|
HOUSTON, Texas (AFP) - Two astronauts from the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis completed an almost seven-hour spacewalk early Monday, taking time to admire the view from some 209 miles above the earth.
"It's quite a planet we live on," exclaimed James Voss, before he and fellow astronaut Jeffrey Williams finished their tasks repairing and modifying the International Space Station's (ISS) two modules. Voss is on his fourth flight in space, Williams on his first.
The two astronauts had a lengthy to-do list for their spacewalk, including completing the assembly of a Russian-made mechanical arm and testing the integrity of a U.S.-made one, installing a camera cable and security handrails to the exterior of the ISS, and replacing a faulty communications antenna.
Atlantis was launched last Friday from the Kennedy Space Center on a delayed 10-day mission to repair the ISS and load equipment onto the station for use by crews arriving later this year. The shuttle team is made up of six astronauts and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev.
The space station, assembled in December 1998, currently comprises two modules: the U.S.-built Unity and the Russian module Zarya. Atlantis' crew was to board the modules Monday, when their most urgent task was to replace four batteries and a generator, which no longer work. They will also bring aboard smoke detectors and fans aimed at improving airflow aboard Zarya. Previous crews suffered from exposure to toxic fumes aboard the Russian module.
If another module, Zvezda is launched in July as planned, there will be at least four more space flights to the station by the end of the year - three by U.S. shuttles and one by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Work to finish the giant laboratory will require some 40 space missions between now and 2005. The ISS will permanently house six and seven-member crews that will rotate after stays of about five months each.
The $60-billion project has been plagued by criticism that was boosted by a recent report of the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress. The report said the Russian modules Zarya and Zvezda were not up to U.S. safety standards and insufficiently protected from meteorites and space debris. The report also said the noise level inside Zarya was too high.
However, in the lead-up to the Atlantis launch, Bob Cabana, deputy ISS manager for international operation, assured critics that the problems would be solved. While this is Atlantis' 21st mission, the upgraded space shuttle has not flown since 1997. It is scheduled to return to Earth on May 29
|
