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Written by Derek Kessler on
Tuesday, 30 October 2007
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 Things just aren't going well for the STS-120 crew. First they discover that the starboard side rotator joint for the International Space Station's massive solar arrays is possibly grinding against itself, and now today after successfully moving another of the station's solar arrays, one of the power generating arrays was ripped as it was unfurled. The 115 foot long solar array was discovered to be ripped along its edge, and neither the astronauts in space nor the engineers on the ground are cetain as to if the damage will prevent the array from generating neccesary power for future ISS modules.
The rip was discovered on the 4B solar array. The opposite array on the tree-like structure - 2B - unfurled without incident. As soon as the rip was spotted, the astronauts halted further deployment of the solar array, leaving it at 82 feet extended. They have begun to ease tension of the array, hoping that they may be able to deploy the array the rest of the way without causing further damage.
Apart from the damaged solar array, this morning's spacewalk was successful. After yesterday's prep work to move a 16 ton solar array across the ISS to a permanent mounting position, the shuttle and ISS mechanical arms performed and intricate ballet to move it to its new home. Discovery astronaut Scott Parazynski took the time to examine the port side solar array rotator joint to make a comparison basis for the possibly damaged joint on the opposite end of the station. He remarked that, "they look like they're brand new machines." NASA will compare images taken of the the two joints (the starboard side joint will be further examined on their next spacewalk) to determine what went wrong when.
Discovery is scheduled to return to Earth on November 7th, and will be returning with ISS resident Clayton Anderson, after swapping him for Daniel Tani.
Discuss: TrekUnited Forum
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"My God, what have I done?"
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