Space

DATE=7-18-01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=SHUTTLE-SPACE STATION (L)

NUMBER=2-278361

BYLINE=NICO COLOMBANT

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Space shuttle Atlantis astronauts have hooked up three gas tanks for the newly installed airlock on the International Space Station. But V-O-A's Nico Colombant reports the operation was delayed because of computer problems.

TEXT: The spacewalk was late in getting started after a space station computer failure crippled its 18-meter-long robot arm.

Flight director Paul Hill says the computer was restarted after several hours, allowing the operation to proceed.

/// HILL ACT ///

These are the types of days that having people in space allows us to pull off a mission when it certainly feels like the odds are stacked against us.

/// END ACT ///

The robot arm has had repeated computer-related problems. But once it was up and running, it grappled the tanks that, with the help of two spacewalking astronauts, were attached to the new airlock.

Only two tanks - one oxygen and one nitrogen - were supposed to be attached during this operation, but because work was going quickly, the flight director says astronauts were given permission to attach a third tank needed for safety.

/// HILL ACT ///

We finished that second tank up about an hour earlier than we had expected before we went outside. So we decided to go ahead and push on for a third tank and we went down and grabbed tank-three, which is our second oxygen tank, and we installed it without a hitch, finishing up that tank at about the six-hour point in the spacewalk.

/// END ACT ///

A fourth tank also needed for safety will be attached during a spacewalk due to begin late Friday. The tanks will supply the space station's airlock, allowing crewmembers to leave their pressurized environment and venture into space wearing U-S or Russian spacesuits.

It will also enable them to perform spacewalks and do more work on the station without having to exit and enter through visiting shuttles.

Delays related to repairs of what officials are calling - minor technical problems have extended the Atlantis mission by one-day. The shuttle is to return to Earth July 24th.

NEB/NC/RAE