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World News

Space repair operation a success

SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - Discovery astronaut Stephen Robinson removed two worrisome pieces of filler material from the shuttle's belly Aug. 3 in an unprecedented space repair job that drew a big sigh of relief from NASA.

Engineers had feared the strips of ceramic-fiber cloth might cause the shuttle to overheat during its descent through the atmosphere and lead to another Columbia-type disaster.

It was a delicate operation: Robinson had to be careful not to bump into the shuttle's fragile thermal tiles and make things worse.

Standing on the end of the space station's robot arm, he tugged out the first piece as he passed over Massachusetts. By the time he had pulled out the next fabric strip 10 minutes later, he had crossed the Atlantic and was zooming over the French coast.

"That was the ride of the century!" Robinson exclaimed.

"Steve, we trained for four years. You're going to spend the next four years signing autographs," said his partner, Soichi Noguchi.

Robinson, 49, who took his childhood Space-Cadet lunchbox into orbit with him, became the first person to venture beneath an orbiting shuttle and the first person to repair a shuttle's fragile thermal skin in space.


Shukan ST: Aug. 12, 2005

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