Lab secured to space station
HOUSTON (AP) - February 12, 2008 Crew members spent Tuesday morning hooking up power, fluid and
data lines linking the new module to the station before French
astronaut Leopold Eyharts briefly floated inside for the first
time. Checking around with his headlamp, he said the lab appeared
to be in good shape.
"This is a great moment," he said.
A formal ceremony marking the lab's grand opening was set for
Tuesday afternoon.
American spacewalkers Rex Walheim and Stanley Love helped
install Europe's shiny new $2 billion lab on Monday. The astronauts
shouted and cheered when the 23-foot, 14-ton lab finally reached
its docking port on the station, after a slow move out of Atlantis'
payload bay.
Atlantis' crew got more good news on Tuesday, when Mission
Control said they would not have to repair a thermal blanket that
has a torn corner. Engineers are confident the blanket, located
near the shuttle's tail, will stand up to the intense heat of
re-entry at flight's end.
The European Space Agency waited years to see Columbus fly. The
lab was supposed to go up in 1992 to commemorate the 500th
anniversary of the sailing of Christopher Columbus, but space
station and then shuttle problems delayed everything.
The addition of Columbus expanded the almost 10-year-old space
station to eight rooms. It was attached directly to the Harmony
compartment that arrived last fall. Another of Harmony's docking
ports will be occupied by Japan's new lab once it launches in the
spring.
Additional work on the lab's exterior will be performed during a
second spacewalk on Wednesday and a third on Friday. Unless flight
surgeons object, German astronaut Hans Schlegel is expected to make
Wednesday's spacewalk, along with Walheim.
Schlegel was supposed to float outside with Walheim to help with
Columbus' hookup, but got sick following last week's liftoff and
was replaced by Love. The last-minute switch in crew prompted NASA
to delay Columbus' installation by a day and lengthen Atlantis'
space station visit.
U.S. and European space officials have not divulged the illness,
and Atlantis commander Stephen Frick dodged the issue when
interviewers from Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" asked
about Schlegel's health.
He said Schlegel was busy getting Columbus getting ready "so we
can go in and start working in the lab."
The astronauts also participated in a chat with music impresario
Quincy Jones and radio talk show host Tavis Smiley. Astronaut
Leland Melvin, a pianist, carried into orbit a recording of Jones'
1969 Grammy Award-winning "Walking in Space."
Melvin said he believes Jones' music inspires the kind of
creativity that will one day lead astronauts to Mars and beyond.
"It has something that reaches into your soul and it makes you
think," he said. "It makes you wonder. That's exactly what we
need to do."
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