4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
NASA
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2006
Astronauts begin station additions
RASHA MADKOUR ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON — Two spacewalking astronauts Tuesday began installing the first big addition to the international space station in more than two years, and NASA pronounced the outing a success, even though a small bolt floated off and got lost.
I "tell 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."
Wearing bulky suits and gloves, the two Atlantis astronauts ventured outside to begin attaching a new 17 1/2 ton box-like truss section that the space shuttle delivered earlier this week. The job involved connecting 17 wires or tubes and tightening or loosening 167 bolts.
Astronaut Joe Tanner was working with a 1 1/2-inch bolt with 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 harmlessly, Tanner worried the "bolt and spring could get into the wiring and tubing of the truss 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, Tanner said.
23 Even though NASA didn't have any video showing the bolt missing the mechanism, officials said they are certain that the bolt flew off into space harmlessly.
"It's pretty trivial," McCallough 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 things in space. In July, Discovery spacewalkers lost a 14-inch spatula that floated away.
Two more spacewalks will be conducted during the 11-day mission to finish hooking up the new addition to the half-built space station. Construction had been on hold since the Columbia disaster in 2003.
The 45-foot, $372 million addition includes two electricity-generating solar arrays that will be unfurled on Thursday. It will provide more power to the international space station in preparation for European, Russian and Japanese science modules to be added in the next few years.
The free-flying bolt marred an otherwise successful and speedy six-hour, 26-minute spacewalk.
"You did a phenomenal job and set the bar very high for the rest of the assembly," Mission Control told the crew.
Tanner and Stefanyshyn-Piper zipped through a jam-packed list of arduous but mundane construction tasks, putting NASA ahead of schedule in connecting the addition. With extra time, Mission Control assigned them eight extra jobs of bolt removing and cover unlatching that would have been part of a Thursday spacewalk.
Atlantis astronauts Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean will venture outside on Wednesday.
The spacewalk was a first for rookie astronaut Stefanyshyn-Piper, who joined an elite club of female spacewalkers.
Only six other women have participated in any of the 159 U.S. spacewalks. A major reason: Spacesuits are too big for most women, said Stefanyn-Piper, who is 5 feet 10.
It's a cornfield plane...
Among the offerings are NFL Game Center, hosted by sports broadcaster James Brown, and The Mobile Fix, a five-minute entertainment news show. Also included is
Michael O'Learv/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Boeing Company and Stocker Farms in Snohomish, Wash., feature the shape of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner as the design for the farm's annual fall corn maze, shown Tuesday. A 10-acre field of corn was used to create the maze, which opens to the public.Sept. 22 and runs through Oct. 31. It takes about 90 minutes to get through the maze.
BUSINESS
Sprint offers video network to customers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OVERLAND PARK - Sprint Nextel Corp., the nation's third-largest wireless provider, on Tuesday launched Sprint Power View, its sports and entertainment video network for mobile phone customers.
"Consumers' strong appetites for sports and entertainment news at any time and any place — like mounting commutes via mass transportation or lengthy lines at nationwide airports — requires a
Sprint Power View will provide customers with about 25 minutes a day of brief, original segments on sports, entertainment and news.
New York Fashion Week, providing interviews with fashion designers.
Power View is free to Sprint Vision and Power Vision subscribers. Others pay at least $15 for an add-on Internet package with unlimited Power View.
The company already offers a video service to customers that includes streams of television networks and on-demand program clips.
fundamental shift in the way this content is delivered" Alana Muller, director of product marketing for Sprint, said in a news release.
Jeff Kagan, telecom industry analyst based in Atlanta, said Power View was an expected move in an industry that has watched the number of cell phone users slow recently.
"We're in the beginning of a long cycle of bringing these new technologies to the marketplace," Kagan said. "It's not the first, and it's not the last. But it's an important piece somewhere in the middle of this revolution of bringing television and movies to the cell phone."
Cingular spokesman Mark Siegel said Cingular, the country's largest cell-phone carrier, offers a similar service.
"What Sprint is announcing is essentially made-for-mobile video that you can get on your phone," Siegel said from his Atlanta office. "Cingular has had that for quite some time," with its live concerts and episodes of the HBO TV series "Entourage."
A spokesman for Verizon Wireless said subscribers to its $15-a-month Vcast service also have gotten similar content since the company launched the multimedia service last year.
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