Dec 4 2000
From The Space Library
Members of the astronaut crew who had flown aboard NASA's historic 100th Space Shuttle flight, Mission STS-92, visited NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility to present Silver Snoopy awards, "the highest accolade that the astronauts corps gives to people who build flight hardware," to the Lockheed Martin employees who had built the Shuttle's super-lightweight tank and liquid-oxygen tank. NASA had named the Silver Snoopy award after the Peanuts character, the dog that imagined he was a fighter pilot.
Space Shuttle Endeavour Commander Brent W. Jett Jr. successfully unfurled the second panel of the solar array (colloquially referred to as a solar wing) that the crew had deployed on the ISS on 3 December. Jett used computer commands to unfold the panel a few feet at a time, a process that took nearly 2 hours. No problems occurred until the crew had extended the panel almost fully, when it became clear that a panel on each blanket was stuck to a neighboring section. Endeavour's crew turned the Shuttle to allow the Sun to warm the blankets and fired thrusters to shake the array, snapping the wing into place. The panel began generating electricity before it reached its full 115 feet (35 meters). To NASA's relief, the panel was stretched tight. Once the crew had completed the process, Commander Jett radioed to Mission Control that they had two tensioned blankets, and Mission Control replied, "Great work, gentlemen. We think you've earned your solar wings."
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