AstronautsComplete Third Spacewalk, Fourth Set for Monday
16December 2006 11:00 p.m. EST
A fourthspacewalk is set for Monday and will feature additional troubleshooting work toretract a stubborn solar array outside atop the space station's mast-like Port6 truss.
Totalspacewalking time for today's activity: seven hours, 31 minutes.
Curbeam and Williams achieved all of their primary tasks,which included completing work to rewire the space station's power grid,delivering a set of debris panels to a storage area for later installation onthe orbital lab, and the attachment of a grapple bar that will help futurespacewalkers lug unwieldy equipment to various worksites.
The spacewalk's highlight, however, featured repeated attemptsto loose guide wire snags on the troublesome P6 truss solar array, whichextends over the space station port - or left - side.
A wrap upof today's spacewalking activities outside the ISS will be posted to theSPACE.com homepage following NASA's mission status briefing set to begin noearlier than 11:00 p.m. EST (0400 GMT).
You are invited to follow thebriefing live using SPACE.com's NASATV feed available at via the link on the left of this page.
The are preparing to end today's spacewalk, which achievedall of its primary tasks along with extra work to help furl a stubborn solararray atop the station's Port 6 truss.
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HOUSTON - Time has run out in today'sattempts to retract a troublesome solar array outside the International SpaceStation (ISS), and two spacewalkers are headed back to the orbital laboratory'sQuest airlock.
SpacewalkersRobertCurbeam and Sunita Williams accomplished all of their plannedtasks, including the successful completion of a two-part overhaul of thestation's power grid, before working on the solar array.
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HOUSTON - Astronauts working outside andinside the International Space Station are taking a shake and retract approachto a troublesome solar array atop the outpost's mast-like truss.
SpacewalkersRobert Curbeam and SunitaWilliams have shaken their respective sides of the portside solar wing on thestation's Port 6 truss, with apparently favorable results. They are running outof time though. Flight controllers have given the astronauts until the end ofthe current daylight pass before heading back inside the station's airlock.
"This isdefinitely the right approach," space station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria told Mission Control. "I think we're definitelygoing to get there."
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"It'scoming in," STS-116 spacewalker, Robert"Beamer" Curbeam said.
"Itdefinitely looks better than it did before," STS-116 commander Mark Polansky added.
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HOUSTON - After two solar array shakes byspacewalker Robert"Beamer" Curbeam, flight controllers are gearingup to retract a the stubborn solar wing.
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HOUSTON - Space station flightcontrollers have asked spacewalker Robert"Beamer" Curbeam to perform one more of what theynow call a "Beamer shake" of a stubborn solar array atop the InternationalSpace Station.
Today'sspacewalk has passed the four-hour mark. Curbeam andhis spacewalking partner Sunita Williams are preparedto spend seven hours working outside the space station in their NASAspacesuits.
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"Beamer,you've been amazingly effective," NASA astronaut Steve Robinson told Curbeam.
ISSflight controllers are considering a renewed attempt to retract the solararray, which extends towards the port from the space station's mast-like Port 6truss. The astronauts will wait until the next daylight pass of the ISS for anymore work.
"Itreally looks like that last push did a lot of good," Discovery shuttlecommander Mark Polansky reported.
Curbeam and fellow spacewalker Sunita Williams now have about a half hour of free timeahead of them as the ISS passes over the Earth's night side.
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"They'rekind of just stacked together at a weird angle, where it like they're going tobe together forever," Curbeam said.
Aboardthe space shuttle Discovery, astronauts reported that the stalled folds on thearray still appear to be stuck, but that Curbeam'sefforts did not make the situation worse.
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The havereported seeing the guide wires, which appear to be fine, and are taking aclose look at tension bars and other equipment on the boxes the solar array'spanels are designed to fold into.
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HOUSTON - Spacewalkers RobertCurbeam and Sunita Williams are ascending the International SpaceStation's mast-like Port 6 truss to reach a troublesome, half-furled solararray.
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HOUSTON -Mission Control has alerted Discovery's STS-116 crew that spacewalkers RobertCurbeam and Sunita Williams are sufficiently ahead of schedule toattempt troubleshooting work on a stubborn solar array in hopes of jostling astuck guide wire loose.
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HOUSTON -Mission Control has alerted Discovery's STS-116 crew that spacewalkers RobertCurbeam and Sunita Williams are sufficiently ahead of schedule toattempt troubleshooting work on a stubborn solar array in hopes of jostling astuck guide wire loose.
