BB pal John Schwartz, who covers space and science for the New York Times, just told me that NASA TV is about to show shuttle crew attempting to retract this solar array, which is the big Discovery mission story of the day.
The thing to watch for, 220 miles over earth? “The old silicone coating is probably dried out, so when they start retracting, it should snow. Orbital dandruff. The big question is whether they’ll be able to get this device, which has been open for about 6 years, to fold up neatly into its box.”
Link to NASA TV home page. Image: solar array, courtesy Lockheed Martin.
NASA coverage here.
My live notes and screengrabs from NASA TV follow after the jump.
Update: 1030am PT. I’m watching it now. John says, “Unfortunately, the video went bad just before they started. The mission controllers just commented that the video is ‘not so good,’ which is an understatement. But they did retract the first three ‘bays,’ which seems to suggest that the fold-up is going well so far. They decided to do a baby-step three bays at first.”
10:32am PT: One controller just said that the first 3 bays have “97% retracted.”
10:35am: screengrab below.
1043am PT: “5 bays have been retracted, and the process has stopped so that the team on the ground can evaluate the retraction so far.” The bays look kinda stuck… I’m not sure how many more there are, but I think maybe 30 total. Controller: “tip of solar array may be snagged on guide bar cable…”
Look at the screengrab above, and you can sort of see why it’s not folding down — the solar array looks kind of crinkly, the way folding blinds in your living room get when they’ve been squashed too many times.
