Created: 12/13/2006 4:54:36 PM 
By Grayson Kamm First Coast News
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL -- A solar explosion sent astronauts scrambling for shelter overnight.
Tuesday was a busy one for the 10 astronauts circling the earth. A pair of spacewalkers added a new part to the International Space Station.
The project went perfectly, but just as it ended, mission control sounded the alarm. A tremendous solar flare shot up from the surface of the sun Tuesday night at around 10 o'clock.
Flares can disrupt or even damage satellites in space and have the power to scramble radio and cell phone signals on Earth.
Radiation from flares can also increase the risk of cancer in astronauts. So NASA ordered the shuttle and space station crews to spend the night in the most protected areas of their ships.
On Earth, we're protected from most of the radiation solar flares send out. But astronauts are 220 miles up and almost totally unprotected.
The storm blew by. Astronauts were given a clean bill of health and went back to work Wednesday. Another busy day after one anxious night.
Radiation -- from the sun and the rest of space -- is actually one of the biggest roadblocks to a mission to Mars.
NASA says it needs to come up with better ways to protect astronauts or just make the trip a lot faster. Otherwise, such exposure puts astronauts at risk for developing cancer.
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