P6 Array - the conclusion (3/3)

The STS-116 crew folded the port solar array on the International Space Station's P6 truss during EVA4. The 6-hour, 38 minute excursion by Mission Specialists Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang concluded at 8:38 p.m. EST on 18th December.

Curbeam and Fuglesang freed up the array for retraction with several techniques -- pulling guide wires, flipping grommets, and pushing panel hinges. The spacewalkers also shook the solar array panel. The final bay was folded about 6:54 p.m. EST.

One of the guide wires looped out of the proper configuration during the folding process and the spacewalkers tightened it before commands were sent to latch the arrays.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• P6
• solar
• array
• ISS
• STS-116
• STS116
• STS
• 116

[USCG47S]

very nice EVA and to be swedish and see this when fugelsang doing a great job on this EVA, that was not planed eiter , makes me as swedish proud indeed.

[sebastiansz]

@liposz indeed great EVA. But IMO the most exciting EVA is from STS-41B when Bruce McCandless with Robert Stewart tested the MMU (Manned Maneuvering Unit). McCandless made the first, untethered EVA. Check this video: watch?v=jDqRLXg_tTc

[geomodelrailroader]

P 6 is back in the can never to be deployed until STS 120

[Eddie42023]

Certainly the most exciting EVA w/ respect to station assembly. Not sure how it stacks up against an HST repair or the 3-man EVA in '92.

[DAM1ANLESL1E]

I would have thought that the guide wires would have been coated in a flexible silicon (providing the Sun and Space does not destroy that composition.) so the gromments could slide easier and prevent the wire from fraying.

Still amazing to watch however.

[liposz]

the most excited EVA ever!!