This still image from NASA video shows Mission Specialist James Reilly working outside the International Space Station.

Credit: NASA

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WASHINGTON, DC: Astronauts of the shuttle Atlantis started the first space walk of their mission today to install solar panels on the International Space Station, hundreds of kilometres above Australia.

Two of the crew, mission specialists John "Danny" Olivas and Jim Reilly, emerged from an airlock on the station at 08:02pm Monday GMT (05:02am Tuesday, Sydney time), in the first of three planned space walks, according to the U.S. space agency NASA.

Their job was to make power, data and cooling connections on a new 16-tonne truss segment containing solar panels, which was attached before the space walk with the help of the station's giant robotic arm.

The truss's solar arrays will dramatically increase the International Space Station's (ISS) power generation.

Orbital acrobatics

The shuttle docked with the ISS Sunday, after performing a dramatic backward somersault in space.

The space station crew rang a bell as shuttle astronauts came aboard through opened airlocks connecting the vessels and all shook hands and talked. The arrival was captured in images broadcast by NASA.

Shuttle commander Rick Sturckow brought the shuttle to a rest after a nearly 48-hour voyage from Earth, some 350 km away.

Before docking, Atlantis turned slowly over for station crew to photograph insulation on its underside, NASA said in a statement. A delicate parking manoeuvre followed, as Sturckow slowed the 100-tonne shuttle to a mere three meters per second and steered it into dock.

Following the link-up, the crews used the shuttle's robotic arm to lift the truss out of Atlantis' payload bay and to hand it over to the station's mechanical arm.
The digital photographs of Atlantis's underbelly were to be transmitted to Texas and examined to make certain that its heat-protective exterior is in good shape for its return to Earth.

The shuttle, on its first mission of the year, suffered a 10 cm tear on a thermal blanket and small pieces of foam broke off from its external fuel tanks after it blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida Friday.

Lift-off damage is a concern after the February 2003 shuttle disaster. The Columbia craft disintegrated as it returned to Earth due to breaks in its heat shield caused by foam insulation peeling off its fuel tank and striking a wing during the launch.

Damage concerns

All seven astronauts aboard perished and the shuttle program was put on hold for nearly two and a half years while the U.S. space agency sought to overcome the problem, modifying the external fuel tank and setting procedures to check the heat shield while in orbit.

NASA has played down concerns over the damage to Atlantis. One of the mission's directors, John Shannon, said the damage is in a spot not exposed to the highest heat as the shuttle breaks through Earth's atmosphere.
But he said that a decision on whether to send astronauts on a spacewalk to repair the blanket would be taken today.

"They will be back to me tomorrow and lay out options," Shannon told reporters in Houston, Texas. "And we will decide then if we want to do anything for this blanket and then if we want to do something about it, what's the right course of action and what space walk would be appropriate to do it."

Atlantis's 11-day mission STS-117 is the first since hail damage to the spacecraft in a freak storm forced NASA to scrap a March lift-off.

When unfolded, the new solar arrays will provide additional power to the station in preparation for the arrival of new science modules from the European and Japanese space agencies. At least two other space walks are planned on Wednesday and Friday, to continue installing the equipment.

The ISS is a key stepping stone for preparing manned missions to Mars. NASA plans at least 13 more shuttle missions to finish the US$ 100-billion station by 2010, when the agency retires its three-shuttle fleet.

The Atlantis mission is led by Sturckow, 45, a Marine colonel, who was joined in the cockpit by co-pilot Lee Archambault, 46, an air force colonel. The crew includes mission specialists Reilly, 53, Patrick Forrester, 50, Steven Swanson, 46, and Olivas, 42. The seventh passenger, Clayton Anderson, 48, will serve a four-month mission aboard the ISS. He switched places Sunday with flight engineer Sunita Williams, who has been there since December. She will return to Earth on board Atlantis.