Spacewalking astronauts ventured out Sunday to install support frames for new, high-efficiency solar panels arriving at the International Space Station later this year.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Spacewalking astronauts ventured out Sunday to install support frames for new, high-efficiency solar panels arriving at the International Space Station later this year. NASA’s Kate Rubins and Victor Glover put the mounting brackets and struts together, then bolted them into place next to the station’s oldest and most degraded solar wings. They had to lug out the hundreds of pounds of mounting brackets and struts in 8-foot duffle-style bags. The equipment was so big and awkward that it had to be taken apart like furniture just to get through the hatch. Some of the attachment locations required extra turns of the power drill and still weren’t snug enough, as indicated by black lines. The astronauts had to use a ratchet wrench to deal with the more stubborn bolts, which slowed them down. At one point, they were almost an hour behind. « Whoever painted this black line painted outside the lines a little bit, » Glover said at one particularly troublesome spot. « We’ll work on our kindergarten skills over here, » Mission Control replied, urging him to move on.
