said there was "a shout of triumph" from astronauts aboard the linked station-shuttle complex once the two wings were fully extended.


• NASA TV • Live Images (News)


When viewed from the Earth's surface shortly after sunset, the ISS appears as a very bright star moving swiftly across the sky. The addition of a larger reflective area will make the platform an even more brilliant spectacle. The fourth set of solar arrays are attached to the sixth starboard truss, or backbone segment, of the platform which was bolted into place on Thursday. The work took spacewalking astronauts Steve Swanson and Richard Arnold six hours and seven minutes to complete.

The entire ISS backbone - which supports not just the arrays, but radiators and other equipment - now stretches for 102m (335ft). The solar wings are the last major pieces of US-made hardware to be attached to the station. Their addition increases the mass of the platform to just over 300 tonnes (670,000 pounds). The station is now more than 80% complete. Outstanding items include significant European contributions, such as the Node 3 connecting unit, the Cupola window and the European robotic arm.


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CBS News

Spacewalking Astronauts Mount Solar Wings
By CBS News, March 19, 2009


CBS: STS-116 Mission Archive


(CBS/ AP) - Spacewalking astronauts installed the last set of solar wings at the international space station Thursday, accomplishing the top job of shuttle Discovery's mission. Steven Swanson and Richard Arnold II struggled with some cable connections, but managed to hook everything up. "It wasn't quite as smooth as we had hoped, but those guys did a great job," astronaut Joseph Acaba told Mission Control. The next milestone will be Friday, when the folded-up solar wings are unfurled.

Manpower was needed inside and out to attach the $300 million segment to the space station. Swanson and Arnold helped their colleagues inside the shuttle-space station complex cautiously move the 31,000-pound, 45-foot-long girder into position with a robotic arm. "Keep coming," one of the spacewalkers said. "It really looks good to me." The actual attachment occurred an hour into the spacewalk, and the hookups were completed two hours later.

Discovery delivered the new wings earlier this week. It's the final of solar wings to be installed at the 10-year-old space station and will bring it to full power. It's also the last major American-made piece of the space station. This is the 121st spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the second so far this year and the first of three planned for Discovery's crew, reports CBS News space analyst Bill Harwood. Measuring 45.4 feet long and 16.3 feet wide in its stowed configuration, the 31,060-pound S6 is the fourth and final set of solar arrays to be attached to the lab complex and the final heavyweight payload scheduled for launch aboard a shuttle, Harwood reports. Before going back inside, Swanson and Arnold must release and remove the locks and cinches holding down the solar wings.

That will allow the 115-foot wings to be extended on Friday, an even more nerve-racking procedure than the one Thursday. The last time astronauts tried to unfurl a solar wing in 2007, it snagged on a guide wire and ripped. Emergency repairs were required. Six solar wings already are in place at the space station. The new ones will bring the number to eight, with four wings on each side. The space station "is almost symmetric, looking forward to that becoming permanent today," Mission Control said in a wake-up message to the astronauts. NASA needs the extra electrical power that the new wings will provide in order to boost the amount of research being conducted at the space station. The pace of science work will pick up once the number of station crew members doubles to six; that's supposed to happen in two more months. "Give us some more power," the space station's skipper, Mike Fincke, told the spacewalkers as they floated out Thursday afternoon.

Swanson was making the third spacewalk of his career. Arnold, a former schoolteacher, was on his first. Thursday's spacewalk 220 miles up was the first of three planned for Discovery's space station visit. There should have been four spacewalks, but delays in launching the shuttle cut the mission short. Discovery needs to leave the space station Wednesday so that a Russian spacecraft can bring up a fresh crew.

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Phoenix Lander on Mars with Surrounding Terrain, Polar Projection

Image from Mars




• View from Mars • NASA Mars Images: Exploring Mars Informations and Images • Spirit rover in the Mars hills

This image mosaic, taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, shows the rover's landing site, the Columbia Memorial Station,
at Gusev Crater, Mars. The rover originally was projected to be able to travel only 250 meters (820 feet) northeast to a large crater approximately 200 meters
across, the ridge of which can be seen to the left of this image. To the right are the east hills, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) away from the lander. The picture
was taken on the 16th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Jan. 18-19, 2004). A portion of Spirit's solar panels appear in the foreground. Data from the panoramic
camera's green, blue and infrared filters were combined to create this approximate true color image.

Far exceeding its expected lifespan, Spirit currently has spent more than 890 sols, or Martian days, exploring the Martian landscape. NASA: Image)

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ISS Crew Captured Images of Hurricane Ophelia.


• ISS Mission 12

- The Expedition 11 crew watched the progress of Hurricane Ophelia on Sept. 19, 2005. Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer John Phillips captured video and photos of the meandering storm as it churned near the coast of the Carolinas. (more)

Space.gs

International Space Station Images of Hurricane Wilma.


• ISS 5th Anniversary

- ISS Photo (19 Oct. 2005) --- This image of Hurricane Wilma was taken at 8:24 a.m. CDT Wednesday, Oct. 19, by the crew aboard NASA's international space station as the complex flew 222 miles above the storm. At the time, Wilma was the strongest Atlantic hurricane in history, with winds near 175 miles per hour. The storm was located in the Caribbean Sea, 340 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.


• Photos: Wilma - ISS


• News and Photos: Five years of ISS crews, 2 November 2005 • Progress With Gifts, Equipment and Supplies Docks at Station

Listen to the radio from an ISS spacesuit.
3 February 2006




- SuitSat-1 was launched into space from the ISS in February 2006. [NASA Photo] (more)

On the Net:
SuitSat-1: arrl.org/news - www.suitsat.org


Web Photos (high res.)

(29 Mar. 2006) --- The shadow of the moon falls on Earth as seen from the International Space Station, 230 miles above the planet, during a total solar eclipse at about 4:50 a.m. CST Wednesday, March 29. This digital photo was taken by the Expedition 12 crew, Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, who are wrapping up a six-month mission on the complex. Part of the Mediterranean Sea can be seen outside the shadow.

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