Leonardo Module Docked to Space Station-NASA Reuters 2001-03-12 10:55 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Monday can begin unloading about two tons of equipment and supplies from a new Italian-made cargo module docked to the station by the crew of space shuttle Discovery. Once emptied, the module can be packed with drained batteries, broken hardware and other debris from space station life and returned to Earth when Discovery departs the orbiting outpost. Australian-born astronaut Andrew Thomas used the shuttle's 15 m robotic arm to lift the 6.5 m cylinder from the shuttle's payload bay and painstakingly moved it to its temporary berth on the station. "We aim to please," said Thomas, responding to an enthusiastic "outstanding" from Mission Control. The $150 million module, named Leonardo for Italian master Leonardo da Vinci, is a significant development in space station design, said NASA. But the space agency had some unexpected trouble bringing the Leonardo module to life, due to a piece of the electrical system that apparently was stowed instead of installed on the module. It was left to Discovery commander James Wetherbee to find the electrical jumper and install it so Leonardo could receive power from Discovery's fuel cells. The hatches between the shuttle and space station were closed in preparation for another overnight spacewalk on Monday. The shuttle's atmosphere was lowered to bring down the nitrogen levels in the spacewalkers' blood, protecting them from the bends. Once Thomas wound up the spacewalk, he was to take charge of offloading cargo from Leonardo. EARLY STATIONS HAD LIMITED CAPACITY Early Russian and American space stations had limited capacities for receiving cargo, essentially whatever the astronauts brought with them. The Russian Mir, which heavily influenced the International Space Station design, was limited to cargo brought up on the relatively small Progress spacecraft, and any large hardware had to arrive disassembled to fit through its small hatches. By contrast, equipment can arrive on Leonardo in closet-sized racks. That allowed for a modular design to the station's laboratory segment, named Destiny, so that science stations can be updated with new technology. "Progress could maybe fit inside this module," said Russian astronaut Yury Usachev, in a preflight interview. Usachev arrived on Discovery and will take command of the station once the current commander, William Shepherd, departs with his Expedition One crew. Usachev has already moved aboard the station and was working with Shepherd through the transition. Usachev's Expedition Two crew mates, Americans James Voss and Susan Helms, also made a spacewalk on Sunday to prepare the station for the most important addition expected during their four-month stay -- the Canadian-built robot arm that will eventually be able to move along the outer walls of the station and do many of the same tasks performed by spacewalking astronauts. During the Monday night spacewalk, Thomas and his Discovery crew mate Paul Richards were to complete work on mounts and power couplings to be used by the robot. Discovery will remain at the station until Saturday. Then, with Leonardo safely secured in the shuttle's payload bay, Wetherbee and pilot James Kelly will set a course for Earth. By this time, Shepherd and his Expedition One crew mates, Sergei Krikalyov and Yuri Gidzenko, will have joined the Discovery crew, and the station will be run by the Expedition Two crew, the first of many crew handovers expected in the decades to come. Shepherd, Krikalyov and Gidzenko moved into the new space station on 2001-11-02. Their replacements -- Usachev, Helms and Voss -- will be aboard the station for four months. John Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrtümlich glaubt frei zu sein. There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they are free!
