Shuttle astronaut somersault into new dream home in space

December 11, 1998
by Paul Hoversten

HOUSTON -- Endeavour space shuttle commander Bob Cabana and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev left the shuttle crew cabin Thursday, floated through the tunnel that docks it to other space objects and stopped at the first hatch at the base of Unity, the first piece of the new International Space Station.

Delicate job: Russain cosmonaut Sergei Kirkalev (top) and U.S. astronaut Bob Cabana (bottom) prepare Thursday to enter Zarya, part of the new International Space Station.

They tugged together on the hatch and opened a new era of space cooperation. They then floated up through the U.S.-built Unity docking tunnel toward Zarya, the Russian-built power plant of the space station.

"This is an absolutely super place," Cabana said after he and Krikalev drifted into the spacious Unity at 2:54 p.m. ET as the Endeavour sailed 247 miles over the northern Indian Ocean.

The rest of the crew soon followed as Cabana and Krikalev pulled open hatch after hatch -- six in all -- to lead their crewmates along the length of the 76-foot-long station.

They turned somersaults like delighted schoolkids.

"It's unbelievable to be part of such a great program, to have all the countries working together in space to everybody's betterment," Cabana said. "It's really nice to be in a new home." Krikalev had another observation: "It's small; we need more modules."

Nevertheless, for NASA and its 15-nation partners, it's a dream home -- one they hope will lead to scientific breakthroughs in space research and perhaps spur a return to the moon and a manned exploration of Mars. The other partners are Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain.

Watching it all from Mission Control were the six Americans and five Russians who will make up the station's first four live-aboard crews. Krikalev is a member of the first three-man crew. The shuttle crew is scheduled to cast off from the new station Sunday and bring Endeavor home Tuesday.

	What tasks did the astronauts accomplish yesterday? How much of the International Space Station is completed? How is this project like the discoveries of the New World or the settlement of the American West by pioneers? How is it different? Try it! Work in small groups to brainstorm ideas about what everyday life will be like in the completed International Space Station. Then each group should collaborate on a story about how the space station will be a launching pad for further expeditions into space. Where does your group want to go? What difficulties await?

Not since Skylab, a single chunk of Appollo moon rocket that served as a temporary orbital laboratory and was manned from 1973-1974, has NASA had a space station where it could conduct experiments to measure the performance of the body or study industrial processes in weightlessness.

Time spent aboard Mir, the Russian space station put into orbit in 1986, gave NASA valuable practice in coordinating operations and dealing with two of the worst disasters that could befall a station -- fire and puncture. Both catastrophes occurred on Mir in 1997 while American astronauts were aboard.

NASA has hungered for an orbital outpost for its shuttle fleet ever since the winged spaceships began flying in 1981.

Sunday's rendezvous between the shuttle lugging along Unity to dock it with Zarya was NASA's first in which a shuttle crew had to rely on TV camera views and computerized graphics to determine the distance and position of its target.

With 7-hour spacewalks on Monday and Wednesday and one coming Saturday, Endeavour astronauts Jerry Ross and Jim Newman are beginning to chip away at the 162 spacewalks over 1,729 hours needed to complete the assembly of the space station.