Avi Blizovsky - the science website
Two arrays of solar collectors that unfold like wings on either side of the new axis of the International Space Station were deployed yesterday (Thursday). The new arrays, which are 73 meters long and 11.5 meters wide, will double the power generation capacity of the station.
The wings were connected to the new axis - which consists of the two beams P3/P4, and which constitutes the new backbone of the space station installed in the previous days by the astronauts from the space shuttle Atlantis on flight STS-115.[ The astronauts will perform a third and final spacewalk today (Friday) to prepare the structure for full operation .
The space station will eventually include 11 beams that will serve as hinges and that will stretch 108 meters from end to end. These axes will support two almost identical solar collector arrays. as well as radiators that will be used specifically to cool the station.
The space shuttle is scheduled to leave the station on Sunday. It must vacate the space to allow the Soyuz spacecraft carrying the station's new crew as well as the first space tourist to dock in the middle of next week.
The Atlantis mission to the space station is only the third since the Columbia disaster in 2003. NASA plans to launch 14 missions to assemble the space station over the next four years, before the shuttle fleet retires in 2010.
