WASHINGTON (nasa) – Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis are set to make another spacewalk in a few hours as they continue attaching a massive external girder to the international space station.
Among other things, the astronauts will finish work on a rail car that will travel along the girder assembly, in what (the space agency) NASA calls the first space railroad.
The astronauts have been working for several days on a 13-ton girder the shuttle carried up to Earth orbit. The metal beam, or truss, is the backbone of what will eventually be a 109-meter-long structure supporting solar panels to power the station’s laboratories.
Astronauts Steve Smith and Rex Walheim are assigned to today’s (Sunday’s) spacewalk, continuing work begun on Saturday by 54-year-old Jerry Ross and 49-year-old Lee Morin – known as NASA’s “silver team,” since they are both grandfathers.
Since Atlantis arrived at the space station on Wednesday, the seven shuttle astronauts have been working with their colleagues from the space-station crew, a Russian commander and two American floight engineers, who have in orbit for more than four months.
The shuttle is scheduled to un-dock from the space station on Wednesday (April 17) and return to Earth two days later.
The space station’s current three-man crew will remain in orbit until the end of next month.
