
Solar array repair spacewalk planned for Friday
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: October 31, 2007
NASA managers today told the Discovery astronauts to forego a planned Thursday spacewalk to inspect a contaminated solar array rotary joint and instead to focus on a spacewalk Friday to attempt repairs of a torn and mangled space station solar array blanket. Confirming earlier unofficial accounts of morning discussions to assess repair scenarios, astronaut Tony Antonelli passed the news up to shuttle commander Pam Melroy a few minutes before a spacewalk planning conference.
"For the EVA conference, thought you might be wanting to listen in to at least part of that," he said. "We're going to change the plan for the next couple of days. EVA-4 will not be executed on flight day 10 (Thursday). We're going to shoot for flight day 11 (Friday) ... the contents of which will be solar array wing stuff.
"You'll hear more about that in the conference," he said. "We'll leave flight day 11 as a placeholder for now and if we don't get ready, then we'll try flight day 12 (Saturday). If you've got any questions on the big picture stuff, just let me know."
"OK, Houston, thank you," Melroy replied from inside the Destiny laboratory module. Peggy (station commander Peggy Whitson) and I copy all. We understand we are not going EVA tomorrow and we will talk more about it in the EVA conference, which I will be attending."
Despite the serious nature of the work, outgoing station astronaut Clay Anderson reminded viewers on Earth that Halloween is not limited to Earth's surface, wearing a long black cape as he floated about the station.
Astronauts Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock had planned to stage a spacewalk Thursday, the fourth of Discovery's mission, to inspect a contaminated solar alpha rotary joint on the right side of the main power truss that currently is locked in place. It normally turns outboard solar arrays to track the sun, but the source of contamination discovered during a spacewalk Sunday must be determined, and possibly corrected, before it can resume normal operation.
Changing the content of the spacewalk indicates the high priority NASA is placing on repairing the ripped solar array blanket on the P6-4B array on the left side of the station's power truss. In its current partially deployed state, the array does not have the structural rigidity for normal sun-tracking rotation.
Delaying the initial repair attempt until Friday at the earliest will give engineers more time to come up with workable solutions. But it also means delaying a planned spacewalk Saturday by Whitson and station flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko to prepare the newly installed Harmony module for its move to the front of the station after Discovery undocks.
With a solar array repair spacewalk on tap Friday or, if preparations take more time, Saturday, Whitson's spacewalk will be delayed until after the shuttle's departure, adding one more major task to the station crew's plate as they prepare for delivery of a European laboratory module in December.
Whitson and crewmate Dan Tani already planned two spacewalks to connect Harmony to the station's power and cooling systems after first attaching a shuttle docking port and using the station's robot arm to move the assembly to the front of the Destiny module, work that can only be done after Discovery departs.
See our story from earlier this morning for additional details and background.

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THE FLIGHT DAY 8 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
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TUESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
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