X-SciTech

Space Station Helps Build Itself

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

July 11, 2001 / 9:36 AM EDT / CBS

Astronauts working inside and out installed a $164 million passageway for spacewalkers on the international space station early Sunday.

At a post spacewalk news briefing, shuttle flight director Paul Hill said simply, "Well, we made history today."

"The international space station reached into the Atlantis' payload bay using its own arm and pulled a cargo element out and installed it," he said. "And voila, the station now has a brand new module."

The massive undertaking involved two spacewalking astronauts as well as two robot-arm operators, one aboard space shuttle Atlantis and the other aboard space station Alpha.

The 230-mile-high action began when Michael Gernhardt and James Reilly II floated out of Atlantis on Saturday night, an hour late. They quickly made up for the lost time even though Gernhardt had difficulty removing protective covers from the new air lock, still snug aboard the shuttle.

"It was like wrestling a 12-foot alligator and tying it up with a 20-foot snake," he said. "But I think it's under control."

Reilly, an honorary United States marshal since June, felt totally in control. "Man, I feel like Marshal Dillon with this huge pistol," he said, referring to his power tool.

"Well, you are the marshal," Gernhardt pointed out.

As the two men worked at a safe distance, space station astronaut Susan Helms used the station's robot arm to grapple the 6½-ton air lock, 18 feet long and 13 feet in diameter at the widest point. "Nice flying," Mission Control said. Then Helms slowly hoisted the air lock from the shuttle cargo bay and up to the space station.

Everyone in orbit and Mission Control was relieved to see the space station robot arm step through all its paces earlier in the day without any of the problems exhibited in recent months. The dry run, conducted soon after the two spacecraft docked late Friday night, cleared the way for Saturday night's lengthy spacewalk to hook up the air lock.

CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood reports flight controllers took time out to praise Helms.

"I just wanted to say absolutely fantastic job today," station flight director Mark Kirasich radioed Helms from mission control. "It was quite a treat sitting down here watching you."

"Thanks, Mark. Of course I didn't do it alone," Helms replied. "First of all, I had my trusty sidekick Jim (Voss) with me and Yuri (Usachev), of course, was keeping things under control while we were doing this.

"Those Canadians really know how to build great hardware, I'll tell you," Helms added, speaking of the Canadarm2 space crane.

Hill expected space station Alpha's arm to work "just fine."

"I have almost no doubt — I hate to say I have no doubt just because flying in space is kind of a tricky business," he said. "But we haven't really left any stone unturned."

Because the shuttle's 50-foot robot arm cannot reach the attachment point on the international space station, the station's 58-foot root arm was assigned the lifting.

The Canadian-built station arm had a variety of start-up problems after it was installed during the last shuttle flight in April. Hundreds of engineers in the United States and Canada spent weeks trying to understand and solve the difficulties. A bad computer card was to blame for the most serious and persistent trouble, involving the shoulder joint, and ended up delaying Atlantis' flight one month.

Helms operated the station robot arm during Saturday morning's dry run and again Saturday night for the real event, while shuttle astronaut Janet Kavandi steered Atlantis' robot arm, needed to transport the spacewalkers around the sprawling complex.

The dress rehearsal was crucial given that the eight space travelers had not worked together since early this year. (The three station residents have been in orbit since March.)

Three spacewalks are planned during Atlantis' weeklong visit. The second and third outings, on Tuesday and Thursday night, will feature the attachment of four high-pressure gas tanks to the air lock.

The air lock, a two-room chamber, will enable Americans living aboard the space station to wear their own spacewalking suits. Until now, they have had to rely on Russian suits because the U.S. outfits are incompatible with Russian systems.

NASA, meanwhile, is debating whether one of its spacesuits is safe to move from Atlantis into the space station for future use. Potassium hydroxide leaked from the suit battery, and the astronauts had to use gloves to clean up the 2-inch blob on Friday. The worry is that some of the substance could still be on the suit and could irritate or even injure an astronaut's eyes.

CBS News Space Consultant William Harwood has covered America's space program full time for more than 15 years, focusing on space shuttle operations, planetary exploration and astronomy. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood provides up-to-the-minute space reports for CBS News and regularly contributes to Spaceflight Now and The Washington Post.