Live in Orbit: Crews to unfurl solar wings

Today astronauts will unfurl the final set of solar wings, which should help rev the International Space Station up to its full power supply.

To kick start this busy day, Houston's Mission Control Center piped in "Box of Rain" by the Grateful Dead to wake the seven shuttle astronauts and the three crew members. The song was for astronaut John Phillips.

"It's a great day here to have some classical American rock-n-roll first thing in the morning," Phillips said. "We are looking forward to a wonderful day in space highlighted by the deployment of the S6 solar array wings, which really is going to bring the station to full power."

The deployment comes after Thursday's successful spacewalk to install the final truss segment. When fully unfolded, the wings will stretch 240 feet from tip to tip - longer than the wingspan of a 747 jump jet.

The arrays will be unfurled in phases because after spending years boxed up, the accordion-like sections often stick together. The crew will slowly open them, stopping after they are unfurled 49 percent - a process that will take 10 minutes.

Then, the partially open arrays will be given time to bake in the sun's rays, which should help "unstick" them.

You can watch the mission live at The Flame Trench. Just click on the NASA TV still image on the right side of the page to launch the viewer.

Check back frequently for updates from FLORIDA TODAY's space team.