CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Eight astronauts took on some earthly work at the International Space Station Thursday, acting as plumbers, movers and computer technicians while they geared up for the orbital debut of the outpost's new $164 million airlock.
With shuttle Atlantis and the 17-story station flying in tandem some 240 miles (384 kilometers) above the planet, the astronauts still plan to stage a maiden spacewalk from the outpost's new doorway to orbit late Friday night.
But first, they had to finish up a few more mundane tasks, including the replacement of a leaky ventilation valve designed to regulate airflow and atmospheric pressure within the 6.5-ton airlock.
Working side-by-side at a hatch that separates the airlock and the station's Unity module, outpost flight engineer Jim Voss and shuttle skipper Steve Lindsey swapped the defective valve for a spare scavenged from the Destiny science laboratory.
And subsequent pressure tests showed that the spare should work as advertised when it comes time to depressurize the airlock prior to the spacewalk, which is scheduled to begin about 11:30 p.m. EDT Friday (0330 GMT Saturday).
"It looks like it's holding fine," Voss reported. "I don't hear a leak at the valve.""That's good news," Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk replied from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.
Located near the starboard hatch of the Unity module, the original valve sprang a leak during a pressure test Monday, emitting a steady hiss. Voss spent a fruitless day Tuesday trying to fix the regulator before a decision was made to change it out.
Its replacement: A lab valve not needed until a second connecting node identical to the Unity module is launched to the station in early 2004.
Now dubbed Node 2, that module will provide berthing ports for -- and serve as a passageway to -- Japanese and European science labs to be launched in 2004 and 2005.
The outfitting of the station airlock, meanwhile, continued as spacewalkers Michael Gernhardt and James Reilly hauled gear into the two-room chamber, which includes a tunnel-like orbital portal and a suit-up room that doubles as a spacesuit servicing center.
Various airlock subsystems were activated and a submarine-like hatch was put in place between the two rooms before the joined shuttle-station crew set out to perform a lengthy leak check.
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