Huge Japanese lab gets bigger
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - June 6, 2008 The attic - essentially a 14-foot shed, or closet, for spare
tools and equipment - was popped atop the 37-foot Kibo science
laboratory by astronauts operating the international space
station's robot arm.
Even before Friday's addition, the billion-dollar, bus-size Kibo
was the biggest room at the space station.
The attic had been in a temporary location at the space station
since March. There wasn't enough room on a space shuttle to fit
both the attic and lab, so /*NASA*/ split them into two flights. The
third and final Japanese section, a porch for outdoor experiments,
will be launched next spring.
"It's another wonderful day," said Tetsuro Yokoyama, a
Japanese Space Agency deputy manager.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, shuttle
Discovery's commander, Mark Kelly, said Kibo may not smell like a
new car, but "it has a new car feel to it." Before his flight, he
described Kibo as "the Lexus of the space station modules."
"It's incredibly big, a lot of room so you have to be a little
extra careful. You can get out in the middle of it and you can't
reach a handrail and you could possibly get stuck there for a
little while," Kelly said.
Later in the day, Mission Control informed Kelly that Kibo was
looking more like a lab. When the astronauts opened up Kibo on
Wednesday, it was empty and provided lots of room for weightless
acrobatics.
"I guess there are no more dance parties," Mission Control
said.
Discovery's astronauts delivered and installed Kibo earlier in
the week.
Also flying to the space station aboard Discovery: a new pump
for the space station's broken toilet, which is now fixed, the
jerseys of three sports greats, and Buzz Lightyear.
Buzz joined the 10 astronauts and cosmonauts for dinner on
Thursday night - he was offered borscht - and was seen looking out
the window at a pair of spacewalkers and ringing the space
station's bell, by banging into it with his head. The Disney action
figure, made famous in the 1995 film "Toy Story," flew up on
Discovery and moved into the space station for a six-month stay, as
part of NASA's toys-in-space educational program.
The jerseys, on the other hand, were kept tucked away in a
shuttle locker.
One of Lance Armstrong's Tour de France yellow shirts is flying,
as well as the backup jersey that New York Giants quarterback Eli
Manning took to the Super Bowl in February and the last jersey worn
by Craig Biggio in a Houston Astros game.
Kelly assured the AP that the shirts will return to Earth
unworn, even though several on his crew are big cycling, football
and baseball fans.
The astronauts face more work with Kibo on Saturday. They will
test drive the lab's 33-foot robot arm, which will be used once the
Japanese research platform, or porch, arrives next spring.
The third and final spacewalk for Discovery's nine-day space
station visit - to replace an empty nitrogen gas tank - will take
place Sunday.
Late Friday, Mission Control asked the astronauts to take some
zoom-in digital photos of two thermal protective panels on
Discovery's right wing. Mission Control said embedded sensors had
picked up some slight pulses a few days earlier, indicating
possible micrometeorite impacts, and while engineers did not think
anything was amiss they wanted to make certain.
The astronauts beamed down more than 50 photos of the two wing
panels.
The wing sensors are one of NASA's many safety measures put in
place after Columbia was destroyed during re-entry in 2003 because
of a gashed wing.
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