-News for Mon. 15 April & Tue. 16
April 2002 Space Shuttle Astronauts Make Final Space Walk
VOA
News 16
Apr 2002 17:12 UTC

Astronauts from the
Space Shuttle Atlantis are making their fourth and final spacewalk to erect
handrails that will make such walks easier for future
astronauts.
Astronaut and veteran
NASA spacewalker Jerry Ross said it is a good day for a stroll as he emerged
from the international space station.
Working under
powerful halogen lamps, he and his partner are installing handrails on a
girder, relocating tools for spacewalks on the next shuttle visit in May and
adjusting a thermal blanket partly obstructing an antenna.
The girder is
connected to the first railroad in space, which failed its first test Monday
when a computer suspended operation of the slow-moving rail car. NASA decided
the problem was weightlessness, which allowed the car to float off its track
just enough so that sensors could not detect its presence.
The seven Atlantis
astronauts are set to leave the space station on Wednesday and land at
Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Friday.
Some information
for this report provided by AP and Reuters.
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