CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA astronauts outfitted the International Space Station with a $164 million doorway to orbit Sunday, providing outpost crews with the independence needed to carry out routine or emergency repair work at the frontier complex.
Amid 12 orbital sunrises and sunsets, the 6.5-ton Quest airlock was slowly but surely mounted to the starboard side of the U.S. Unity module, where it will serve as a dual locker room and orbital portal for station spacewalkers.
| What's Next |
| The joined crews of shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station will open up a new $164 million outpost airlock for the first time late Sunday, setting out to activate systems within it. Click here for live coverage beginning at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT Monday). |
The high-flying assembly job called for the station's new $600 million robot arm to be pressed into service for the first time, a daunting prospect given a month-long series of start-up problems encountered with the Canadian crane in late May and June.
But in the end, the so-called "Big Arm" worked exactly as advertised, hoisting the hefty airlock from the cargo bay of shuttle Atlantis up to a docking port on the Unity module, a Tinker Toy-like node designed to connect different segments of the growing complex.Floating some four stories above their shuttle mothership, spacewalkers Michael Gernhardt and James Reilly were watching on as station arm operator Susan Helms gently eased the airlock toward the Unity berthing port.
"Watch your fingers and your toes, we're coming in," station flight engineer Jim Voss said.
Motorized latches and bolts then secured the airlock to the station, capping the first full phase of a $60 billion construction project that involves 100,000 people from 16 nations.
"An outstanding job. Well done," Reilly said.
Added shuttle pilot Charles Hobaugh: "I think we can call it a total victory."
Built by The Boeing Co., the airlock will give station tenants an unprecedented level of self-sufficiency, enabling them to carry out spacewalking work at times when a visiting shuttle isn't docked to the outpost.
Twenty-one of 22 spacewalks performed at the station to date have been staged from shuttle airlocks. The other took place within a spherical section of the station's Russian-built crew quarters, which can be converted into a makeshift airlock.
Next page: Quest fulfilled
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