February 11, 2009 9:07 PM
- Text
That Batty Feeling
FILE - In this July 14, 1998 file photo, world renowned hairdresser Vidal Sassoon applauds models at the end of the Vidal Sassoon Hair Show in Beijing. Sassoon, whose 1960s wash-and-wear cuts freed women from endless teasing and hairspray died Wednesday, May 9, 2012, at his home. He was 84. (AP Photo/Greg Baker, file) (GREG BAKER)
A pair of spacewalking astronauts added a giant handgrip and cosmic-debris shields to the exterior of the international space station and began working on a new part for the orbiting outpost's robot arm.
The next two spacewalks this week by space shuttle Endeavour astronauts Franklin Chang-Diaz and Philippe Perrin will be devoted entirely to the 58-foot arm. It needs a new wrist joint and a base on which to move around the space station via rail car.
In preparation, Chang-Diaz and Perrin removed thermal blankets Sunday from the mobile robot-arm base that was carried up aboard Endeavour. Then their colleagues inside used the arm to lift the base to within three feet of the rail car, for installation on Monday.
Chang-Diaz, a U.S. astronaut born in Costa Rica, and Perrin, a French astronaut born in Morocco, savored the moment as they emerged from the 240-mile-high complex on the first spacewalk of their careers.
A crewmate wished them good luck in both French and Spanish as they floated out.
Their first job involved attaching a grapple hook for the space station's robot arm on a piece of framework that must be moved during a later assembly flight. "I'm hanging like a bat upside down, looking at the Earth," Perrin said from the side of the station.
Chang-Diaz later experienced the upside-down sensation.
"It's a very strange feeling to fly inverted over the Earth like this," Chang-Diaz said while riding on the end of the space station's arm.
During their seven-hour excursion, the spacewalkers removed a stack of six protective panels from Endeavour and secured them to the space station. The metal shields are needed to strengthen the hull of the Russian-built living quarters.
When the module was launched in 2000, it did not meet NASA safety standards for protection against potentially dangerous space junk. Russian officials promised to fix the problem by adding shields; in all, about 25 panels are to be launched and installed over the next several years.
Chang-Diaz and Perrin put the 109 pounds' worth of shields in a temporary location. The space station's new residents, who arrived Friday aboard the shuttle, will do the installation work in another month or two.
NASA said the initial shielding will result in only a 1 percent decrease in the odds of a micrometeorite or some other debris penetrating the module over the next decade. "This is the first step," stressed Bill Gerstenmaier, deputy space station program manager.
By Marcia Dunn
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The next two spacewalks this week by space shuttle Endeavour astronauts Franklin Chang-Diaz and Philippe Perrin will be devoted entirely to the 58-foot arm. It needs a new wrist joint and a base on which to move around the space station via rail car.
In preparation, Chang-Diaz and Perrin removed thermal blankets Sunday from the mobile robot-arm base that was carried up aboard Endeavour. Then their colleagues inside used the arm to lift the base to within three feet of the rail car, for installation on Monday.
Chang-Diaz, a U.S. astronaut born in Costa Rica, and Perrin, a French astronaut born in Morocco, savored the moment as they emerged from the 240-mile-high complex on the first spacewalk of their careers.
A crewmate wished them good luck in both French and Spanish as they floated out.
Their first job involved attaching a grapple hook for the space station's robot arm on a piece of framework that must be moved during a later assembly flight. "I'm hanging like a bat upside down, looking at the Earth," Perrin said from the side of the station.
Chang-Diaz later experienced the upside-down sensation.
"It's a very strange feeling to fly inverted over the Earth like this," Chang-Diaz said while riding on the end of the space station's arm.
During their seven-hour excursion, the spacewalkers removed a stack of six protective panels from Endeavour and secured them to the space station. The metal shields are needed to strengthen the hull of the Russian-built living quarters.
When the module was launched in 2000, it did not meet NASA safety standards for protection against potentially dangerous space junk. Russian officials promised to fix the problem by adding shields; in all, about 25 panels are to be launched and installed over the next several years.
Chang-Diaz and Perrin put the 109 pounds' worth of shields in a temporary location. The space station's new residents, who arrived Friday aboard the shuttle, will do the installation work in another month or two.
NASA said the initial shielding will result in only a 1 percent decrease in the odds of a micrometeorite or some other debris penetrating the module over the next decade. "This is the first step," stressed Bill Gerstenmaier, deputy space station program manager.
By Marcia Dunn
Add A Comment +
Popular Now in SciTech
- Middle East virus sparks Israel speculation
- Cell phones monitoring radiation to sell in Japan
- Back-to-back asteroids harmlessly fly past Earth
- Facebook required for Spotify account, here's a trick
- Apple's Tim Cook on (not) filling Steve Jobs' shoes
- Jury to hear No Doubt's claims against game maker
- Mac virus: What you need to know
- It's "Manhattanhenge" time again
- NASA sets guidelines for private moon landings
- Microsoft to release four editions of Windows 8
- Apple MacBook Pro, iMac rumors: Ivy Bridge processor, USB 3, Retina Display
- Excitement builds for rare transit of Venus
- Xbox 360 should be banned in U.S., says judge
- Apple announces WWDC schedule
- Verizon to drop unlimited plans for 4G LTE
- Astronauts enter SpaceX supply ship
