DATE=04/12/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=SPACE STATION OVERNIGHTER (S-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-288659

BYLINE=DAVID McALARY

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

INTERNET=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: U-S astronauts embark on another spacewalk Saturday [later today] to continue outfitting a massive external girder mounted to the international space station. Their task includes wiring a cable to the world's first space railway, as David McAlary reports.

TEXT: Two space shuttle Atlantis crewmen will make the second of four spacewalks outside the station to continue bolting down the 13-ton girder. An alternate team fastened it on one side after the station's crane mounted it Thursday.

It is the centerpiece of a truss that will ultimately span 100 meters to support solar energy panels and cooling radiators for future research laboratories.

The two crewmen will also connect cables to power a railway flatcar attached to the girder. The rail car will ferry the station's crane across the completed span during future construction efforts.

U-S mission official Ben Sellari [seh-LAH-ree] says ground technicians have begun activating computers, navigation equipment, and other systems on the new girder, which the space agency has designated S-Zero.

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So, all in all, over the last 24 hours or so, S-Zero has come to life on orbit as is looking very, very good.

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