2002-10-10 | MISSIONS
Shuttle Crew Arrives at Space Station, Begins First Spacewalk
The crew of the International Space
Station welcomed the astronauts of Space
Shuttle Atlantis
when the hatch between the two spacecraft was opened at 9:51 a.m. Pacific Wednesday.
Hugs and smiles, backslapping and laughter marked the elated celebration as the
shuttle crew entered the
station and greeted the station
crew. With the astronauts merged into a single team, they went to work on
preparations for today, the busiest day of Shuttle mission
STS-112.
Construction of the station resumed this morning as astronauts Sandy
Magnus and Peggy
Whitson maneuvered the station's
robotic arm to grapple the huge S1
Truss, pry it from the Shuttle's payload bay, and mount it on the station.
S1 is the third of 11 segments of the Integrated
Truss, which eventually will stretch 356 feet across and support four huge
solar wings. Astronauts David
Wolf and Piers
Sellers left the station on the first of three
spacewalks (also called extravehicular activities or EVAs)
to activate and outfit the S1 Truss. Completion of the station will significantly
expand its capacity for research into how
Earth life responds to living beyond Earthone of astrobiology's
main goals.
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from NASA, Oct 10, 2002
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