The new wings are en route to the ISS onboard space shuttle Discovery, which left Earth on Sunday, March 15, in a beautiful twilight launch from Kennedy Space Center. The extra power will also double the number of full-time crew the station can support from three to six.

Some of that electricity is needed to operate basic space station systems, but once that is figured in, the addition of the new arrays will nearly double the amount of power available to perform scientific experiments-from 15 kilowatts to 30 kilowatts. Once complete, the station's power system will generate between 80 and 120 kilowatts of usable electric power. The new arrays will go on the starboard side, rounding out the eight-wing set. Vandebergh's snapshot shows six previously-installed solar wings-four port and two starboard. 'It was about as bright as Venus-you couldn't miss it.' He hand-guided his telescope to keep the ISS centered in the field of view and captured the image using a digital video camera attached to the eyepiece. 'In December, the space station made a nice pass over my backyard observatory,' says photographer Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands.

Here, for instance, is the view through a 10-inch Newtonian reflector (see above). The International Space Station is so large, its outlines are visible in backyard telescopes. When the work is done, the space station will have enough usable electricity to light up 42 houses.Īmateur astronomers can see it happen with their own eyes. feet of light-collecting surface area to the ISS. Each wing weighs 2,400 pounds, uses 32,800 individual solar cells, and adds about 4000 sq.

The station's solar arrays are the largest deployable space assemblies ever built and the most powerful electricity producing arrays in orbit. Astronauts are about to add a pair of 115-foot-long solar wings to the International Space Station.

International space station telescope