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Jiggle can't fix space lab's glitch
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 16, 2006
CAPE CANAVERAL - In the rocket-science equivalent of rapping the side of the computer when it isn't working fast enough for you, NASA asked an astronaut aboard the international space station to exercise vigorously Friday, hoping the rapid movement would jostle a half-retracted solar wing that refuses to fold up properly. German astronaut Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency was told to do 30 seconds of robust exercise on a bungee-bar machine in an attempt to vibrate wires on the 115-foot solar array and prevent an unplanned, fourth space walk. Reiter tried several times, but his exercise did not appear to change the solar array. "I'm very sorry to hear that," said Reiter, who has been at the space station since July. "I was training for it for a half year." Earlier in the day, flight controllers jiggled the solar array 10 degrees to either side by remote control to try to relieve tension in a wire system that is preventing it from folding up like an accordion, as designed. That too did not appear to have the desired effect. They thought to try the exercise because it actually worked once in a similar situation. The solar wing was part of an interim power system. A primary goal of space shuttle Discovery's seven-day visit to the space station was to rewire the lab and hook a new set of solar wings onto the permanent electricity grid. New rules for space tourists The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday issued what amounted to the first intergalactic permission slip, developing a list of risks potential space tourists must acknowledge they face - up to and including death - and the promise not to sue the U.S. government if anything goes wrong. Virgin Galactic, run by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, is aiming to offer out-of-this-world vacations in 2008 for travelers willing to pay $200,000. Other companies are making similar plans. The rules issued by the FAA mandate training and medical fitness evaluations for crew members, preflight testing and other steps U.S. companies must take before getting licenses to carry paying passengers on suborbital flights.
[Last modified December 16, 2006, 00:25:45]
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