International   

Astronauts fix solar panel

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida : Astronauts successfully unfurled a torn solar power wing at the international space station on Saturday after spacewalker Scott Parazynski cut loose a tangled clump of wires and patched everything up.

His emergency surgery saved the solar energy panel — and the space station.

In the tense build-up to the spacewalk — one of the most difficult and dangerous ever attempted — NASA repeatedly warned that station construction would have to be halted if the wing could not be fixed.

The prospect was so grave that NASA felt it had no choice but to put Parazynski practically right up against the swaying power grid, which was coursing with more than 100 volts of electricity. No other astronaut had ever been so far away from the safe confines of the cabin.

Even before Parazynski made his way back inside, the radio traffic was full of cheers and congratulations.

Shouts of “Yay! All right! Beautiful! Great news!” streamed from the linked shuttle-station complex once the wing was unfurled to its full 35-metre length. Mission Control promptly relayed thanks from NASA’s top brass.

“It was an honor,” Parazynski replied. The commander of the docked shuttle Discovery, Pamela Melroy, who supervised the wing repairs, cautioned everyone to hold off on “the victory dance” until Parazynski and his spacewalking partner, Douglas Wheelock, were safely back inside. “Then we can all rejoice,” she said.

It took almost an hour for Parazynski to be manoeuvered back from the wing, riding on the end of an approximately 27.5-metre robotic arm extension. That is how long it took him to get out there, too.

Parazynski worked on the damage for more than two hours, cutting hinge and guide wires that became snarled and snagged the wing when it was being extended on Tuesday. — AP

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