Space Construction Going Well

The first spacewalk planned for this shuttle flight appears to have gone extremely well. The originally scheduled task of getting a new solar array up and running finished well ahead of schedule, so the two astronauts started work on other tasks that had been set for a second spacewalk.

The installation of a 45-foot (14-meter) structural truss, which contains a new pair of power-producing solar panels, took less time than planned, leaving six-time spacewalker Joe Tanner and his rookie partner Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper with more than an hour to spare for extra jobs.

Before the pair left the station's airlock, Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean used the station's robotic crane to lower the 35,000-pound (16 metric tons) girder into place on the complex's port side.

Automated bolts locked the $372 million addition into place, ending the nearly four-year hiatus in station construction that followed the 2003 Columbia accident.

Shuttle Atlantis and its six-member crew arrived at the station on Monday for a week-long stay.

"Let's get this show going," Tanner said, preparing to leave the station's airlock.

"OK. I'm out of the hatch," Stefanyshyn-Piper replied. "Oh wow, Earth's pretty."

The astronauts had a long list of tasks to bring the truss segment to life. Before its power can be tapped by the station, it needs to be able to draw power generated by the existing pair of arrays to maintain proper temperature in the extreme heat and cold of space.

Tanner and Stefanyshyn-Piper hooked up 17 cables and lines for power, data and cooling, and removed dozens of bolts, thermal covers and other items that had been installed to protect the arrays during launch.

The only problem was a spring-loaded bolt that popped free and was lost. Atlantis is scheduled to return on September 20th.