Houston – Two spacewalking astronauts resumed construction on the international space station Tuesday for the first time in more than 3 1/2 years, and NASA pronounced the outing a success, even though a small bolt floated away.
“I felt today like this is what NASA is supposed to do,” lead space station flight director John McCullough. “This is what we’re here to do.”
The spacewalk to attach a new 17 1/2-ton boxlike truss section included the connecting of 13 wires or tubes and the tightening or loosening of 167 bolts.
NASA managers downplayed an astronaut’s concern about the 1 1/2-inch bolt that came flying free.
Astronaut Joe Tanner was working with the bolt, which had an attached spring, when the washer holding it in fell off. The bolt and spring floated over the head of astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and skittered across the truss.
While the washer went out into space safely, Tanner worried the bolt and spring could get into the truss’s wiring and tubing and cause problems.
“I just hope that bolt is on its way to Mother Earth right now and not on its way” to a crucial joint in the addition, Tanner said.
Even though NASA didn’t have any video showing the bolt missing the mechanism, managers at an afternoon news conference said they are certain that the bolt flew off into space harmlessly.
“It’s pretty trivial,” McCullough said. “It didn’t go inside.”
Space debris can be dangerous if it punctures space station walls or spacesuits and can jam crucial mechanisms. However, spacewalkers have a long history of losing material in space. In July, Discovery spacewalkers lost a 14-inch spatula that floated away.
The free-flying bolt marred an otherwise successful and speedy six-hour, 26-minute spacewalk Tuesday morning. Two more spacewalks are planned for later this week.
“You did a phenomenal job and set the bar very high for the rest of the assembly,” Mission Control told the crew when the spacewalk ended late Tuesday morning.
The spacewalk was a first for rookie Stefanyshyn-Piper, who joined an elite club of female spacewalkers. Only six other women have participated in any of the 159 U.S. spacewalks.
