Astronauts Joe Tanner and Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper performed several spacewalks during their mission on the International Space Station, installing new arrays, which are 74 meters long and 12 meters wide, on the new P3/P4 truss and replacing a number of communication devices.
The arrays are expected to double the station's power capability and allow the full activation of the station's air conditioning system.
NASA's news service said earlier the installation of the arrays had been originally scheduled for May 2003, but had been postponed following the Columbia disaster, which claimed the lives of seven astronauts in February of that year.
Atlantis, which was launched September 9 following two weeks of delays caused by storms and technical malfunctions, docked with the ISS at 2:48 p.m. Moscow time (10:48 a.m. GMT) September 11 above the southeastern Pacific.
