New solar arrays deployed on International Space Station

The International Space Station is sporting a new set of solar array wings. Unfolded this afternoon, the new arrays give the station increased power capacity. ALSO: Fire alarm goes off on ISS and NASA continues to discuss Atlantis repair options.

Carpenter Newton reporting for Digital Journal –– Two new solar array wings installed during a spacewalk on Monday by astronauts James Reilly and Danny Olivas were unfolded this afternoon, providing the International Space Station with an additional 14 kilowatts of electricity and once again making the station appear symmetrical. The unfolding proceeded in deliberate steps: During crew sleep, Mission Control ordered the array open one bay. This morning, the array was unfolded to 49% capacity, where it sat and heated up in the sun to prevent the cells of each array from sticking to each other too strongly. About thirty minutes later, the array reached its full 240 foot length. “Houston, ISS, we see 100 percent deploy,” Reilly announced once the unfolding was finished. Following the array deployment, the STS-117 crew began prepping for the second of four scheduled spacewalks, set to take place tomorrow. Mission Specialists Steven Swanson and Patrick Forrester will participate in Wednesday’s spacewalk to deploy the space station’s Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) and will also help with the folding of a solar array no longer in use. Last year on mission STS-116, the folding of a different solar array led to complications that added an additional spacewalk to that mission and prompted astronauts to use impromptu tools in order to help the array fold properly. The crew of Atlantis hope to use information gleaned from the previous mission to help streamline the folding process. False Fire Alarm Rings on ISS Heart rates doubled for a few seconds around 5:15 p.m. EDT as a harsh sounding alarm was overheard on air-to-ground radio. CAPCOM Megan McArthur radioed from Mission Control, “We see the warning message, just looking for a status from you all.” The warning turned out to be an apparent software glitch that triggered off a fire alarm in the Russian part of the space station. Expedition 15 astronaut Clayton Anderson radioed, “We looked around and smelled around. There is no fire.” Mission Control confirmed the glitch. Engineers Still Discussing Damaged Thermal Blanket The effort on the ground to figure out what to do to repair a damaged thermal blanket on Atlantis’ Orbital Maneuvering System continued, with engineers creating several mockups they will try repairs on and put through stress tests. At tonight’s Mission Status Briefing, NASA officials seemed to be leaning to scheduling a fix for the shuttle on the fourth and final spacewalk, slated to take place on Sunday. Doing the repair during the fourth spacewalk will allow the space agency an extra day to figure out how to correctly make the repair. Wonderful World Today’s wake-up call was a recording of Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World,’ played in honor of Danny Olivas. Olivas successfully completed his first spacewalk on Monday. (Audio of wake-up call)