A panel on the solar power wings of NASA's International Space Station got ripped last Tuesday, compounding the other problems that the station has been experiencing and forcing Mike Suffredini, program manager for NASA's International Space Station project, to set aside plans to launch Europe's long-delayed Columbus lab.

In order to deal with this new complication, NASA locked the solar power rings in place to prevent them from automatically tracking energy from the sun while in a damaged state. The reason for this, Mr. Suffredini explained, was that he didn't want to do any additional damage to the array. Mr. Suffredini also said that he wanted to sort out the situation further before attending to the Columbus' launch.

The issue with the space station's wings is the latest in a series of delays to plague the International Space Station since the launch of the shuttle Atlantis. In spite of these setbacks, NASA is still doing its best to finish the space station by 2010.