By using a gradual deployment technique instead of releasing the panels all at once, the shuttle crew successfully managed to unfurl the 115-foot-long set of solar wings, much to NASA's delight. The whole procedure took almost two hours and came after some tense moments.
On Sunday, a similar operation took only 13 minutes, but the first set of panels did not deploy as smoothly and both wings turned out to be too slack. Monday's was a different story.
"We have two tensioned blankets," Endeavour commander Brent Jett said, informing Houston that the solar wings were fully and properly deployed.
"Great work, gentlemen, you've got a lot of happy folks down here," Mission Control in Houston replied.
"There was a fair amount of tension in cockpit," Jett quipped.
"Needless to say, the room down here was filled with electricity," a relieved Mission Control replied.
NASA is now studying the problem with the set of arrays deployed Sunday and must decide whether astronauts Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega should attempt to fix the problem during a space walk.
The suspicion is that metal cables designed to apply tension to the slack solar panels may have come off their pulleys during Sunday's rapid deployment, said lead flight director Bill Reeves.
NASA's main concern is that if the massive arrays aren't as taut as designed, they might flutter excessively, especially when space shuttles and other spacecraft dock with the station in the future. Dozens of dockings are planned before the orbital outpost is fully assembled by
2006.
The $600 million panel assembly is one of the few original parts that survived the cancellation of the Freedom space station project proposed by Ronald Reagan in 1984.
The so-called P6 power module will produce about 65 kilowatts of power. That is of vital importance for Alpha given the amount of energy it will need in the future, especially once NASA's Destiny research laboratory arrives in January and scientific experiments begin in earnest.
Besides Tuesday's space walk, Tanner and Noriega are scheduled to perform a third excursion out of their ship on Thursday. Both space walks are scheduled to prepare the station for the addition of Destiny.
Even though Endeavour and Alpha have been docked since Saturday, their respective crews have yet to meet face to face. The air pressure in the two spacecraft is so different that the hatches into Alpha's living quarters must remain sealed until the shuttle astronauts finish all the space walks. For now, both crews have made do by communicating via radio.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
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