NASA delays spacewalk until Saturday

HOUSTON, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- NASA has postponed the next spacewalk by two Discovery space shuttle crew members until Saturday, when they will repair a torn solar array.

The spacewalk had already been pushed back from Thursday to Friday.

Mission specialist Scott Parazynski will make the repair while suspended from a boom attached to the space station’s robotic arm, and mission specialist Doug Wheelock will assist from the station’s truss, NASA said Thursday in a news release.

Mission specialist Stephanie Wilson and Expedition 16 flight engineer Dan Tani will be operating the station’s robotic arm from the work station inside the Destiny laboratory.

Space station and shuttle crews Thursday used strips of aluminum, a hole punch, bolt connector and 66 feet of wire to construct stabilizers that should allow them to take the pressure off the damaged hinges on the solar array.

"The contraption will work similarly to a cuff link, with the wire fed through a hole on the solar array and the strip of aluminum supporting it from below," NASA said.