SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468
*Spacewalkers Complete Array Repair, Deployment 3 November 2007 *
Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock successfully repaired a torn solar array today during STS-120’s fourth spacewalk. The 7-hour, 19-minute excursion wrapped up at 1:22 p.m. EDT.
Shortly after the spacewalk began, Parazynski rode the station’s robotic arm up to the damaged area of the array. He was secured in a foot restraint on the end of the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, or OBSS – the extension to the shuttle robot arm used for inspection of the orbiter’s thermal protection system.
After reaching the area of the damage, Parazynski went to work installing the cufflinks that were built by the crew. Once the five cufflinks were in place, the crew inside then deployed the array half a bay at a time until the array was fully deployed.
Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli coordinated today’s spacewalk activities.