Crew Learned ‘Heck of a Lot’ in Space Grab : Shuttle: Despite Earth training for satellite rescue, there’s nothing like the real thing, astronauts relate in briefing beamed from above.

Two days after their history-making capture of a stranded satellite, the seven astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour said Friday that their difficult mission will help NASA chart a better course for future manned expeditions in space.

“We learned a heck of a lot of lessons,” said astronaut and Navy Cmdr. Pierre J. Thuot, 36, during a press briefing that was beamed to Earth as the Endeavour flew 225 miles over Florida and the Atlantic Ocean.

“One of which is . . . large masses don’t operate the same way . . . on Earth as they do in space.”

Endeavour is scheduled to land at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., at 1:57 p.m. PDT today.

Speaking to reporters watching at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Johnson Space Center, Endeavour’s commander, Navy Capt. Daniel C. Brandenstein, 49, praised the work of the NASA team on the ground.

“The word fantastic is one that comes to mind very quickly,” he said. “We had some ideas, they had some ideas, we shared them . . . and you saw the end result.”

Thuot’s frustrating efforts to snare the $150-million Intelsat 6 communication satellite on Sunday and Monday captivated television viewers around the world, prompting many to telephone suggestions to NASA flight officers in Houston.

Eventually, the shuttle team set aside the $7-million “capture bar” that NASA had developed for the rescue mission and finally, late Wednesday afternoon, Thuot, Air Force Lt. Col. Thomas D. Akers, 40, and Richard J. Hieb, 36, reached up from their perches atop the Endeavour and grabbed the slowly wobbling, 4 1/2-ton satellite with their hands.

“A lot of people on the ground must have . . . (said) to themselves, ‘Now what are they going to do with it,’ ” Hieb said Friday. “I have to admit we kind of wondered the same thing . . . because it wasn’t really obvious how we were going to get that 9,000 pounds turned around and get the capture bar put on it.”

However, Hieb added, “once we held it for a while I felt a lot better about it . . . I thought perhaps we could have moved a little bit faster. But we didn’t know if we could, and so we did the safe thing and moved just as slowly as we could to get the job done.”

After grabbing the satellite, Hieb and Thuot finally attached the troublesome capture bar. Then Coast Guard Cmdr. Bruce E. Melnick, 42, working inside the shuttle, used the Endeavour’s 50-foot robot arm to move the satellite onto a new rocket motor that Thursday shot the Intelsat 6 toward its proper orbit 22,300 nautical miles above the Earth.

The most significant lesson learned, the astronauts said, is that ground simulators cannot exactly duplicate conditions in space, especially in situations involving large masses such as the Intelsat 6.

Physicist Kathryn C. Thornton, 39, who became the second American woman to walk in space on Thursday, said she had no regrets about staying inside the shuttle during the Intelsat rescue.

“Very truthfully, I was hoping those big guys were all going to fit in the air lock,” said Thornton, who stands 5 feet, 4 inches tall.

“It seemed to everybody to be a better idea to have three guys out there roughly the same size if they wanted to level out the satellite. I’m about a foot shorter than Rick.”