DATE=9/11/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SHUTTLE-SPACEWALK WRAP (L)
NUMBER=2-266342
BYLINE=DAVID MCALARY
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
INTERNET=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Two U-S space shuttle crewmembers have made a
record 33-meter excursion outside the orbiter to
continue assembly of the International Space Station.
Science Correspondent David McAlary reports that they
set a space-walk distance record.
TEXT: Moving hand-over-hand along tethers like rock
climbers, U-S astronaut Ed Lu and Russian cosmonaut
Yuri Malenchenko scaled the towering space station to
make technical improvements to ready it for the first
long term inhabitants, due to arrive in November.
It was the farthest any space-walkers have ventured
from a shuttle. The U-S space agency NASA's lead
space-walk officer, Mike Hess, says the flawless six-
hour excursion was the culmination of several years of
integrating U-S and Russian training and hardware.
/// HESS ACT ///
We have got a really good exchange program going
on for hardware and engineers who are traveling
back-and -forth learning from each other's
systems. We will continue to use these same
avenues of discussion and meeting groups to
prepare for the rest of the International Space
Station spacewalks. We have a surge of
spacewalks that are about to occur. Over the
next year-and-a-half or so we have about 20-
spacewalks planned, and this spacewalk set the
tone for what is about to come.
/// END ACT ///
During their six-hour outing, the U-S and Russian
crewmen remounted a magnetic compass on the Russian-
built Zvezda command module. The instrument helps the
station maintain its orientation to Earth by reading
the planet's magnetic field. The compass was moved to
a boom away from the cabin's metal hull, which had
thrown the readings off.
The pair also connected Zvezda electronically to the
rest of the station by laying power, data, and video
cables.
Mission operations director Milt Heflin says the seven
Atlantis crewmembers will continue outfitting Zvezda
when they enter the station Tuesday and begin
transferring equipment and supplies.
/// HEFLIN ACT ///
We have got a lot of work to do, clearly, once
we ingress [enter] the modules. Basically, it
is a cabin we have that we are trying to get
some furniture into and get it ready to move
into. So it is just a tremendous amount of work
and coordination that is required between now
and the end of the flight to get it done.
/// END ACT ///
The five astronauts and two cosmonauts aboard Atlantis
must transfer more than 22-hundred kilograms of cargo
to Zvezda for use by future inhabitants. (SIGNED)
NEB/DEM/RAE
11-Sep-2000 10:04 AM EDT (11-Sep-2000 1404 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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