Astronauts rewire half of space station
NASA immediately started powering up systems aboard a large section of the space station; the power had to be turned off for the spacewalkers' safety while they were handling the electrical connections.
The space agency also rushed to get the space station's ammonia cooling system operating again before the new electrical equipment overheated. It took less than an hour for the cooling system to start running smoothly.
The rewiring job involved switching the space station from its old, temporary power source to its brand-new one -- a pair of solar arrays that were delivered in September. The spacewalkers had to unhook three dozen electrical hoses and reconnect them.
During a short break, the spacewalkers watched shooting stars and the blaze of the Northern Lights, caused by solar flares colliding with Earth's atmosphere. "Gosh, they're beautiful," Curbeam said.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was considering a fourth spacewalk in which astronauts could manually fold up the old solar array, which failed to retract fully by remote control Wednesday. The accordion-like 115-foot array, which had provided temporary power to the space station, retracted about halfway -- enough to allow the new pair of solar arrays to rotate.
The half-retracted array presents no danger, NASA said. In a worst-case scenario, it could be jettisoned.
"It's a little disappointing with the solar array, but folks . . . understand you're going to have a little hiccup," said Joel Montalbano, a space station flight director. "NASA probably does its best with their back against the wall."
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Astronaut Exercise Doesn't Fix Array
NASA asked an astronaut aboard the international space station to exercise vigorously Friday, hoping the rapid movement would jostle a half-retracted solar wing that refuses to fold up properly.
Reiter tried several times, but his exercise did not appear to change the solar array.
Earlier in the day, flight controllers jiggled the solar array 10 degrees to either side by remote control to try to relieve tension in a wire system that is preventing it from folding up like an accordion, as designed. That too did not appear to have the desired effect.
Astronauts store space station's jammed solar wing
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Spacewalking astronauts coaxed a balky solar wing panel on the International Space Station into its storage box on Monday, capping a tedious but ultimately successful mission by the shuttle Discovery crew.
Progress was achingly slow, with spacewalkers Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang taking about five hours to gently poke at the partly retracted panel with insulated tools and shake the storage box to free the stuck sections.
source: reuters.co.uk
Space shuttle returns to Florida
Space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew have landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Shuttle managers decided conditions in Florida were good enough to bring the shuttle home at 1732 (2232 GMT), after days of uncertainty about the weather.
The shuttle has been on a 13-day mission to rewire the International Space Station (ISS).
Its safe return concludes Nasa's third shuttle flight of the year. Five more flights are planned for 2007.
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