NASA Assesses Trouble With ISS 'Wings'

S P A C E   C E N T E R, Houston, Dec. 4 -- NASA officials were assessing theiroptions early today about when to finish unfurling theinternational space station’s newly attached set of powerful solarpanels.

The debut of the $600 million solar wings was incomplete as onlythe right panel was deployed Sunday. Although the right wing hasstarted generating electricity, some of its tension cables appearedto be slack.

Engineers are trying to figure out if this will be a problem inunfurling the left wing and if that can be done today or should bedelayed until Tuesday, when astronauts on the space shuttleEndeavour conduct their second of three spacewalks during thismission.

No Big Hurry

“Since we are in a good, safe posture, there’s no reason to bein a big hurry and deploy the other blanket until we absolutelyunderstand what we saw, or what we’re looking at right now,” leadflight director Bill Reeves said.

The crew of Endeavour was to have a light schedule of activitiesMonday after a busy day of construction work.

During a 7½-hour spacewalk, astronauts Carlos Noriega and JoeTanner helped attach the truss containing the solar wings to the spacestation. It went smoothly until the right wing’s unfurlingdidn’t proceed after commander Brent Jett Jr. entered computercommands to do so.

A computer software problem prevented the latches and retentionpins on the wings to open so the panels could be deployed.

New software was sent up, and Jett was able to open all thelatches and pins, except one on the left wing. He continued to sendcommands and eventually freed the stuck pin.

The right wing’s deployment delighted Noriega and Tanner.

“Ah, it looks beautiful,” Noriega exclaimed.

“More power to the station,” Tanner said.

It took less than 14 minutes for the first folded wing to spreadto its full 115 feet.

Noriega and Tanner were the first spacewalkers to have theirhelmets equipped with small cameras that provided live views ofwhat they saw as they drove in bolts and released latches whileattaching the solar wings.