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CNN Live Saturday

NASA Astronauts Conduct Repairs on Space Station

Aired October 12, 2002 - 13:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It's quite a construction job, and it's out of this world, and our CNN space correspondent Miles O'Brien is taking us out on a galactic tour.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: A galactic tour, I like that, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, you can have it.

O'BRIEN: Yeah, it's kind of probably a welcomed relief for a lot of people right now, given the news of the day. So let's do a little bit of escapism journalism, shall we, and head about 250 miles above us.

The place is space. And the site is, well, how do you like that for a work site? These two guys, Piers Sellers and Dave Wolf, astronauts at NASA, are probably the most glorified pipe fitters in or off this planet right now.

That was early on in their space walk. And as you can see, lower right, you see the end of the space station robot arm, built by Canada, for a cool $1 billion. The two of them exiting from the airlock called Quest (ph) on the International Space Station, which points down in the middle of your screen, and there the wonderful blue planet on which we reside, as they began their work.

They are now about three hours into a six-walk space walk. Take a look at what it's like via helmet cam. They each have cameras mounted on their helmets so you can peek over their shoulder. See those connecters there that they have their hands on? They are spending a lot of time fixing them. It turns out NASA engineers over- engineered the connections on these ammonia lines. Ammonia is not used to clean the station, it's used for cooling. And as a result, they will be hard to disconnect they way they are right now. They kind of get frozen up.

So they are putting a little collar on them to actually ease off some of the pressure that builds up inside then. They are going to do this to 24 separate connections. Sounds like tedious work? Well, remember that view we just showed you, that's not so bad.

Before they left, I asked one of the space walkers, Peter Sellers, what it's like working on this $390 million trust which they installed a few days ago. He said it's a combination of very hardy things and very fragile things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS SELLERS, NASA ASTRONAUT: So it's like, if you like, it's like a big jungle gym for kids with a few main vases scattered around it that you better pay attention to, and that's what the space walking training comes. You get this feeling of nervousness, you know, like a zone, as you come up to one of these national treasures. And pay more attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Now, yesterday I had a chance to talk to Piers Sellers, Dave Wolf, and Sangy Magnus (ph), the woman who controls that robot arm that I was telling you about. I asked Piers if he broke any main vases.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SELLERS: When you break a main vase, you should put the pieces back together very carefully so the next guy who touches it, it falls apart and they get the blame. No, no, really, I didn't say that. No, hopefully everything has pretty much got its cash value that it started out with, but it really is just like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: You know what they say in space? If you break it, you have bought it.

Let's take a look at some live pictures coming down right now. Actually, Those are cartoons. Some of the better cartoons NASA offers, as a matter of fact. Actually, those are computer animations. I say that cartoon, that's a bit of a pejorative. That's exactly where space walker Piers Sellers is right now. So engineers, without looking at a bunch of strange numbers, can actually understand where they are when they have lost the communication, television communication with the space station and the international -- excuse me, Atlantis.

And what you're looking down on is the cargo bay of Atlantis, and there is that piece of the trust that we've been telling you all about. This trust, which carries a cooling system, and is really the backbone of the space station. Eventually, it will span about 360 feet, Fredricka. And there is going to be -- do you know what a gandy dancer is?

WHITFIELD: No.

O'BRIEN: OK. A gandy dancer is that thing on the railroad that guys used to do this thing. You know?

WHITFIELD: Oh, yeah, yeah.

O'BRIEN: They are going to have a glorified gandy dancer up there so the astronauts, when they go to far reaches of the space station, can kind of pump their way across the rails.

WHITFIELD: Oh, yeah. Oh, that would be cool. So, how long is this phase of this project is going to last?

O'BRIEN: Well, this particular mission, of course, is just a week. But they will finish this trust-building enterprise, if you will, in about 2004, and then they will call it kind of -- it will be sort of a preliminary complete phase at that point. And there will be other modules that will be added on later. But they will call it core complete, which means sort of the basics are done, and the hope is that they'll be able to add additional crew members at that point so they can do some real science up there. That's what they hope.

WHITFIELD: All right. That's very cool. Well, thank you, Miles, for that great escape.

O'BRIEN: We're happy to provide it.

