Spacewalkers to Attempt Tricky Repair of Station’s Solar Wing
After 2 1/2 days of exhaustive work, NASA came up with a plan Wednesday for space shuttle Endeavour’s astronauts to tighten a slack solar wing on the international space station.
Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega will attempt the tricky repair during a spacewalk today.
Mission Control warned Tanner and Noriega it may take them several tries to get two loose tension cables back on their pulleys and reels. A fellow astronaut working on the problem at the California manufacturer needed 15 tries to get it right.
“So if we do it in less than 15 attempts, we’re going to be OK, huh?” Tanner asked.
Inside space station Alpha, meanwhile, commander Bill Shepherd and his Russian crew were dealing with their own problems: a malfunctioning air conditioner and broken carbon dioxide-removal unit. One cosmonaut called it “a very unlucky day.”
At times, tempers flared.
“Guys, don’t swear at me now,” Russia’s Mission Control begged the space station residents.
“That’s OK, that’s OK, we won’t say bad things about you,” one crewman replied.
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