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Astronaut & cosmonaut spacewalk: Joint venture in space |
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September 12, 2000
CAPE CANAVERAL (AP) - An American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut floated out of space shuttle Atlantis early Monday and lugged cables up the side of the towering international space station. Edward Lu and Yuri Malenchenko paired up for the grueling climb, to lay cable and install a boom for a navigation unit on the 140-foot (42-meter) station. They carried the bundled cables on their backs, along with the boom and all their tools. The spacewalkers planned to venture 110 feet (33 meters) from Atlantis' cargo bay, where the space station had been anchored for the past day. That's more than twice as far as the top of the Hubble Space Telescope, where other astronauts have worked. The spacewalk official inside Mission Control, Mike Hess, said it would be like working on the 11th story of a 13-story building. The spacewalkers were to be tethered to the structure the whole time, with mini jetpacks on their suits for added safety. Atlantis linked up with the station as the spacecraft soared nearly 230 miles (370 kilometers) above Kazakstan on Sunday, ending a two-day chase complicated slightly by a failed navigation device aboard the shuttle. "It was really great to see that the station has changed since the last time we were there" in May, said flight director Mark Ferring. He was referring to the July arrival of the long-delayed Russian control module Zvezda. "The assembly is starting to pick up speed, and it's very exciting for us to see," he added. The crew was unable to get an air sample from the station because of bad equipment. But NASA said that would not prevent the seven astronauts and cosmonauts from entering the complex as planned Tuesday to deliver thousands of pounds (kilograms) of supplies for the first residents, due in November. Another surprise was a jammed panel on one of Zvezda's solar wings. The panel did not unfold following launch of the module, and Mission Control had the astronauts survey it from inside with a camera. Spacewalkers may be asked to fix it on a future mission. For Monday morning's outing, Lu and Malenchenko got a lift some 40 feet (12 meters) up the space station, via the shuttle robot arm. Then they were on their own, ascending hand over hand like rock climbers. The hike up Mount Space Station was slow going and filled with obstacles: jutting antennas and docking targets. "They'll be literally going around, over and under different items at different times, but they're prepared to do that," Hess said. The two men needed to scale Zvezda in order to erect a 6 1/2-foot (1.95-meter) boom for a compass. By measuring Earth's magnetic field, the compass, called a magnetometer, enables the space station to know which way it is pointed. Russia installed the magnetometer too close to Zvezda's metal hull. As a result, its measurements are inaccurate. NASA had asked from the start that the magnetometer be equipped with a pop-out pole, but the Russian space program declined because of a lack of money, Hess said. The spacewalkers also had to string nine power, data and television cables between Zvezda and the Russian module Zarya. The cables, between 16 feet (five meters) and 27 feet (eight meters) on reels. Malenchenko has performed spacewalks before, on Russia's Mir. Lu is a newcomer to spacewalking. --- On the Net: NASA: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/index-m.html
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