HOUSTON - Dangling on the end of a shaky
robotic arm today, a NASA astronaut rescued a torn solar blanket and ensured the short-term future
of the International Space Station (ISS).
Mission managers feared the crumpled, torn
solar wing would threaten the completion of the orbital laboratory, as the
space agency's aging space shuttle fleet is set to retire in 2010. With the
array now patched up and fully deployed, however, NASA mission managers have
one less power-managing headache to remedy.
Veteran astronaut
Scott Parazynski led the unprecedented spacewalk, patching up the solar array at
the far end of the unfinished space station.
"What
an accomplishment, beautiful," Parazynski said as he watched the freshly
repaired array unfurl from his vantage on the end of an extended robotic arm. "It's
as taut as a sail. Everything looks completely intact."
Spacewalker
Doug Wheelock watched Parazynski traverse through space, ensuring robotic arm
operators did not bump him into the electrified solar arrays during his
45-minute journey.
"This
is just beyond description," Parazynski said of his view of Earth during
the ride to the damage site.
Crisis
averted
The
troubling solar wing, one of four anchored to the Port 6 (P6) solar array truss,
snagged and tore about 80 percent through its deployment on Oct. 30. The damage
came just two days after astronaut Dan Tani discovered worrisome metallic
shavings in a set of solar-array-rotating gears.
Mission
managers huddled to decide which one of the problems most threatened the
arrival of the Columbus module, which is scheduled to arrive in December on the
space shuttle Atlantis.
ISS lead
flight director Derek Hassmann said yesterday that fixing the maimed solar wing
was priority number-one.
"We
need to address one of these two problems before we proceed," Hassmann
said. "The P6 solar array is the ... priority
problem that we can go fix now."
Teams of
engineers descended on Johnson Space Center (JSC) in response, throwing a
spacewalk plan together in little more than two days. Mission managers said
comparative spacewalks take months to plan.
Dr.
Spacewalker
Parazynski,
also a medical doctor, endured the seven hour and 19 minute spacewalk with
Wheelock to revive the solar wing.
"It's
a bit of a reach here," Parazynski said as he reached out to clip frayed
wires and stitch in five hand-made cuff links to strengthen the weakened
blanket.
"That's
what those monkey arms are for," said Pamela Melroy, space shuttle
Discovery commander.
"My
arms are long, but not that long," responded Parazynski, also known as
"Longbow," who is an impressive 6 feet, 2 inches.
Once the blanket
was sewn up, robotic arm operators Tani and Stephanie Wilson pulled Parazynski
away from the array. Parazynski looked on as Mission Control deployed the solar
blanket.
"Beautiful,"
he said when the array extended to a full 110 feet (33.5 meters).
Missing
tool
Parazynski and Wheelock's success
was marred only by the loss of a pair of needle-nose pliers, which
drifted away as they entered the Quest airlock.
The
spacewalking duo began the extravehicular activity (EVA) at 6:03 a.m. EDT (1003
GMT), and endured seven hours and 19 minutes of time working in the vacuum of
space. Parazynski now has 47 hours and 5 minutes of spacewalking time under
his belt while Wheelock now has 21 hours and 41 minutes.
The
spacewalk was the fourth and final EVA of the STS-120 mission and the 96th to
build the space station.
Shortly after
Parazynski and Wheelock climbed into the airlock, Melroy announced two awards
for the star spacewalkers. The Order of Saint Michael-an impressive military
award-for Wheelock, and a less formal award for Parazynski.
"Scott,
you never were able to get a medal at the Olympics," Melroy said of
Parazynski's luge experience. "But I think everybody would say that you
received the EVA gold medal today."
Space
shuttle Discovery and its seven-astronaut crew is slated to undock with the ISS
on Nov. 5 and land in daylight on Nov. 7.
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