Expansionary Institute

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

By JUAN A. LOZANO
.c The Associated Press

 
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - The three residents of the international space station finally greeted their first visitors on Friday, after flying side by side for almost a week.

Station commander Bill Shepherd and his Russian crew swung open the hatch, and space shuttle Endeavour commander Brent Jett Jr. floated inside - after requesting permission to come aboard.

``Permission granted,'' Shepherd replied. Both he and Jett are Navy officers.

The eight men shook hands and hugged one another inside space station Alpha's American-made Unity module.

``On behalf of the crew on Alpha, I'd like to commend Endeavour and its crew for the tremendous technical challenge and the great achievements'' of installing solar wings on the station, Shepherd said. ``I can't think of a mission that we've flown in a long time that's been a bigger challenge.''

The visit came one day after shuttle astronauts Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega tightened a new solar wing on the space station. That operation unexpectedly required only the first 1 1/2 hours of a five-hour spacewalk.

Since the space shuttle docked at the space station last Saturday, the two crews have only communicated via radio. Because of the difference in air pressure between the craft, the hatches between them needed to be sealed until three spacewalks were completed.

Shepherd and his Russian crewmates, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, began their four-month mission aboard Alpha on Nov. 2.

After greeting each other, the two crews floated into the shuttle flight deck for a better view of the solar wings. Then they turned to the chores that need to be accomplished over the next day: transferring supplies to the station and removing broken laptop computers, empty water bags and other trash from the station to the shuttle for a ride back to Earth.

The crews also plan to fire the shuttle's engines to study the stability and other features of the station's new solar wings.

But it won't be all work.

``The rest of the time will be spent with the crews spending some time together to swap stories of the last few days, have a meal together,'' said Jeff Hanley, lead space station flight director.

The crews will be together about 25 hours until the hatches are resealed and Endeavour pulls away on Saturday in preparation for a Monday return to Earth.

During their third spacewalk on Thursday, Tanner and Noriega used a hook and their gloved hands to relocate two tension cables on a slack solar wing.

``Our goal was to get it on the first try. I was overjoyed to reach that goal,'' Tanner said.

The $600 million electricity-generating wings - 240 feet from tip to tip - were installed Sunday by Endeavour astronauts.

The right wing was extended Sunday in one quick release, causing its tension cables to pop off their pulleys and reels. The left wing was unfolded Monday more slowly, and was properly taut.

On the Net:

NASA: spaceflight.nasa.gov

AP-NY-12-08-00 1023EST

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