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Astronauts prepare for spacewalk

Atlantis, left, and space station Alpha
Atlantis, left, and space station Alpha  


(CNN) -- Two space shuttle Atlantis astronauts took a spacewalk Saturday night to install a $165 million air lock on the international space station Alpha.

Astronauts Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly will spend seven hours floating in space while transferring the 6.5-ton pressure chamber from the shuttle cargo bay and attaching it to the orbiting outpost.

The new two-room chamber will allow Alpha crews to venture from the station in NASA spacesuits without the assistance of visiting shuttles. Currently, Alpha crews must wear Russian spacesuits and exit from a Russian segment of the outpost.

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Two other spacewalks will be required to install the space station doorway and attach high-pressure gas tanks to the new passageway during the shuttle's 11-day mission. The astronauts are expected to stage the last walk using the new Alpha air lock.

Everything went fine during an earlier dress rehearsal, despite previous problems with the space station's robot arm.

The $600 million multi-jointed crane, delivered by another shuttle crew in April, was fixed during repeated testing. And NASA managers are confident the 58-foot (17-meter) arm will work well when the Alpha crew attaches the air lock to the space station.

The Canadian-built robot arm, which moves end over end like an inchworm on the Alpha exterior, is necessary to move the aluminum air lock portal and four smaller pressurized gas chambers from Atlantis to Alpha.

crew photo
The crew of Atlantis: Seated with the insignia are Commander Steven Lindsey, right, and pilot Charles Hobaugh. Standing, from left, are mission specialists Michael Gernhardt, left, Janet Kavandi and James Reilly  

Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday. The orbiter was originally expected to fly in June, but technical problems with the new robotic arm on Alpha forced NASA to postpone the mission.

The five Atlantis astronauts are the first visitors in more than two months for the Alpha crew. The one Russian and two Americans expect to be relieved by another three-person crew in August.

The shuttle docked with Alpha on Friday night as the two spacecraft soared about 200 miles (320 kilometers) just as it passed the southern coast of Chile. Hours before the encounter, Atlantis closed in on the station, gaining 230 miles with each Earth orbit, or every 90 minutes.

The new space station air lock
The new space station air lock  

Earlier the crewmembers had a scare when they found a strange, unidentified and possibly hazardous white substance near one of the spacesuits during an equipment check.

Atlantis astronauts donned safety gloves and turned off ventilation fans. NASA said the leak posed no threat to the docking.

The crew took immediate safety precautions and cleaned the material, which appeared to be leaking from the suit's battery, NASA said. They stowed away the old battery and placed a new one in the suit, which will be left aboard Alpha.

"The substance did not damage to the spacesuit and it remains in excellent operating condition," NASA said in a statement.






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