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Astronauts prepare to install space station segment

Atlantis shuttle astronauts were set to install a key segment for the unfinished International Space Station yesterday in the first construction work since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

The six astronauts arrived at the station on Monday aboard a shuttle that so far appears free of serious damage, and NASA decided that it did not need an extra inspection of Atlantis' heat shield.

After docking with the station, the astronauts and three space station occupants warmly shook hands and then quickly went to work as they made initial preparations to install two solar panels that will provide power.

The astronauts used the shuttle's robot arm to move a 16-tonne truss segment with the solar arrays to the station's own Canadian-made arm, which was scheduled to attach the part to the station yesterday.

The last station assembly mission was in November 2002. The Columbia disaster three months later forced NASA to focus on improving shuttle flight safety.

After two Discovery shuttle missions -- aimed at making space flight safer -- were completed, NASA said it was ready to resume space station construction.

The 11-day Atlantis mission launched on Saturday has been billed as the most complex station assembly work to date.

After attaching the segment, Atlantis astronauts Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper were scheduled for a spacewalk to connect power cables.

Two other spacewalks are planned to complete installation of the solar panels this week.

US space officials at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, were pleased with how the mission has gone so far.
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