Before attempting that, however, the astronauts mustmount a grapple bar to the station's exterior.
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Thecamera could be seen drifting away from Williams after she had left herprevious perch at the end of the space shuttle Discovery's robotic arm.
Williamsand spacewalker RobertCurbeam are more than four hours into today'sspacewalk to rewire the ISS power grid. The astronauts have successfullyperformed that task, temporarily stowed a set of debris panels on the stationand have one or two remaining primary tasks to go before heading up to a balkysolar array if time allows.
Earliertoday, mission managers approved plans for a fourth spacewalk to address thesolar array, which has been stuck mid-retraction since Wednesday, if today'stroubleshooting work is not performed or fails to do the trick.
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HOUSTON - Astronauts RobertCurbeam and Sunita Williams are about 30 minutes ahead of schedulein today's spacewalk, originally the third planned excursion for Discovery'sshuttle crew. Earlier today, mission managers approved a fourth spacewalk,likely to be performed by Curbeam and fellow STS-116astronaut Christer Fuglesang,to help retract a stubborn solar array outside the International Space Station.
Curbeam and Williams are due to inspect, and gently nudge,the solar array atop the station's Port 6 truss later in today's six-hourspacewalk, which began at 2:25 p.m. EST (1925 GMT).
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FourthSpacewalk Approved, Spacewalkers Retrieve ISS "Christmas Tree"
"We are go for EVA 4," Mission Control told Discovery's STS-116astronaut crew.
Thespacewalk, which would be dedicated to aiding the retraction of a stubbornsolar array atop the station's Port 6 truss, would occur on Monday. Thespacewalk would be added if an extra task to today's planned spacewalk togentle nudge the array is not completed or fails to aid the retraction process.
Meanwhile,spacewalkers RobertCurbeam and Sunita Williams have retrieved a set of debris panelarrangement affectionately dubbed the "Christmas Tree" from the space shuttleDiscovery's payload bay.
"MerryChristmas," Williams told Curbeam as she accept thedebris panels, which are arranged in small stacks around a central column.
Thespacewalkers will deliver the debris panels in a temporary position on the ISSexterior, where the will be later retrieved and installed on the station's Zvezda service module later next year.
Thedebris panel task is the second of three planned chores for today's orbitalwork. The third includes adding a grapple bar to a spare parts platform outsidethe ISS.
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HOUSTON -Spacewalking astronauts RobertCurbeam and Sunita Williams are tackling their second primary goalfor today's extravehicular activity: the transfer of a set of debris panelsfrom Discovery's payload bay to a storage point on the International SpaceStation.
Thedebris panels will be installed on the exterior of the station's Russiansegments to protect against damage from micrometeorites and other orbitaldebris.
Theastronauts are nearing the halfway mark of today's planned six-hour spacewalk,which began at 2:25 p.m. EST (1925 GMT).
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HOUSTON -Mission Control has informed spacewalking astronauts RobertCurbeam and Sunita Williams that their efforts to complete rewiringthe InternationalSpace Station's (ISS) power grid and activate its primary cooling systemhas been a success.
Norepairs or hardware replacements will be required for the job, which has nowput the ISS on a permanent power system that will feed station systems for theremainder of the outpost's operations. The work clears the way for additionalsolar arrays, larger crews and new laboratories to launch towards the ISS inupcoming years.
Curbeam and Williams are now working to move a set of orbitaldebris panels from the shuttle Discovery's payload bay to a storage positionbetween ISS modules.
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"That isbeautiful," Curbeam said.
The callcame about one hour and 46 into today's plannedsix-hour spacewalk. Curbeam and Williams have takenone minute longer to complete the task than a previous Thursday spacewalk,which ended a full hour early due to the speedy spacewalkers.
Up next forthe astronauts is the installation of an apropos "Christmas Tree" of debrispanels at a storage location on the station's Pressurized Mating Adapter-3(PMA-3). Williams and Curbeam will retrieve thedebris panels from the payload of the Discovery shuttle, with Williams thencarrying them into place at the end of the orbiter's robotic arm.
InsideDiscovery, pilot William Oefelein is choreographingtoday's spacewalk, with fellow STS-116 astronaut Nicholas Patrick, who willwield the orbiter's robotic arm during the activity.
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SpacewalkersRewire ISS Power Cables
16 December 2006 3:46 p.m. EST
Curbeam has completed his tasks inside the station'sgirder-like truss and has pulled himself out to another worksite.
