Spacewalkers Launch Grit Collection on Russia’s Mir

Two spacewalking astronauts hung the orbital equivalent of flypaper on the Russian space station Mir on Wednesday to collect cosmic grit.

It was the first time in 22 years that Americans had worked outside a space station.

Shuttle astronauts Linda Godwin and Michael “Rich” Clifford spent most of their six-hour spacewalk clamping dust catchers and other debris experiments to Mir’s docking tunnel.

They did not venture beyond the 15-foot tunnel because the Russians were afraid of damage to solar panels and other delicate station parts.

NASA wants to see how much and what kind of debris is whizzing past Mir to better protect the future international space station. Spacewalking astronauts will retrieve the dust catchers in 1997 and return them for analysis.

Godwin and Clifford were dwarfed by the docked Atlantis-Mir complex, at 522,847 pounds the largest spacecraft ever assembled, as they clambered up the orange docking tunnel to install four of the experimental panels.

The panels, each 2 feet square and 6 inches deep, hold 1,000 samples of paint, fibers and metallic and optical coatings being considered for the exterior of the future station, as well as a translucent material to trap microscopic debris. They also have gold, aluminum and zinc plates to record slightly bigger micrometeorite hits.