Space station's new wings about to get stretched

[March 20, 2009]  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- The international space station's newly installed solar wings are about to get stretched.

Astronauts aboard the orbiting station-shuttle complex will start unfurling the two wings late Friday morning, by remote control.

NASA managers say they expect to be on pins and needles throughout the five-hour procedure. That's because the wings could get hung up or some of the panels could stick together. That's happened before on previous flights.

On Thursday, a pair of spacewalking astronauts successfully hooked up the $300 million framework that holds the folded-up wings. The spacewalk lasted six hours -- record time for a job like this.

Two more spacewalks are scheduled while shuttle Discovery is docked to the space station. The shuttle is due to depart next week.

[Associated Press]

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