NASA managers today decided to delay a daring solar array repair spacewalk from Friday to Saturday to give engineers more time to develop the tools and procedures needed to fix a rip in one of the outermost solar blankets on the international space station.

The dramatic repair job, carried out by astronauts Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock, calls for attaching cufflink-like clips across the 15-foot width of the torn P6-4B solar array blanket to provide the strength needed to permit its full extension. Parazynski, anchored to the end of a boom carried by the space station's robot arm, will install the clips while Wheelock provides guidance for arm operators inside the station.

"As you can probably imagine, there are some technical challenges associated with this and we want to make sure we have a good plan for you," astronaut Chris Ferguson radioed the crew early today from mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "So what we've elected to do is bypass the EVA opportunity for tomorrow and instead get to a plan later on today that you can review through the evening and into tomorrow for an EVA on flight day 12 (Saturday).

"So that said, I know earlier we had given you some words about conducting some robotic operations today. We have a little more flexibility there given that we will not be going EVA tomorrow. So we may or may not actually conduct those ops today. We'll put a plan together for you with regard to that and we'll get that up to you a little later on.

"So what that'll leave you with is a little bit of white space in your schedule today," Ferguson told shuttle commander Pam Melroy. "Our plan is to fill that up with some transfer activity and some additional time off, so you can look forward to that. Right now, the station planning conference is going on over on (station commander Peggy Whitson's) side and she's hearing pretty much these same words with regard to the slide of the EVA for one day.

"And what that'll leave you with long term, provided the EVA goes well on flight day 12, is a nominal undocking on flight day 14. So that's all we have for you right now. I know it's probably a little bit of a disappointment given that Scott and Wheels were eager to get out the door tomorrow. But we want to get a good plan up to you and as the day goes on, we'll have pieces of that plan sent up your way."

"OK, Fergie, we copy all," Melroy said. "And we absolutely concur that the right thing to do is to move forward with a plan that has a little shelf life and maturity and that you've thought about it and you feel confident in it. We do appreciate you sending stuff up to us as soon as you think it's got some at least moderate level of maturity so that we can stay in synch with you all the way through the day. And yeah, I think it's a disappointment we will get to not go out. We were getting ready to do it, but we'll just have a little more time to prepare. So I don't think that's a problem at all. We sure appreciate the update."

"OK, thanks for your flexibility today, Pam," Ferguson replied. "As you can tell, it's going to be a little bit of a dynamic flight plan. We'll get things up to you as they come and in the meantime, we'll try to leave you alone and you can go enjoy the rest of your post-sleep time."

Additional coverage for subscribers:
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VIDEO: TUESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
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VIDEO: SPACEWALKERS HELP GUIDE P6 TRUSS INTO PLACE PLAY
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