Jan 14, 10:01 PM

 Crane relocated on space station

 By Steven Siceloff
 FLORIDA TODAY

 CAPE CANAVERAL -- Astronaut Carl Walz hung onto the boom of a Russian
 cargo crane like a trapeze artist Monday while Russian cosmonaut Yuri
 Onufrienko swung him into position outside space station Alpha.

 The boom was Walz' only connection to the station for a few minutes. Past
 spacewalkers have described the experience as a constant falling
 sensation since there is no structure around, and Earth is 200 miles
 below.

 Walz said the work was different from the water training he received
 before the mission.

 "In comparison to the hydrolab, there's no comparison," he said.

 The two spent about six hours climbing around the station's hull while
 relocating a Russian crane and connecting a HAM radio antenna.

 The crane took most of the time, and called for a delicate maneuver that
 brought the 45-foot-long boom within a foot of one of Alpha's fragile
 solar panels.

 Onufrienko and Walz attached the second crane, a twin of the one Walz
 rode over, to the first so it could be attached to a different segment of
 the outpost.

 "That is an excellent gift to us," Russian ground controllers radioed the
 pair when they secured the crane.

 The somewhat ungainly operation, which Onufrienko carried out once before
 on the Russian Mir space station, went smoothly for the pair.

 The Russian cranes are a less complex alternative to the Canadian robot
 arm that operates on the American side of Alpha. They are central to
 Russian plans to erect a tower of solar arrays to power their modules in
 the future.

 The devices are expected to move scores of astronauts and cargo packages
 around the outside of Alpha during the station's 15-year lifetime. It was
 the seventh spacewalk from the outpost.