Discovery launched to deliver final solar wing to the ISS

Space shuttle Discovery launched to deliver the final set of solar wings to the International Space Station. The set, called S6 will be shifted to the starboard side of the ISS and then unfurling the solar arrays. Each of these 115 feet long wings will increase the solar capacity of the ISS to 264 kilowatts allowing it to produce 84-120 kilowatts of usable power and apparently will double the amount of power available for scientific research. The 31,000-pound truss segment, solar wings, and accompanying batteries were built by Boeing and delivered to Kennedy Space Center in 2002.

Early attempts of a similar sort have been made but have had trouble in binding the solar arrays as they unfurl. NASA however is feeling confident that this time they are going to succeed. Another project was requested by Ben Bova of the National Space Society to the US president to allow NASA’s help in harnessing energy directly from the sun that would then broadcast it to a receiver on earth using microwave frequencies.
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