A glimmering gold blanket that ripped during a solar wing deployment at the International Space Station today is producing 97 percent of anticipated power despite what appears to be significant damage.
But NASA officials say they still will want to make certain no further damage will be done to the blanket before clearing Atlantis for a Dec. 6 launch up to the outpost with the long-awaited European Columbus laboratory.
And managers are confident that the agency has enough time to develop and implement solutions to the newest problem to crop up with the U.S. power system at the international outpost.
"It's not a situation where anybody is particularly panicked," said NASA station program manager Mike Suffredini.
"It's getting all the power we need. That's all we need out of that array is power. It doesn't have to look good; it just needs to give us power. So it's not about style points at this point with this array."
The torn blanket overshadowed what otherwise was one of the most incredible days of construction work since the first two building blocks of the growing space complex were linked in orbit in late 1998.
Spacewalking astronauts and orbital crane operators teamed up to mount a 17.5-ton solar power girder at the far left end of the station's central truss, a job considered the toughest in outpost assembly.
A 40-foot radiator was reeled out to dissipate heat generated by station systems. A power distribution box the size of a small refrigerator was hauled up to a stowage platform high atop the station.
A giant rotary joint that turns solar wings like a Ferris wheel was inspected. And one of the power girder's twin solar wings was smoothly unfurled before the joined crews of linked shuttle Discovery and the station ran into trouble.
A two-and-a-half-foot-long tear was spotted in the second wing's solar blanket during deployment, forcing the astronauts to abort the operation at only 80 percent complete. Amazingly, the degradation in power production is only three percent. As it turned out, only blanket material -- rather than a power feed line -- was damaged.
The torn blanket came on the heels of another solar power problem. Metal shavings detected Sunday in the rotary joint for a separate set of solar wings on the starboard side of the station's truss.
That prompted mission managers to park the wing set in a stationary position to avoid permanent internal damage. Power-production was significantly reduced as a result, raising questions about whether the station could generate enough electricity to support the delivery of the Columbus lab in early December.
Suffredini said NASA needs to understand the cause of the torn blanket, and make certain no further damage will be done before Atlantis and Columbus are launched. An immediate go-forward plan is expected to be ready by tomorrow, and astronauts might work with the torn blanket Thursday during the fourth of five spacewalks planned during Discovery's stay at the station.
Suffredini said he is confident the power-production problems can be sorted out before the opening of a short, weeklong window to launch Atlantis and the Columbus lab in December. The window extends from Dec. 6 though Dec. 13. After that, the sun angle on the station will make it impossible to generate enough electricity -- and dissipate enough heat -- to carry out a shuttle assembly mission at the station. The next launch opportunity would come around Jan. 2.
"In my mind, we have a path through the wilderness on these problems," Suffredini said. "What we want to do is get this fixed to a point where we can continue assembly the way we had planned. This is a significant challenge for us to deal with, but we will deal with it."
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