Crew Faces Time-Critical Construction JobCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Shuttle Atlantis and an all-American astronaut crew blasted off from Kennedy Space Center Thursday, setting out on what will amount to a high-stakes game of "Beat The Clock" at the International Space Station.
With a $164 million airlock riding in the shuttle's cargo bay, the quintet of Atlantis astronauts raced toward a Friday night rendezvous at the 17-story complex.
And if the orbital portal can't be hooked up to station electricity during a spacewalk Saturday, frigid temperatures could cause internal water lines to freeze up and burst, damaging the airlock and dealing a severe blow to the $60 billion station construction project.
That, said Atlantis spacewalker Michael Gernhardt, "would not be a good thing."
Yet the shuttle astronauts say they're prepared for that worst-case scenario -- and any others -- that could crop up as NASA and its international partners resume outpost construction some 240 miles (384 kilometers) above Earth.
"We've planned this so well, and choreographed this so well, that we don't think that's going to be a problem," Gernhardt said. "We've got it down, and we've got all the cases covered."
NASA's 105th shuttle flight got off to an earth-shaking start at 5:03:59 a.m. EDT (0903:59 GMT) as Atlantis thundered off an oceanside launch pad and then arced out over the Atlantic Ocean, blazing a fiery trail through predawn skies.A forecast calling for a chance of stormy weather at NASA's coastal Florida spaceport never materialized, and ground crews executed a problem-free launch countdown before sending the shuttle and its crew aloft.
"Looks like the vehicle and the weather and have come together," NASA launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts minutes before the shuttle set sail for the outpost. "Good luck and have a great flight."
Now circling the planet at 25 times the speed of sound, Atlantis and its four-man, one-woman crew will spend the next two days chasing down the station. The $2 billion spaceship is scheduled to dock at the outpost just before 11 p.m. EDT Friday (0300 GMT Saturday).
Anxiously awaiting the shuttle's arrival: Outpost commander Yuri Usachev, a veteran Russian cosmonaut, and his two American colleagues: flight engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss.
In space since March, the outpost crew plans to use the station's new $600 million Canadian robot arm to pluck the 6.5-ton airlock from the shuttle's cargo bay and then swing it up to the starboard side of the U.S. Unity Module.
Spacewalkers Gernhardt and Jim Reilly will help mount the airlock to a Unity berthing port before connecting it to station power cables.
The spacewalkers and the station crew, however, will face a couple of potential problems during the airlock installation job, which is set to begin just after 10 p.m. EDT Saturday (0200 GMT Sunday).
Next page: Weekend plans
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