Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 9, 1991 TAG: 9104090620
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Jerry Ross and Jay Apt spent about six hours outside the shuttle Atlantis on Monday, bouncing around on the end of the spaceship's mechanical arm, testing tools and riding piggyback in carts along a rail in the open cargo bay.
Their antics 280 miles above Earth provided valuable information for future spacewalkers and for engineers designing NASA's planned space station, the permanently manned laboratory the agency hopes to start building in 1995.
Mission commander Steven Nagel today began maneuvering the spaceship to within nine miles of the Gamma Ray Observatory to practice using the shuttle's navigation system. The observatory, which the shuttle put in orbit Sunday, will start tracking gamma rays from hot, violent celestial objects in about a month.
Also this morning, the astronauts saw the Soviet space station Mir as Atlantis flew within 130 miles of the craft over Australia. They tried to contact Mir's two cosmonauts by ham radio; the first attempts were unsuccessful and another try would be made later in the day, NASA said. The shuttle crew also planned to talk with schoolchildren in Ohio.
Monday's exercises compared numerous ways of transporting astronauts and loads around.
"This was a fantastic experience for all of us. We'll bring back things you guys can use on your flight," Apt told Mission Control's Kathy Thornton, an astronaut who is training for a 1992 spacewalk.
"All the suits worked really super," Apt said. "We had absolutely no hardware failures out there."
Ross and Apt, who made an emergency spacewalk Sunday to fix a stuck antenna on the $617 million observatory, wanted to stay outside longer Monday. But Mission Control wouldn't let them.
"Jerry's not going to log any more time," Thornton said when it was time to go in.
"Rats," Ross grumbled.
Ross is now the champion shuttle spacewalker with 23 hours and nine minutes under his belt. His first two outings were in 1985.
The shuttle is scheduled to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Wednesday morning.
"We're extremely pleased," said Ed Whitsett, a NASA manager. "We got what we wanted and that was to get data on each concept. We want to learn how fast the crew will be able to travel and how strong the structures will have to be." In one test, Ross, standing in foot restraints at the end of Atlantis' 50-foot robot arm, was lifted high over the cargo bay, then lowered rapidly.
"That's not even as fast as an elevator," he said.
by CNB