July 9, 2001

 Airlock ready for launch to station

 Module will allow Alpha's residents to venture out into space

 By Steven Siceloff
 FLORIDA TODAY

 CAPE CANAVERAL - Every house needs a front porch, and space station Alpha
 is ready to get one of its own during the shuttle mission scheduled to
 launch Thursday.

 Often compared to a genie bottle, baby bottle top or a musical
 instrument, the $164 million joint airlock, called Quest, offers a place
 for spacewalkers moving from the friendly confines of the station to the
 harsh environs of space.

 It is also the last step towards Alpha's independence. The outpost
 already has life support, a power supply and experiment sections. The
 $164 million airlock gives station crews a way to conduct spacewalks
 without needing a shuttle attached. Until the airlock is in place,
 astronauts have to use the shuttle's airlock.

 Station crewmembers Yury Usachev and Jim Voss made one spacewalk in June
 using Russian Orlan spacesuits. The two worked only inside the station,
 though they could have moved outside if needed.

 Quest is set up to handle both American and Russian spacesuits. Russia is
 to send up another airlock in September that will handle only Russian
 Orlan spacesuits.

 Spacewalkers Michael Gernhardt and Jim Reilly will have to perform
 emergency work if something goes wrong with the installation. For
 example, a major failure of the 58-foot-long space station robot arm
 could see the astronauts using cordless drill-type tools to move the
 space station's robot arm manually into place.

 "We feel if we had to do it, it would certainly be something we could
 do," Gernhardt said.

 Gernhardt and Reilly will use the airlock for the last of the three
 planned spacewalks for the Atlantis mission.

 Wearing bulky spacesuits, the pair will be cramped inside the
 5-foot-diameter, 9-foot-long section just before floating out the hatch
 into space.

 A larger equipment area makes up the rest of the airlock assembly. With a
 141/2-foot diameter, the equipment lock is large enough to hold three
 spacesuits and the gear needed to recharge them after spacewalks.

 "It's similar to a locker room," Peggy Guirgis, spacewalk systems lead,
 said.

 The airlock could become a center of work as the station ages and
 astronauts and cosmonauts venture out onto the structure to make repairs
 and replace critical parts. It also will be used during assembly of
 Alpha's 300-foot-long truss of solar arrays next year.

 By using the station airlock, spacewalkers can go to work on the station
 without disrupting the shuttle and station crews during a mission. During
 shuttle spacewalks, the hatch between Alpha and an orbiter remain closed,
 limiting the crews' work.

 Almost as important, the airlock is ringed with four large tanks of
 oxygen and nitrogen. The canisters, hooked up to lines running throughout
 the American segment, provide the life-sustaining atmosphere for the
 station and experiments. A Russian oxygen generator called Elektron does
 the work for the station, supplemented by air from Russian Progress cargo
 capsules.

 "This is the first time we'll be using U.S. oxygen on the International
 Space Station," Christina Tyrell, lead station environmental officer,
 said.

 Getting the 61/2-ton segment in place will be one of the most complex
 maneuvers in the station's young history. It requires not only two
 spacewalkers from Atlantis, but both the shuttle robotic arm and the
 station's own remote crane.

 Glitches on outpost's 58-foot-long arm, which will lift the segment from
 Atlantis, were the reason the airlock did not head to space last month. A
 computer chip in the shoulder joint blinked out several times, calling
 the whole backup control and power system on the arm into question.

 Rather than risk getting to space with a cargo that could not be
 unloaded, flight controllers opted to wait out the troubles.