STS-116 作業終了

Backdropped by a blue and white Earth, the International Space Station moves away
from Space Shuttle Discovery. Earlier the STS-116 and Expedition 14 crews
concluded eight days of cooperative work onboard the shuttle and station.
Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 4:10 p.m. (CST) on Dec. 19, 2006.
Astronaut William A. (Bill) Oefelein, STS-116 pilot, was at the controls for the fly-around,
which gave Discovery's crew a look at its handiwork, a new P5 spacer truss segment
and a fully retracted P6 solar array wing. During their stay on the orbital outpost,
the combined crew installed the newest piece of the station's backbone
and completely rewired the power grid over the course of four spacewalks.

太陽電池パネルが折り畳めない状況が発生し、
それを直すために初の同一飛行士による４回の船外活動を
実施するといったこともありましたが、無事折り畳みも完了。(^J^)

日本時間で２３日の早朝に帰還予定です。

IMAGE DATA © NASA