Williamsis removing a series of circuit breakers that will no longer be required by theend of today's spacewalk. Much of the hardware to be activated in today'sspacewalk has lain dormant for an extended amount of time.
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PowerGrid Overhaul Continues in ISS Spacewalk
16 December 2006 3:20 p.m. EST
UnlikeThursday's spacewalk, which also featured rewiring tasks, live video isavailable through much of today's spacewalk, returning stunning views of theastronauts as they work in space some 220 miles above Earth.
Curbeam has entered the space station's girder-like maintruss to work with connection cables while Williams handles her own connectiontasks.
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Spacewalkers Exit ISSAirlock, Begin Rewiring Work
16 December 2006 2:51 p.m. EST
"Welcometo the club, Suni," Curbeamtold Williams as she floated feet first out of the station's Quest airlock.
Up first forthe spacewalking duo is a planned 90-minute job to complete an ISS power systemoverhaul by rewiring the outpost's power channels 1 and 4. Channels 2 and 3were rewired in a successful Thursday spacewalk.
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Astronauts Begin Spacewalkto Rewire ISS
16 December 2006 2:26 p.m. EST
HOUSTON - The thirdspacewalk of NASA's STS-116 mission has officially begun for astronauts RobertCurbeam and Sunita Williams aboard the International SpaceStation (ISS).
"Lookslike it's dark out there," said Williams as she and Curbeamopened the outer hatch of the space station's Quest airlock.
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Spacewalkers DepressurizeISS Airlock
16 December 2006 2:00 p.m. EST
HOUSTON -Astronauts RobertCurbeam and Sunita Williams are depressurizing the Quest airlockaboard the InternationalSpace Station (ISS) in preparation to begin today's planned six-hourspacewalk.
Thespacewalkers are expected to rewire the second half of the space station'spower grid, deliver a set of debris panels to station and install a sparegrapple tool to the outpost's exterior. Time permitting, they will also climbto the highest point of the ISS and nudge a balky solar array in hopes ofloosing a snag in one of three guide wires.
Today'sspacewalk is set to begin at 2:37 p.m. EST (1937 GMT).
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Astronauts Prepare toBegin Spacewalk at ISS
16 December 2006 1:35 p.m. EST
Discovery's STS-116 missionspecialist RobertCurbeam and ISS Expedition 14 flight engineer Sunita Williams are clad in their NASA spacesuitsinside the space station's Quest airlock. They are scheduled to exit the ISS atabout 2:37 p.m. EST (1937 GMT) to begin work to rewire the station's powergrid.
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Shuttle Astronauts Awaketo Stage Spacewalk at ISS
16 December 2006 10:02 a.m. EST
HOUSTON -NASA roused the seven-astronaut crew of the space shuttle Discovery withAaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" at 9:47 a.m. EST (1447 GMT) inpreparation for today's thirdspacewalk of their mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The songwas chosen for Discovery's STS-116 mission specialist Nicholas Patrick, who ismaking the first spaceflight of his astronaut career.
Patrick'sfellow mission specialist RobertCurbeam and Expedition 14 flight engineer Sunita Williams, who arrived at the space station withthe Discovery astronaut crew earlier this week, are set to step outside the ISSat 2:37 p.m. EST (1937 GMT) to complete the orbitallaboratory's rewiring job. If they have extra time, they may be able nudgea balky solar array that has been stalled in mid-retraction atopthe station's Port 6 truss since Wednesday.
"We mightget some luck today and get that solar array back where it belongs," ISS flightdirector Joel Montalbano said in morning update.
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Spacewalkers May InspectBalky Solar Array Saturday
15 December 2006 9:58 p.m. EST
HOUSTON - NASA has relayed a preliminaryplan to send spacewalkers up to a balky solar array atop the International SpaceStation's mast-like Port 6 truss Saturday, time willing, to astronautsaboard the orbital laboratory.
"Wecurrently envision this as an inspection task,"
NASAastronaut Steve Robinson, serving as spacecraft communicator, told astronauts aboardthe ISS. "How much and what you could do, and what you could touch, is reallyunder development."
"Weunderstand that it's going to be a dynamic day," Discovery shuttle commanderMark Polansky replied.
Astronautsand flight controllers attempted to shake the solar array's guide wire loose,then deployed and retracted the solar wing slightly but were unable completelystow the 115-foot (35-meter) panel.
STS-116spacewalker Robert Curbeam and ISS flight engineer Sunita Williams, who arrived at the station aboardDiscovery this week, are due to spend up to six hours working to rewire thestation's power grid.
