spacetoday.net: Third STS-116 spacewalk a success, fourth added

Posted: Sun, Dec 17, 2006, 12:39 PM ET (1739 GMT)
STS-116: EVA #3 (NASA)

Astronauts successfully completed the rewiring of the International Space Station's power system during an EVA Saturday evening as mission controllers decided to add a fourth spacewalk to complete the retraction of a solar array. Astronauts Robert Curbeam and Sunita Williams spent seven and a half hours outside the ISS on an EVA that started at 2:25 pm EST (1925 GMT) Saturday. The two quickly completed rewiring the station's power system into its permanent configuration, a task started on the previous EVA, and performed some miscellaneous other tasks outside the station. The two also spent time shaking a solar panel that failed to retract fully earlier in the week. While the two had some success working out problems with friction in the panel's guide wires that prevented its retraction, they were not able to fully retract the panel. Mission managers decided during the EVS to perform a fourth, unscheduled EVA on Monday to complete the retraction work. Officials had previous said they were leaning against adding an EVA, but decided to proceed after engineering simulations found that the panel would not be stable in its current partially-retracted configuration when Soyuz or Progress spacecraft dock to the nadir port on the Zarya module.