Koichi Wakata
Koichi Wakata definitely has his work cut out for him.
Koichi Wakata
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Small in size but not in stature, the veteran Japanese astronaut - a hero in his homeland -- will attempt to hoist a 9-ton metal truss atop the 13-story International Space Station during NASA's most ambitious outpost assembly mission to date.
What's more, Wakata is expected to lift a 12-foot- (3.6-meter-) long shuttle docking port so it can be put in place on the side of the growing international space complex.
No Sumo wrestler, Wakata will carry out these stupendous weightlifting feats with Discovery's 50-foot (15-meter) robot arm, which effectively will serve as his personal construction crane in low Earth orbit. But he might as well be blindfolded when he does the job.
Wakata will be operating the robot arm from a workstation at the rear of Discovery's flight deck, and his view out the shuttle's back windows will be almost entirely blocked by the looming space station.
Consequently, the first Japanese astronaut to take part in an International Space Station construction mission will have to rely on shuttle camera views and a computerized positioning system to put the boxy truss and the new docking port in place.
"He has a lot of challenges ahead of him, berthing the two modules virtually in the blind except for camera views," said crew mate Leroy Chiao.
And while both jobs are key to paving the way to future station assembly flights, Discovery mission commander Brian Duffy won't be sweating bullets when Wakata - a veteran robot arm operator - works his magic with the Canadian-built crane.
"He is the master of robot-arm operations," Duffy said.
Added crew mate Michael Lopez-Alegria: "You may call him Koichi, but we call him `The Man.'"
Wakata, 37, honed his skills with the robot arm on a 1996 shuttle flight that called for him to snatch a free-flying Japanese satellite out of orbit for a return trip to Earth, and then deploy and retrieve a second spacecraft.
Born in Omiya, Saitama, Japan, Wakata is married and has one son. The aeronautical engineer has logged 214 hours and 41 seconds in space.
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