WHITFIELD: That was nice. I appreciate it. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 12, 2002 - 13:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It's quite a construction job, and it's out of this world, and our CNN space correspondent Miles O'Brien is taking us out on a galactic tour.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: A galactic tour, I like that, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, you can have it.

O'BRIEN: Yeah, it's kind of probably a welcomed relief for a lot of people right now, given the news of the day. So let's do a little bit of escapism journalism, shall we, and head about 250 miles above us.

The place is space. And the site is, well, how do you like that for a work site? These two guys, Piers Sellers and Dave Wolf, astronauts at NASA, are probably the most glorified pipe fitters in or off this planet right now.

That was early on in their space walk. And as you can see, lower right, you see the end of the space station robot arm, built by Canada, for a cool $1 billion. The two of them exiting from the airlock called Quest (ph) on the International Space Station, which points down in the middle of your screen, and there the wonderful blue planet on which we reside, as they began their work.

They are now about three hours into a six-walk space walk. Take a look at what it's like via helmet cam. They each have cameras mounted on their helmets so you can peek over their shoulder. See those connecters there that they have their hands on? They are spending a lot of time fixing them. It turns out NASA engineers over- engineered the connections on these ammonia lines. Ammonia is not used to clean the station, it's used for cooling. And as a result, they will be hard to disconnect they way they are right now. They kind of get frozen up.

So they are putting a little collar on them to actually ease off some of the pressure that builds up inside then. They are going to do this to 24 separate connections. Sounds like tedious work? Well, remember that view we just showed you, that's not so bad.

Before they left, I asked one of the space walkers, Peter Sellers, what it's like working on this $390 million trust which they installed a few days ago. He said it's a combination of very hardy things and very fragile things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS SELLERS, NASA ASTRONAUT: So it's like, if you like, it's like a big jungle gym for kids with a few main vases scattered around it that you better pay attention to, and that's what the space walking training comes. You get this feeling of nervousness, you know, like a zone, as you come up to one of these national treasures. And pay more attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Now, yesterday I had a chance to talk to Piers Sellers, Dave Wolf, and Sangy Magnus (ph), the woman who controls that robot arm that I was telling you about. I asked Piers if he broke any main vases.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SELLERS: When you break a main vase, you should put the pieces back together very carefully so the next guy who touches it, it falls apart and they get the blame. No, no, really, I didn't say that. No, hopefully everything has pretty much got its cash value that it started out with, but it really is just like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: You know what they say in space? If you break it, you have bought it.

Let's take a look at some live pictures coming down right now. Actually, Those are cartoons. Some of the better cartoons NASA offers, as a matter of fact. Actually, those are computer animations. I say that cartoon, that's a bit of a pejorative. That's exactly where space walker Piers Sellers is right now. So engineers, without looking at a bunch of strange numbers, can actually understand where they are when they have lost the communication, television communication with the space station and the international -- excuse me, Atlantis.

And what you're looking down on is the cargo bay of Atlantis, and there is that piece of the trust that we've been telling you all about. This trust, which carries a cooling system, and is really the backbone of the space station. Eventually, it will span about 360 feet, Fredricka. And there is going to be -- do you know what a gandy dancer is?

WHITFIELD: No.

O'BRIEN: OK. A gandy dancer is that thing on the railroad that guys used to do this thing. You know?

WHITFIELD: Oh, yeah, yeah.

O'BRIEN: They are going to have a glorified gandy dancer up there so the astronauts, when they go to far reaches of the space station, can kind of pump their way across the rails.

WHITFIELD: Oh, yeah. Oh, that would be cool. So, how long is this phase of this project is going to last?

O'BRIEN: Well, this particular mission, of course, is just a week. But they will finish this trust-building enterprise, if you will, in about 2004, and then they will call it kind of -- it will be sort of a preliminary complete phase at that point. And there will be other modules that will be added on later. But they will call it core complete, which means sort of the basics are done, and the hope is that they'll be able to add additional crew members at that point so they can do some real science up there. That's what they hope.

WHITFIELD: All right. That's very cool. Well, thank you, Miles, for that great escape.

O'BRIEN: We're happy to provide it.

WHITFIELD: That was nice. I appreciate it. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com