A Far-Out Home Improvement Project

You may or may not know there's a space shuttle orbiting the earth this week. Discovery went up at night over the weekend in a spectacular launch.

Now the astronauts get down to business. Basically what's at hand is a big home improvement project. First they have to attach an extension to the space station. Once that's done, they have to rewire the whole thing. The space station needs more power, and the old wiring just isn't cutting it. Home improvements are a pain in the neck, and the space station is no exception.

Some of the control panels haven't been used in a couple of years, There's no real guarantee once the new wiring is done that the system will work, and it's not like they can grab the Yellow Pages and look for a new electrician.

I'm sure the astronauts who are doing this work never dreamed when they were in training that they'd end up as space-walking handymen. You think maybe they paint, too?

By Harry Smith