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Electrical re-wiring complete BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: December 16, 2006 Spacewalkers Robert Curbeam and Sunita Williams finished re-wiring space station electrical power system channels 1 and 4, clearing the way for flight controllers to begin flowing solar array electricity through two main bus swithing units, transformers and other critical components. Engineers now plan to activate an ammonia cooling system to complete the station's switch-over from interim to permanent power. "One hour 46 minutes into the spacewalk today, the task of reconfiguring the power system on the outside of the space station is complete and the ISS flight control team has been giving a go to begin repowering the station," said NASA commentator Kyle Herring in mission control. "And by comparison to EVA-2, that task took one hour and 45 minutes today. That task took one hour and 46 minutes (Thursday) to complete." The spacewalk Thursday, in which Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang wired in the channel 2/3 circuits, was finished an hour ahead of schedule. If today's spacewalk stays on the same pace, Curbeam and Williams should have plenty of time to inspect a partially deployed solar array high atop the outpost. "Discovery, Houston, for EVA with some really great news," astronaut Stephen Robinson called from Houston at 4:18 p.m. "We have a good, successful power up, no MBSU or DDCU (transformer) R & R will be required." "That is great news," replied shuttle pilot William Oefelein. "Boy, you guys are really fast on that. Well done." "No kidding. That's beautiful," Curbeam drawled. "Well, it's great to have some good on-orbit electricians working for us," Robinson said.
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