A solar panel bay ripped as it was being unfurled from a newly relocated truss on the International Space Station on Tuesday and NASA has to halt the deployment operation and make further observation.
An apparent damage to one bay of the solar arrays on P6 truss can be seen from the live broadcasting on NASA TV. The massive truss was just reattached to a new location by astronauts during the third spacewalk on Tuesday morning.
The International Space Station solar arrays are unfurled with the Earth in the background in this image from NASA TV October 30, 2007. Spacewalking astronauts bolted a solar power tower to the ISS which completed an ambitious three-day moving process and set the stage for the solar arrays deployment. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)After the spacewalk, while NASA mission control center is sending commands to unfurl the solar arrays of P6, astronauts aboard the station reported that one solar panel bay crinkled and tore.
Mission control has to halt the operation to evaluate the damage. Now, the deployment is about 75 percent completed with 25 of 31 bays deployed. The crew has been asked to photograph the area on the solar array wing and downlink the images to the ground.
It is uncertain at this time that how the tear will impact the solar wing's energy gathering ability, which the space station's successful construction partly depends on.
Meanwhile during the post-spacewalk activities, spacewalker Douglas Wheelock reported to the ground that he has noted a hold in one of his gloves. He is sending photos to the mission control center for further assessment.
Source:Xinhua
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