2 Floating Astronauts Tidy Up Space Station’s Exterior

The shuttle Discovery’s astronauts took a spacewalk late Saturday to spruce up the outside of the new international space station.

Tamara Jernigan and Dr. Daniel Barry floated out of the shuttle with the seven-story-plus station looming above them, jutting straight out of Discovery’s cargo bay.

Among their duties during the six-hour outing: attaching a pair of 5-foot cranes to the exterior of the station, hanging out bags of tools for future spacewalkers, installing a glare-reducing shroud over a docking target and covering an exposed pin.

The spacewalk by Jernigan and Barry was expected to end early today.

It was the first of dozens of shuttle dockings expected for the space station, launched in two pieces late last year.

Mission Control was delighted with the way everything went.

“You’ve made the first docking with space station look effortless, and you’ve set the standard for all those who follow,” Mission Control told commander Kent Rominger, a Navy pilot who guided Discovery.

The first order of business involved opening the outermost hatch of the space station and ducking a few feet inside to take air samples and do a little rearranging.

The hatch was then closed; it won’t be opened again until tonight, when the crew ventures all the way in.

NASA wanted the doors between the two spacecraft sealed in case there was an emergency during Saturday night’s spacewalk.

Even though the plan called for Jernigan and Barry to attach themselves with double safety lines to the spacecraft at all times, and even though their spacesuits have jet packs, neither the National Aeronautics and Space Administration nor Rominger was taking any chances.

Jernigan was a little anxious, but not because she feared snapped tethers.

During her last shuttle flight in 1996, a loose screw caused the hatch to jam, and her spacewalk was canceled. Workers at Kennedy Space Center promised her it wouldn’t happen again.