Robinsonsaid that discussion for a possible fourth spacewalk during Discovery's dockedoperations at the ISS is not off the table, but staging that spacewalk onSunday is.
You are invited to follow thebriefing live using SPACE.com's NASATV feed available at via the link on the left of this page.
NASA Ceases ISS SolarArray Work, Mulls Options
15 December 2006 9:23 p.m. EST
Afterhours of troubleshooting to wiggle, then deploy and retract the portside arraystemming from the station's mast-like Port 6 truss were unsuccessful, flightcontrollers called off the attempt.
NASAastronaut Steve Robinson, serving as spacecraft communicator between missioncontrol and the International Space Station, said flight controllers arediscussing the possibility of adding solar array work to tomorrow's plannedspacewalk, but only if extra time permits after spacewalkers complete theirassigned tasks.
Earliertoday, Discovery's STS-116 astronauts said they were willing to help out on the solar array problem,even if it meant adding a fourth spacewalk to their busy schedule.
You are invited to followtoday's STS-116 activities live using SPACE.com'sNASATV feed available at via the link on the left of this page.
Astronauts Unfold, thenRefold Balky Solar Array
15 December 2006 9:05 p.m. EST
HOUSTON -Astronauts aboard the International SpaceStation slightly unfolded a balky solar array atop the outpost's mast-likePort 6 truss at 8:57 p.m. EST (0157 GMT).
You are invited to followtoday's STS-116 activities live using SPACE.com'sNASATV feed available at via the link on the left of this page.
NASA to Attempt ISS SolarArray Retraction
15 December 2006 8:48 p.m. EST
HOUSTON -International SpaceStation flight controllers and astronauts will again attempt to retract atroublesome solar array on the outpost's Port 6 truss beginning no earlier than8:57 p.m. EST (0157 GMT).
The solararray was left half-furled Wednesday, Missionmanagers believe guidewires are sticking to theirstainless steel grommets to stall the array's retraction.
You are invited to followtoday's STS-116 activities live using SPACE.com'sNASATV feed available at via the link on the left of this page.
Solar ArrayTroubleshooting Continues at ISS
15 December 2006 8:15 p.m. EST
HOUSTON - Missioncontrollers continue to study a troublesome solar array on the International SpaceStation's Port 6 truss as they again await a daylight overflightof the orbital laboratory.
You are invited to followtoday's STS-116 activities live using SPACE.com'sNASATV feed available at via the link on the left of this page.
Astronauts Take BetterLook at Troublesome ISS Array
15 December 2006 7:21 p.m. EST
HOUSTON - Missioncontrollers have rotated a troublesome solar array on the International SpaceStation's Port 6 truss, yielding better views of its problem spot forcameras and astronauts at the orbital laboratory.
You are invited to followtoday's STS-116 activities live using SPACE.com'sNASATV feed available at via the link on the left of this page.
ISS MissionControl to Rotate Half-Retracted Solar Array
15 December 2006 6:48 p.m. EST
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Work Continues to ShakeHalf-Furled ISS Solar Array
15 December 2006 6:48 p.m. EST
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More Solar Wing Shakes For ISS Array
15 December 2006 5:58 p.m. EST
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ISS Astronaut Exercises toShake Solar Array
15 December 2006 1:07 p.m. EST
Reiter isexpected to be performing some vigorous power squats and lifts using what's calledan Interim Resistance Exercise Device (IRED), a sort of bungee-bar tool tomaintain astronaut strength in orbit.
"We'llgive you the silver medal for that," NASA astronaut Terry Virts,serving as spacecraft communicator, told Reiter.
You are invited to followtoday's STS-116 activities live using SPACE.com'sNASATV feed available at via the link on the left of this page.
ISS Flight ControllersConclude Solar Wing Wiggle
15 December 2006 11:04 a.m. EST
HOUSTON - International SpaceStation flight controllers have completed their initial tests to wiggle thehalf-furledsolar array reaching out to port from the orbital laboratory's Port 6truss.
Afterthree incremental solar array shimmies, engineers are now studying images andcamera views to determine whether the maneuvers loosed friction on one of thewing's guide wires.
Meanwhile,flight director Joel Montalbano said this morningthat an attidude control glitch aboard the ISS may belinked to solar activity. The leading theory, he said, is that the effects of amassive solar flare this week apparently ramped up the density of the Earth'satmosphere temporarily and conf
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