The
International Space Station (ISS) is primed to unfold new radiators later this
month after successfully furling its oldest solar arrays.
Once sporting
a wingspan of almost 80-feet (24.4 meters), the two wing-like solar arrays of
the space station's Russian Zarya control module folded away after nearly nine
years generating power for the orbital laboratory.
The solar
arrays had been deployed since November 1998 shortly after Zarya, the first
piece of the ISS to fly, launched into space to begin the station's construction.
They were retracted
last weekend to clear space for future radiators that will unfold during
and after NASA's next shuttle flight, STS-120 aboard Discovery, slated to
launch on Oct. 23.
"They
have to be out of the way for the radiators to deploy," NASA spokesperson
James Hartsfield, of the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, told SPACE.com.
"Each one took about one minute to two minutes to retract. There were no
glitches at all."
Zarya's
solar arrays are still generating some power, but not the average three
kilowatts they once provided while fully unfurled, NASA said. The electricity from
the station's expansive U.S. solar arrays, which reach out from the station's
port and starboard sides and each generate about 66 kilowatts of power, is more
than sufficient to make up for the drop in Zarya's production, the space agency
added.
Another
pair of Russian solar arrays continues to produce power from their perch on the
station's aft-mounted
Zvezda service module.
With the
successful retraction of Zarya's solar arrays, the stage is now set for NASA's
STS-120 shuttle mission.
Commanded
by veteran shuttle flyer Pamela Melroy, Discovery's seven-astronaut crew will
deliver a new connecting node to the ISS, relocate an older U.S. solar wing and
test orbiter heat shield repair methods during a planned 14-day mission.
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