Space station’s new observation deck goes for ride on robot arm; stuck bolts stalled effort

Space station’s new lookout goes for ride

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Jammed bolts and wayward wires made for a trying night at the International Space Station as astronauts struggled to relocate the station’s fancy new observation deck early Monday.

Astronauts used a giant robotic arm to move the $27 million domed lookout from one side of a newly installed room at the station, called Tranquility, to the other. The lookout had to be launched in a temporary position to fit inside shuttle Endeavour’s payload bay.

Space station commander Jeffrey Williams was loosening a series of bolts to release the lookout when several jammed late Sunday. With commands from Mission Control, astronauts were able to adjust the torque and fix the problem — but then they saw an electrical connector popping out from the dome.

Pilot Terry Virts informed Mission Control of the new problem, and flight director Bob Dempsey grabbed his head at the unwelcome news. Experts on the ground studied pictures that were beamed down from orbit to determine if the wiring would interfere with the relocation. Williams assured everyone that it would not, saying he had seen the wire like that before.

On Saturday, a different set of bolts prevented the astronauts from attaching a thermal cover between Tranquility and the observation deck. Williams removed those bolts and managed to secure the hatch cover over Tranquility’s docking mechanisms early Sunday.

After hours of review, NASA concluded there would be no clearance problem when it came time to install the observation deck in its final position.

The lookout — described as a bay window — is 5 feet tall and nearly 10 feet in diameter at its base. It sports seven windows, including the biggest one ever in space.

Because the port was going to be empty once the observation deck was moved, NASA wanted a cover there to keep Tranquility’s docking mechanisms from getting too cold. That port wasn’t going to be vacated for long. The astronauts planned to move a docking adaptor into that slot Monday night.

During the third and final spacewalk of the mission Tuesday night, astronauts will unlock the window shutters on the observation deck. Then their colleagues inside will crank open the shutters and soak in the views of Earth, outer space and the space station itself. NASA sees the dome as a huge improvement to the quality of life 220 miles up.

The first two spacewalks focused on the installation of Tranquility, a 23-foot chamber that was powered up early Sunday.

Both the dome and Tranquility are European contributions to the space station and represent the last of the major building blocks. NASA’s part of space station construction will end with the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, scheduled for this fall.

Endeavour and its crew of six have been at the orbiting outpost for nearly a week. They will depart Friday.

On the Net:

NASA: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html