In a job deemed crucial to a carefully choreographed station construction plan, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata plucked the 2-ton docking port from shuttle Discovery's cargo bay and then deftly eased it by a fragile station solar array just inches away.
With no direct view of the task at hand, Wakata ultimately put the $20 million port in place on the backside of the 13-story station, reinforcing his growing reputation as a master operator of the shuttle's robot arm - also known as the Remote Manipulator System, or RMS.
"The man is an RMS surgeon," spacewalker Michael Lopez-Alegria exclaimed."Koichi, you really `Da Man,'" astronaut Ellen Ochoa said from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas.
"Fantastic job today guys," shuttle skipper Brian Duffy added.
The second of four planned spacewalks for Discovery's mission kicked off about 10:15 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (14:15 GMT) as the shuttle was flying some 240 miles (384 kilometers) above Earth.
Clad in cumbersome spacesuits, Lopez-Alegria and partner Jeff Wisoff floated into the cargo bay as the joined shuttle-station complex cruised around the planet at 25 times the speed of sound.
Crew mates inside the shuttle gave them a musical send-off, pumping up the volume on a song from one of the spacewalker's favorite movies: Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery.
"That was awesome," Wisoff said.
"Absolutely," added Lopez-Alegria. "Shagadelic."
~A new docking port
The first order of business was freeing the new docking port from a pallet-like carrier in the rear of the shuttle's cargo bay. That job called for Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria to wrestle with four balky latches and then loosen and remove 16 bolts securing the port to the carrier.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata moves the shuttle's robot arm to place a new docking port into position on the station, over the shuttle's nose.
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Relying primarily on camera views from a sophisticated computerized television system, Wakata hoisted the docking port up out of the bay and swing it around the far side of the station.
The two spacewalkers then made their way up to the work site to help Wakata guide and mount the docking port to its intended berthing spot on the so-called "Unity" module, one of three pressurized wings that now make up the station.
"How's the mountain look?" crew mate Bill McArthur asked the spacewalkers - a reference to the towering outpost that they were scaling.
"It's just awesome - no other word for it," Wisoff replied.
Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria ultimately positioned themselves on either side of the docking port to eyeball it as Wakata moved it closer and closer to its mounting point. Doing so called for Wakata to slip the docking port past a protruding station solar array without damaging it.
"I'm sure you've figured out what our concern is here. With our camera views, we just can't get comfortable with the clearance between the [docking port] and the starboard solar array," McArthur told ground controllers.
"We understand, Bill," Ochoa replied from Mission Control. "And we think that's a good plan."
"I think that'll help," McArthur added. "We're afraid we're just not going to have a view that guarantees us clearance without having somebody physically there."
NASA lead flight director Chuck Shaw likened the job to those carried out by day laborers helping a truck back up to a more earthly loading dock.
~More construction
"We call them `mon-backs,'" said Shaw. "As in 'come on back, come on back, come on back.'"
During the seven-hour, seven-minute spacewalk, the duo also routed power cables between the port and the $300 million Unity module, bringing the new addition to life electrically.
The installation job cleared the way for launch of NASA's next outpost construction crew aboard shuttle Endeavour, a flight now scheduled for November 30.
As it turns out, Endeavour won't be able to park at the station's current shuttle docking port because its tail would block the installation of the prime cargo for that mission -- a giant pair of power-producing solar arrays.
The American-made solar panels are to temporarily mounted atop a 9-ton metal truss that was attached to the Unity module by Discovery's crew on Saturday.
Once unfurled in space, the massive American-made arrays will have a wingspan of 240 feet (73 meters).
| Tanka Poem |
| Japanese mission specialist Koichi Wakata composed a poem after arriving in orbit. Full story. |
The new docking port also will provide a parking place for shuttle Atlantis on a mission now scheduled for launch in mid January. The cargo for that flight - a U.S. lab that will serve as the scientific heart of the station - is to be attached to the port where Discovery is now docked.
The docking port installation was the second major construction chore pulled off by Wakata with the shuttle's robot arm. He mounted the new truss atop Unity last Saturday despite a short circuit that temporarily disabled a television camera system considered crucial to the job.
A third consecutive day of spacewalking construction work is scheduled to get under way about 10:30 a.m. EDT (14:30 GMT) Tuesday. Astronauts Leroy Chiao and McArthur will take on that duty, installing a pair of bulky electrical voltage converters on the new station truss.
The voltage converters are designed to route power to the station from the soon-to-be-delivered U.S. solar arrays.
Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria will perform the fourth and final excursion Wednesday. The pair will prepare the top of the truss for the upcoming solar-array installation. They'll also test jet backpacks that spacewalkers would use to fly back to the station if inadvertently cast adrift.
Discovery's six-man, one-woman crew also will spend a day inside the station, delivering supplies for the outpost's first full-time tenants, who are due to take up residence at the station in early November.
The astronauts are to depart the station Friday and then land back at Kennedy Space Center at 2:10 p.m. EDT (18:10 GMT) next Sunday.
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