Space Shuttle Astronauts Begin Spacewalk
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – When astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper poked her head out of an airlock Tuesday to begin installing a new addition to the international space station, she joined an elite club of women who have gone on spacewalks.
Only six other women have participated in 159 U.S. spacewalks, and only a single woman has gone on any of the 118 Russian spacewalks. A major reason for the lack of female spacewalkers is the spacesuit, which isn’t designed for small sizes, said Piper, who is 5-foot-10-inches.
"I fit in the suit better," Piper said before the mission. "If you fit in a suit then the easier it is to work."
Piper, a spacewalking novice, was joined outside the space station by spacewalking veteran Joe Tanner, on the first of three highly-choreographed spacewalks during the 11-day mission to attach a 17 1/2-ton addition to the space station.
Before the start of the spacewalk, astronauts Steve MacLean and Jeff Williams, from inside the space lab, used the robotic arm to install the 45-foot addition on the left side of the space station’s truss system.
The spacewalk started a short time later at 5:17 a.m. EDT. Tanner was first to enter the void of space tethered to the space station, followed by Piper.
"Welcome to the world of EVAs," Tanner told Piper, using the NASA slang for spacewalks.
Piper responded, "Aaah. Wonderful."
Tanner and Piper then started connecting wiring and cables to the $372 million truss segment that was moved Monday from the space shuttle Atlantis’ cargo bay to the space station’s robotic arm. Wearing bulky suits and gloves, the spacewalking electricians also will have to install and disconnect bolts, connect tubes and activate latches – tasks that must be performed quickly so the electronic components do not get cold.
Their work will allow the new segment to be powered up and two solar arrays to be unfurled on Thursday.
Tanner and Piper spent the night in the airlock where the air pressure was reduced from 14.7 pounds per square inch to 10.2 pounds per square inch. Before spacewalks, crew members usually have to breathe pure oxygen for several hours to purge their bodies of nitrogen and prevent a condition known as the bends. The new method reduces that preparation time.
NASA encountered a small glitch early Tuesday with communications between the space station and Mission Control in Houston, but it was resolved.
Astronauts Dan Burbank and MacLean planned to follow their colleagues with another spacewalk on Wednesday.
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