Astronauts unfurl space station's new wings

- Yahoo! News

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Two solar energy panels that will eventually double power to the
International Space Station' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> International Space Station slowly unfurled on Thursday, wrapping up the most crucial job of the shuttle Atlantis' flight.
NASA' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> NASA mission controllers back on Earth sent commands to open first one set of solar panels and then the other. Both are on a newly installed truss on the station's structural backbone.
Sparkling in the sunlight, the 240-foot (73-meter) arrays unfolded accordian-style with few hints of the problems that plagued NASA's first solar array installation six years ago.
"This flight has gone better than my wildest dreams," station program manager Mike Suffredini later told reporters.
The shuttle mission was launched September 9 after two weeks of weather delays and mechanical glitches. It was considered key to fulfilling NASA's goal of flying at least 14 more construction missions to the space station, and up to four other missions to deliver experiments and spare parts before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.
The new solar panels installed by the Atlantis crew will double the amount of power available aboard the laboratory, but will not be wired into the central power system until NASA's next mission, scheduled for December.
The station has been hot-wired on a temporary power grid for more than six years.
Construction was interrupted for nearly four years because of the 2003 Columbia disaster. Atlantis' mission is the first to expand the station since before the accident.
Two more power modules, three structural truss segments and several laboratories, connecting nodes and other components are awaiting rides aboard the space shuttles for installation on the station.
The astronauts have one more spacewalk to complete their work at the outpost.
Six-time spacewalker Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, who joined Tanner for the mission's first spacewalk on Tuesday, are scheduled to spend 6.5 hours on a variety of tasks.
Those include setting up a wireless antenna system to collect vibration data from sensors in the trusses, clearing the track for the station's mobile transporter and retrieving a materials science experiment from the top of the station.
The shuttle is scheduled to depart on Sunday and land at the
Kennedy Space Center' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday.