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December 1, 2002
CAPE CANAVERAL -- A railcar crucial to the construction of the international space station stalled on its tracks Saturday, but a spacewalking astronaut got it moving again.
Within minutes, John Herrington had found an obstruction: The railcar's cable-reel assembly was hung up on a radio antenna on the space station's newest girder.
Mission Control instructed him to deploy the stowed antenna in hopes of clearing the snag. The antenna would not budge, but he managed to free it.
The spacewalk by Herrington and Michael Lopez-Alegria had been planned so they could complete work on the newly installed $390-million girder.
Flight controllers initially suspected the railcar problem might have been caused by a momentary loss of computer data. But later, they said the railcar probably snagged on something while traveling down the tracks.
Astronauts inside the space station zoomed in on the area with cameras but didn't see anything unusual. So Mission Control asked the spacewalkers to check the railcar and two minicarts linked to it.
The $190-million railcar was empty when it abruptly stopped, after traveling about 45 feet, 10 feet short of its destination. It had just crossed onto the new girder, which was delivered by space shuttle Endeavour last week.
After a 51/2-hour interruption, the railcar resumed its trip down the tracks and reached its destination.
The space station's 58-foot arm was supposed to be maneuvered onto the railcar to serve as a crane during Saturday's spacewalk. But Mission Control warned Herrington and Lopez-Alegria, visiting from Endeavour, that they might have to perform some of their work on the new girder without the use of the arm.