Big Day In Space: Station To Spread Its Wings

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Fresh off a first spacewalk, Discovery's astronauts aim to unfurl a giant set of American solar wings at the International Space Station today, doubling the amount of electricity available to run science experiments on the outpost.

Chances are the job won't come off without a hitch.

"We have made solar array deployment exciting in the past," deadpanned Dan Hartman, NASA's manager of International Space Station integration and operations.

To say the least.

Back in December 2000, a station assembly crew ran in to trouble trying to deploy the first of four sets of massive American solar wings.

Folded up inside blanket boxes during launch, the glimmering gold arrays are designed to stretch out like an accordion. Pleated panels stuck together on one of the wings and spacewalkers had to come to the rescue.

Station assembly crews on back-to-back missions in late 2006 encountered problems and had to shake, rattle and roll the wings to get their blankets to unfold, and a crew in late 2008 accidentally tore one of the arrays, prompting emergency spacewalking surgery.

You can watch the latest attempt right here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the NASA TV box on the righthand side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage of the S6 solar wing deployment, which is scheduled to start just about 11 a.m. The operation is expected to take three or four hours, so be sure to refresh this page for periodic updates.

Here's a look at the crew's schedule:

++7:43 a.m.: Discovery crew wake up.

++10:58 a.m.: Solar wing deployment.

++1:58 p.m.: Crew media interviews.

++3:13 p.m.: Transfer supplies between shuttle and space station.

++5:30 p.m.: Mission status briefing.

++7:43 p.m.: Spacewalk 2 procedures review.

++9:48 p.m.: Crew choice video downlink opportunity.

++10:08: Spacewalkers camp out in Quest airlock.

++11:43 p.m.: Discovery crew sleep period begins.