International Space Station Up to 100% Power
For those who do not have the NASA television channel on cable like myself, I watched the NASA Television online with a current television schedule for today’s fifth and most dangerous space walk, along with several other NASA specials. The results of today’s work will influence whether or not the December 6th launching from Florida will occur, or will be rescheduled. It was exciting and breathtaking to see space and the solar arrays from the eyes of the astronauts and those inside the base.
Considered to be one of the most dangerous spacewalks ever attempted, NASA says that they had no choice but to put the two astronauts, Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock, out in space with Parazynski placed on the end of a 90-foot extended robotic arms and almost nose to nose with the power grid, which by the way was anything but standing solid with 100 volts of electricity coursing through its golden grid! Prior to the spacewalk, the tools and supplies that were to touch the grid were wrapped with electrical tape to avoid shocking anyone close. And another danger for the courageous young astronaut was the fact that none had ever been so far away from the base until today, so many variables were left open for the spacewalk and danger to the men.
Located 21 miles above the Pacific Ocean, taking one hour to reach the torn solar array and one hour to return to base, Scott stitched and repaired for over two hours on the torn part consisting of a cutting hinge and guide wires which had become torn loose. Crewmembers had to scrounge around the orbital laboratory in order to find supplies, gathering tools, and crafting special cuff links in order to button up two rips in the maimed solar array wing. Now the joint with unusual metallic grits needs to be fixed, located in the solar array orienting gears which was found on October 28th.
December’s STS-122 launching with NASA’s Atlantis shuttle is important as it will deliver the Columbus European Laboratory Module to the ISS on the 24th mission, while the February 14th mission of the STS-123 will be delivering the pressurized section of the Kibo Japanese Experiment Logistics Module (ELM-PS). Following this, the STS-124 mission will be launched on April 24+ in order to transport the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module-Pressurized Module (JEM-PM) and Japanese Remote Manipulator System (JEM RMS) to the International Space Station. Things will quiet down for awhile until August 7th launching of the STS-125 shuttle and the September 18th launching of the STS-126.
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Space Agency News, Technical Concerns, The Gear to Get There. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
