CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Spacewalking astronauts took historic first steps from the International Space Station's new doorway to orbit Saturday, marking the anniversaries of two of the most extraordinary moments in human history along the way.
Thirty-two years after the Apollo 11 moon landing -- and a quarter century after NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft touched down on the planet Mars -- Michael Gernhardt and James Reilly slid out of the $164 million Quest airlock on a mission to mount a fourth gas tank to it.
Like a bomb bay door on a high-altitude military aircraft, the airlock's Earth-facing hatch swung open about 12:35 a.m. EDT (0435 GMT) as shuttle Atlantis and station Alpha made a sweeping pass over Pakistan before heading out over the Indian Ocean.
"On this historic anniversary of the first moonwalk," Gernhardt said, "it's a real honor for the integrated shuttle and station crews -- along with the flight control teams -- to usher in a new era of spacewalking from the International Space Station."
And with no shuttle cargo bay floor beneath their feet -- just vast, open space -- the astronauts were afforded a stunning panoramic view of the blue planet Earth below, one that gave Gernhardt a slight touch or vertigo.
"That is quite a view coming out," Reilly said."Yeah really. It's straight down. You get a sense of falling don't you?" Gernhardt replied. "Wow, look at that."
Wielding the station's $600 million Canadian robot arm, outpost flight engineer Jim Voss already had grappled a nitrogen tank to be installed on the outer shell of the airlock with a spacewalking assist from Gernhardt and Reilly.
The two spacewalkers also planned to carry out some lofty inspection work atop an electric power tower that serves as the base for the station's massive American solar arrays, which have a wingspan of 240 feet (73 meters).
About 90 minutes earlier, ground controllers had noted the exact time -- 10:56 p.m. EDT (0256 GMT) July 20, 1969 -- of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the lunar surface, calling the event "one of the most significant moments in human history."
"As you prepare to take you first steps out of the Quest airlock of International Space Station Alpha, we can take pride in the fact that we continue to step boldly into the future," astronaut Dan Burbank told the astronauts from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.
The spacewalkers, Voss replied, "noted the importance of their step outside the international airlock for the first time, and hope that this is as important as some of the other significant events that occurred on this same day in the past."
Earlier, Voss had noted that the Viking 1 spacecraft touched down on Chryse Planitia, a rugged plain on windswept Martian highlands, on July 20, 1976 -- another first marked by U.S. President George W. Bush in a letter to NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin earlier this week.
"The exploration of Mars brings out the best in Americans," Bush wrote. "It challenges us to learn, to strive, and to achieve dreams that were impossible for earlier generations."
The first spacewalk from Quest will have its own historical significance, ushering in a new stage for a $60 billion construction project that involves 16 nations on four continents.
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