Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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October 27, 2007

Astronauts Add New Section to Space Station
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1A08BB9:A6F02AD83191E16065F47BE6CD761BB69574F7DCC14957C0 Section added
during first of five spacewalks planned during two-week mission
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have successfully
attached a new room to the station. They completed the task during the
first of five spacewalks planned during their two-week mission. VOA's
Alex Villarreal reports from Washington.







Astronauts Douglas Wheelock, below the antenna and astronaut Scott
Parazynski, feet towards camera, work on stowing the broken antenna in
the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery, 26 Oct 2007Crew members
of the U.S. space shuttle, Discovery, embarked Friday on the mission's
first spacewalk.

During the more than six-hour excursion, the Discovery and
International Space Station crews used the station's robotic arm to
move a new module, named Harmony, from the shuttle to a temporary
location on the space station.

Space Station Flight Director Derek Hassman called the day a success.
"It's not very often that I can report that a day goes exactly as we
planned, but this is probably about as close as we get to one of those
days. And this is one of those days where you really appreciate all
the months and years of planning that go into these missions," he
said.

The Harmony module, the size of a bus, will provide docking ports for
Japanese and European scientific laboratories to be installed on the
space station. It will be moved to its permanent location after the
shuttle departs.

Space Station program manager Kirk Shireman said the module is a
welcome addition. "Today, the International Space Station is 18
percent more volume than it was yesterday with the attachment of
Harmony. We went to..we were 15,000, about 15,000 cubic feet. Today
we're 2,600 feet, cubic feet more. So we're glad to have the extra
volume on board ISS."

Spacewalkers also worked Friday on a massive solar power structure
that will be relocated during future spacewalks and retrieved a broken
antenna to be returned to Earth.

So far, the mission has not encountered major problems. After
Discovery docked on Thursday, NASA engineers analyzed photos of the
shuttle for damage. NASA officials say the engineers found nothing to
warrant more focused inspection.

Discovery launched on Tuesday and is expected to return to Earth on
November 6.




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