Spacewalk to attach port to space station

Astronauts on board the Atlantis shuttle were due to take a space walk today to help attach a temporary docking port to the Alpha space station’s new science laboratory.

Astronauts on board the Atlantis shuttle were due to take a space walk today to help attach a temporary docking port to the Alpha space station’s new science laboratory.

Astronaut Marsha Ivins was today set to use the shuttle’s robotic arm to place the port at the end of the Destiny laboratory, which was attached on Saturday.

Spacewalkers Thomas Jones and Robert Curbeam Jr were expected to help Ivins with her task and also attach various equipment and fixtures to the exterior of the £950 million lab, including the future connection point for the space station’s robotic arm due to be brought up in April.

If the docking port cannot be attached to Destiny, it would halt future space station construction. Another mission would have to be scheduled or the next one in early March would have to be revamped in order to get the docking port connected, flight director Bob Castle said.

Today’s spacewalk was the second of three scheduled for the mission to mount and outfit Destiny which is 28 feet long and 14 feet in diameter.

On Sunday, the crews of Atlantis and Alpha installed fire extinguishers and emergency masks and lights in the laboratory. They also hooked up the air-circulation system, cameras and computers.

There was no research equipment to set up - the first experiment doesn’t arrive until next month.

The lab also gives station commander Bill Shepherd and his two Russian crewmates more room to work in and live. They have been aboard Alpha since November 2.

The addition of Destiny makes Alpha the largest orbiting outpost ever in terms of habitable volume.

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