I have been to the World Space Expo (WSE) 2007 at Kennedy Space Center today. I just returned back from the evening BBQ event. It was a lot of fun. Among others, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter appeared. But the World Space Expo is a story in itself. What I am now focusing on is the “repair kit” for the ripped ISS solar array.
At WSE, there was a NASA pavilion. It contained a lot of actual space hardware. At some both covering extravehicular activity (EVA) tools, a sample of solar array repair kit could be seen. Of course, it is highly improvised, but it promises to do the job:
Joe from Johnson Space Center (Houston, Texas) presented it. He said he’d just run into local hardware store to get the necessary parts. When I returned to the hotel, I found this picture on the NASA space shuttle home page:
As you can see, there is large similarity between the two. So I guess I saw a live piece of really important space hardware.
BTW: does that look like duct tape? I think so … On the space station, they use Kapton tape – and I have been told it is the space equivalent of duct tape ;)
So now let’s please all cross fingers that the repair goes well on tomorrows spacewalk.
And if you stay in the Orlando and Cocoa area, I recommend you drop in over the weekend to Kennedy Space Center. There is not only the great expo, but an even more promising air show on Saturday and Sunday.