Spacewalking Astronauts Deliver Antenna Boom To Station

A spacewalking astronaut is hauling an eight-foot boom assembly up to a spare parts bin high atop the International Space Station, the first of several high-flying maneuvers Garrett Reisman will be making today.

With shuttle Atlantis docked at the station, Reisman is at a point about 55 feet above the spacecraft as they sweep over Chile, Bolivia and Brazil before heading out over the Atlantic Ocean.

He and spacewalking partner Stephen Bowen will be mounting the boom and, a little later, a six-foot-wide dish to the Z1 truss, which juts up perpendicularly from the U.S. Unity module and the long axis of the station's 335-foot central truss.

Atlantis mission specialist Piers Sellers is operating the 57.5-foot, Canadian-built robot arm that Reisman is anchored on. Shuttle mission specialist Mike Good and station flight engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson also will be operating the space crane during today's planned 6.5-hour excursion.

The robot arm is being operated at a work station inside the station's Cupola, which features seven windows and provides a 360-degree panoramic view outside the outpost.

Shuttle pilot Tony Antonelli is directing the spacewalk from a perch inside the 400-ton complex.