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Spacewalk going smoothly BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: September 12, 2006
The truss and still-stowed solar array blankets dwarfed Piper in the stunning video, giving viewers a taste of things to come when the solar panels are unfurled Thursday, stretching 240 feet from tip to tip. Two hours and 15 minutes into a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, Piper and astronaut Joe Tanner are running ahead of schedule and have encountered no significant problems despite the complexity of the work. Piper struggled a bit to push one of the two sets of solar array blanket boxes from the stowed to deployed position and Tanner had to lend a bit of elbow grease to get the job done. But that's not unusual with this equipment - Tanner had similar trouble during a spacewalk in 2000 - and both sets of array boxes eventually were locked in place. Tanner is wrapping up work to engage drive motors that eventually will power a massive rotary joint in the P3 truss segment to spin the new solar arrays like a huge waterwheel to keep the panels pointed at the sun as the station circles the globe. When that task is complete, he will hook up seven more power and data cables to complete the job of wiring the new P3/P4 solar array truss segment into the space station's power grid. Earlier in the spacewalk while working on the lower side of the truss, Tanner successfully hooked up six power and data cables between the port 1, or P1, segment and the newly installed P3 segment. Tanner finished the connections around 6:08 a.m. A second set of seven cables will be connected later in the spacewalk to complete the most critical task in today's excursion: providing station power to internal heaters needed to keep sensitive electronic gear warm until the new arrays are unfurled Thursday. Amid the work, flight controllers called to make sure the astronauts knew that mission managers had ruled out any need for additional heat shield inspections. The decision was made after the crew went to bed Monday evening. "That's wonderful, that means we've got a good vehicle," Tanner said when told of the decision.
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VIDEO:
STEP-BY-STEP PREVIEW OF SPACEWALK NO. 1 