Endeavour’s Crew Visits Space Station

The crew of space station Alpha finally welcomed space shuttle Endeavour’s astronauts aboard on Friday, after six days of flying in locked formation.

The commanders of the two spacecraft, both Navy officers, followed the etiquette of the high seas. “The crew requests permission to come aboard,” shuttle skipper Brent Jett Jr. said as soon as the space station hatch swung open. “Permission granted,” replied station skipper Bill Shepherd.

As Jett floated inside followed by his crew, Shepherd rang a ship’s bell and announced in a singsong voice: “Endeavour arriving.”

Endeavour’s astronauts were the first visitors that Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev have had since they moved into the international space station Nov. 2.

Shepherd commended the Endeavour crew for installing and then fixing a giant set of electricity-generating solar wings on the space station.

The glittering solar wings, stretching 240 feet from tip to tip, are already generating more than 40 kilowatts of electricity. On Thursday, two Endeavour spacewalkers had to tighten the right wing, which was too slack when it was unfurled four days earlier.

The hatches between Endeavour and Alpha could not be opened until that third and final spacewalk, because the shuttle’s cabin pressure had to be kept lower than normal for the spacewalkers.

The two crews have just 25 hours together before the hatches will be sealed back up. Endeavour is due to pull away today and return to Earth on Monday.

Shepherd and crew have at least three more months aboard Alpha.

The hardest part of space station life, Shepherd said Friday, is being away from family and friends. Endeavour’s astronauts brought him a letter from his wife, Beth.

What he misses most, aside from his family, is his yellow Labrador retriever, Jake. He said he doesn’t miss the nonstop election news.

Back on Earth, meanwhile, NASA reported that during Endeavour’s Nov. 30 launch an explosive device for separating the left solid-fuel booster from the shuttle apparently did not work. The malfunction did not affect the shuttle’s flight, however, because a backup charge did its job and the booster dropped away two minutes into the flight as planned.