Score One For NASA Ingenuity

Discovery astronauts repaired a damaged solar panel on a potentially dangerous venture outside the space station on Saturday, accomplishing the task in a little more than seven hours.

As ANN reported, a section of the panel snagged and ripped earlier this week when the accordion-like sheet was unfurled.

NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski used needle-nose pliers, wire cutters and a spatula-like device to free a stuck solar panel, according to a Bloomberg report.

Parazynski, 46, made the repairs while standing at the end of a boom attached to the station's robotic arm, measuring almost 60-feet long. He had to avoid touching the panels with his suit or the metal tools during the 7-hour, 19-minute spacewalk, as they could transmit electricity from the solar array.

The panel, which helps supply power to the orbiting outpost, was worked on by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Prior to the repair, it couldn't be unfurled completely though it was generating electricity at 97 percent capacity, according to NASA.

Spacewalker Doug Wheelock, who made his third spacewalk, was on the truss near the solar array, assisting Parazynski and talking to crew inside the station who steered the robotic arm. Both are members of the STS-120 crew onboard the shuttle Discovery.

Parazynski installed five hinge stabilizers, or "cufflinks" made by the station's crew, to the damaged solar wing.

The spacewalk is the fourth since the shuttle arrived October 25. Three days after their arrival, spacewalker Daniel Tani found metal shavings inside a joint that rotates wings on the opposite side of the station during a spacewalk, as reported by ANN.

NASA determined repair to that joint was less urgent than the solar wing repair.

Now that the solar wing is repaired the shuttle’s crew will prepare to leave the station. They will close the hatch between the shuttle and the station at 1343 EST on Sunday, after interviews with European media, off-duty time, and farewells.

Discovery is scheduled to undock from the station Monday morning.

(Images courtesy of NASA TV)

FMI: www.nasa.gov, http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/