Advertisement

Air lock installed

 
Published July 16, 2001|Updated Sept. 10, 2005

Astronaut James Reilly II makes his way down the 17 story-tall international space station at the end of a spacewalk to install a new air lock entryway Sunday. To NASA's relief, the space station's robot arm worked well during its first construction job, exhibiting none of the problems that temporarily crippled it after its own installation three months ago and had delayed Atlantis' flight. Space station astronaut Susan Helms used the 58-foot mechanical arm to lift the 6{-ton air lock from Atlantis' cargo bay and attach it to the space station. Spacewalking shuttle astronauts Michael Gernhardt and Reilly helped her line it up for a perfect fit. It marked the end of a major phase of assembly for the 2{-year-old space station.