CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Shuttle Atlantis astronauts breezed through another graveyard shift of grunt work aboard NASAs International Space Station Tuesday after giving the sinking outpost a badly needed boost.
Considered by some to be elite high-fliers, the astronauts are tackling jobs that on Earth would be relegated to air-conditioning technicians, electricians, firefighters, warehouse mules and day laborers at a construction site.
And so far, these orbital jacks-of-all-trades are making great strides toward returning expired space station systems to near-pristine condition.
"All of this work is chugging along just like were on rails," said NASA space station flight director Paul Hill. "Id hate to get too giddy yet, since we have a couple of days to go, but if the rest of the mission goes as well as it already has, well have 100 [percent] success and well be leaving a perfect space station behind."
The first order of business late Monday: boosting the falling station to a higher orbit less susceptible to the tug of Earth's gravity.
The seven-story station over the past month has been dropping some 1.5 to 2 miles (2.4 to 3.2 kilometers) per week due to active solar flares and a resulting increase in atmospheric drag.
Consequently, mission commander Jim Halsell and pilot Scott "Doc" Horowitz repeatedly fired small shuttle steering thrusters to raise the station's orbit about 10 miles (16 kilometers).
The first of three orbit-raising sessions planned for the mission came off without a hitch.
"It was basically bang on the money," astronaut Chris Hadfield told Halsell from the Mission Control Center in Houston. "Perfectly done."
Two more "reboosts" are planned Wednesday and Thursday. The ultimate aim is to propel the station up to an orbit with high and low points of 237.5 and 227.5 miles (380 and 364 kilometers), respectively.
The astronauts also pressed ahead with an ongoing overhaul of a faltering electrical system crucial to keeping the infant station aloft.
So far, three balky batteries needed to power station systems when the outpost is on the dark side of Earth have been replaced with spares. A fourth will be swapped out late Wednesday.
One of the $252,000 spares, however, is not yet working properly. The 163-pound (74-kilogram) battery began discharging before it could be fully charged, prompting a transoceanic troubleshooting effort by ground controllers in Moscow and Houston.
Flight directors, however, think the problem can be fixed before Atlantis departs the station later this week.
In the meantime, the Atlantis crew which includes six American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut sped through the replacement of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers that had exceeded their warranties.
Said Hill: "The crew is doing a super job working at a pretty high pace to get all this equipment installed for us."
A series of dust filters and cooling fans also were swapped out and the astronauts continued hauling more than a ton of supplies and equipment into the station from a shuttle cargo-bay module.
Some 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of gear ranging from food, water and clothing to computer, exercise and medical equipment already has been stowed on the outpost for its first resident crew.
U.S. astronaut William Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko now are scheduled to open the station up for permanent habitation in late October or early November.
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