Mar 19 2009
From The Space Library
Astronauts Steven R. Swanson and Richard R. Arnold II successfully completed a 6-hour spacewalk, installing the 31,000-pound (14,061-kilogram, or 14-tonne), 45-foot-long (13.7- meter-long) girder with solar arrays, to complete the final piece of the ISS’s structural backbone. Swanson and Arnold helped align the truss while, inside the station, astronaut John L. Philips used a robotic arm to lower the truss into place on the starboard end of the station. Then, Arnold used a high-technology ratchet wrench to link the two pieces of the station. With the new addition, the solar power truss measured 356 feet (108.5 meters). The ISS crew had assembled the truss from nine large segments that the Space Shuttles had delivered between 2000 and 2009. Before reentering the ISS, Arnold and Swanson disposed of four thermal covers from the new framework by tossing them out into space, and then watched the accordion-style radiator on the segment unfold.
Robert Block, “Discovery Astronauts Install Solar Wings,” Los Angeles Times, 20 March 2009; Marcia Dunn for Associated Press, “Astronauts Go Spacewalking, Install Last Set of Solar Wings at International Space Station,” 20 March 2009; Mark Carreau, “First Space Outing a Walk in the Park,” Houston Chronicle, 20 March 2009.
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