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Article: Astronauts tame stubborn solar array: The panels are being retracted so that 2 new arrays can track the sun properly.
- Article from:
- The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, FL)
- Article date:
- June 14, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 The Orlando Sentinel. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Robyn Shelton
Jun. 14--CAPE CANAVERAL -- Two spacewalking astronauts struggled Wednesday to guide a stubborn solar array back into its storage box on the international space station.
At times using a long tool dubbed the "hockey stick," Steve Swanson and Patrick Forrester smoothed out panels so the 115-foot array would fold up properly as it was mechanically retracted.
NASA had pulled in 28 feet of the array before the spacewalk began shortly after 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. With the astronauts' help, another 20 feet was retracted successfully.
The work was tedious and slow, with frequent stops to fix panels that were bunching up. ...