The astronauts on NASA’s final space shuttle flight got cracking on Monday on all their supply delivery work, successfully hoisting a giant trunk out of Atlantis and attaching it to the International Space Station.
The 21-foot canister holds more than 4 tons of food, clothes and other provisions - enough to keep the orbiting outpost and its residents in business for at least another year.
Shuttle astronauts Sandra Magnus and Douglas Hurley used the space station’s hulking robot arm to hoist the Italian-built chamber, named Raffaello, out of Atlantis’ payload bay first thing on Monday morning. They moved it into position on the station and bolted it down, accomplishing the job an hour ahead of schedule.
The astronauts planned to open the hatch and enter Raffaello later in the day, and start removing all the trays and bags of supplies.
They also got some good news - NASA no longer has any concern about a piece of space junk due to swing by Tuesday. On Sunday, mission management team leader LeRoy Cain said controllers were monitoring the orbiting debris and that there was a chance it might come dangerously close. But on Monday, experts ascertained that the object - a piece of an old Soviet-era satellite - would remain at a safe distance and the shuttle-station complex would not need to move out of the way.
Space junk is said to be the No. 1 threat facing the space station in the coming decade. More than 500,000 pieces of orbiting debris are being tracked, according to NASA. Two weeks ago, the six space station residents had to seek shelter in their lifeboats when a piece of junk came within 1,100 feet - the closest encounter yet.
