HEADLINE NEWS
Editor's Note:This section of Jim Slade's Air Lines is devoted to current news stories about aviation and its people. The latest story will be posted at the top of the column. Some accounts will come from established news organizations, others will be provided by our friends in the field.
For more on the equipment and its effects, see The Left Seat.
Discovery Album.
August 3, 2005.
Well, they got 'em! Astronaut Steve Robinson, backed up by his crewmates on Discovery and the Space Station, did one of the most spectacular EVA's yet, going under the space shuttle to remove two protruding pieces of felt or "gap fillers" from the shuttle's thermal protection system (tiles) on its belly. Here's a sequence of some of the best shots, relayed from the shuttle's TV through a communications satellite to Houston:
Standing in a foot clamp held in the grip of the station's robotic arm, Steve Robinson approaches Discovery's belly. Maybe we should call this picture, "Say ahhhh.."
Here's Robinson's view as he comes near the nose. He's the first person ever to see a shuttle like this during flight. The danger is that he might strike the spaceship's delicate tile system with something. He didn't.
 Reach out and touch it.
Robinson called out the distances to the arm operators, who moved him virtually by inches to the correct position. He kept his hands in front of him as a gauge for the operators. No other part of his suit ever came that close.
Gotcha!!
One of the offending gap fillers is in Robinson's right hand in this picture. The red tinting is from the glue. Both fillers pulled out with no resistance.
As the cameras pulled away, there was this shot of Discovery's under-profile.
Fantastic day in space.
August 1, 2005
The space station, seen from the flight deck of Discovery. Station's robotic arm in near center, Soyuz space taxi docked at far end.
Japanese Astronaut, Soichi Noguchi, suiting up in Discovery's airlock for one of three crucial spacewalks with his partner, Steve Robinson.
 On the end of one of the robotic Canadarms, Noguchi holds a washing machine-sized Gyroscope as it's transferred to the station to replace one that failed three years ago.
 Ready to install. They put in a new gyro, but it's very important that they bring back the broken one for study. They bolted the bad one in the shuttle's cargo bay for the ride home.
Man at work. Hard work.
Mother Earth.
 This is the shuttle's robotic arm, holding a 50 foot sensor and camera extension which now allows spaceborne crews to survey their spaceship for damage. They're seeing things they never were able to see before.
Crewmembers install newly-arrived equipment in the station. This rack is full of experiments relating to the effects of spaceflight on the human body. It's been impossible to deliver such large items during the shuttle's stand-down.
The Nile Delta, about 230 miles straight down. Rafaello delivery module in the foreground.
A truss section of the International Space Station.
Discovery and Station crews together.
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