News Story - Idaho State Journal

HOUSTON (AP) - With their outdoor work completed, the astronauts aboard the orbiting shuttle-station complex focused all their attention on the inside of the new Columbus lab.

The 10 space travelers have all day Saturday and just half a day Sunday before the hatches between shuttle Atlantis and the international space station are sealed.

The astronauts awoke Saturday to the song ''I Believe I Can Fly'' by Yolando Adams and Kenny G.

On Friday, a pair of spacewalking astronauts wrapped up work on the exterior of Columbus, installing a package of sun-gazing instruments as well as a huge box of radiation, orbital debris and other experiments.

The European Space Agency's station program manager, Alan Thirkettle, couldn't be more pleased.

''We're really a real partner now, and we feel it and it's a very, very nice feeling, indeed,'' Thirkettle said. ''We're a very happy set of bunnies.''

During their 7 1/2-hour spacewalk, Rex Walheim and Stanley Love also installed handrails on Columbus, and removed a broken gyroscope from the space station and loaded it into the shuttle for next week's ride home. They did not have time to inspect a jammed solar rotary joint on the orbiting outpost.

Before going back inside, the astronauts examined a small chip in a handrail near the space station's hatch. Love spotted the chip during Monday's spacewalk, and Mission Control dubbed it Love Crater.

Walheim put on a s

This document was originally published online on Saturday, February 16, 2008

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