[sarex] STS-115 MCC Status Report #11

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

NASA NEWS

4 p.m. CDT, Thursday, Sept. 14
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

	09.14.06
STATUS REPORT: STS-115-11

STS-115 MCC Status Report #11

The International Space Station today spread a second set of wings, 
giant solar panels that eventually will double the power generated 
aboard the orbiting science outpost.

The solar arrays on the newly delivered 17.5 ton truss segment were 
fully unfolded at 7:44 a.m. CDT.

The power generated by the arrays will not be used by the station until 
another shuttle flight in December. During that mission, STS-116, 
astronauts will rewire the complex and activate a cooling system. The 
arrays currently are powering their own system, including batteries and 
other electronics equipment.

The solar panels have a wingspan of 240 feet attached on the port side 
of the station. They can generate 66 kilowatts of power.

Flight controllers commanded the arrays to begin unfolding at 4 a.m. 
CDT. They were originally to begin unfolding Wednesday night. A software 
glitch during checkout of the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ), which 
will rotate the wings, delayed the deployment.

Unfurled one at a time, the wings were deployed halfway before being 
fully unfolded. During the unfurling, Atlantis' astronauts noted that 
some of the panels stuck. The phenomenon, called “stiction,” also 
occurred when the station's first set of solar panels was deployed 
during a shuttle mission in late 2000.

The crew also maneuvered the Canadarm2 robotic arm in a "double walk 
off,” moving it from the Mobile Base System to the Destiny Lab in an 
inchworm-like procedure.

Tomorrow, mission specialists Joe Tanner and Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper 
will conduct the third and final spacewalk of the mission to release 
restraints on the cooling radiator of the new truss section. The 
radiator will be unfolded later. They also will install an external 
wireless TV transmission antenna to improve TV transmission from cameras 
mounted on spacesuit helmets. Tanner and Piper expect to have time to 
remove a materials science experiment from the hull of the Quest airlock 
to return to Earth.

The next STS-115 mission status report will be issued Friday morning, or 
earlier if events warrant.