Atlantis, space station crews monitoring Destiny

Spacewalkers Jones and Curbeam installed a porthole on the space station

In this story: Light day for the crew Final spacewalk set for Wednesday Big room in space RELATED STORIES, SITES

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas -- The crews of the space shuttle Atlantis and international space station Alpha are spending a relatively quite day monitoring the newly installed Destiny science lab.

Destiny's computers and systems will allow NASA to take control of the space station in a month or two. Up until now, the two Russian pieces of Alpha provided the life support and commanding capability.

GALLERY Images from the installation    VIDEO CNN's Miles O'Brien explains the spacewalk Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) The space shuttle Atlantis carries the Destiny laboratory to the International Space Station Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     MISSION GUIDE All about STS-98     INTERACTIVE A 360° stroll through the international space station Cult3D models of the international space station, space shuttle Columbia, and Soyuz     RESOURCE NASA animation of the installation of the Destiny Laboratory Module     ALSO Space Shuttle Central $1.4 bill space lab sparks fierce science debate     MESSAGE BOARD Do we need the international space station?

The crews also are carefully scrutinizing a new set of gyroscopes that could mean huge savings in thruster fuel for the space station.

The four electrically powered gyroscopes were carried up to Alpha on an earlier shuttle mission. They took over control of the station's orientation in orbit from thrusters on one of the Russian modules of the station.

"We've reached another benchmark," Mission Control said as it informed station commander Bill Shepherd the gyroscopes were in control.

"Another step for the Federation," Shepherd responded with a reference to "Star Trek."

Testing of the gyroscopes will continue throughout the Atlantis flight.

Light day for the crew

Mission Control in Houston awakened the Atlantis astronauts shortly after 5 a.m. EST time Tuesday to AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock." The space station crew members -- Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev -- were allowed to sleep in two hours after working late Monday checking out Destiny's systems.

The astronauts and cosmonauts had a relatively light schedule Tuesday. Commander Ken Cockrell and Pilot Mark Polansky will use Atlantis' jet thrusters to slowly raise the altitude of the ISS for future operations.

Cockrell and Polansky will then join Mission Specialists Marsha Ivins, Bob Curbeam and Tom Jones for a few hours of off-duty time to relax and enjoy the view of Earth from orbit.

Final spacewalk set for Wednesday

The mission's third and final spacewalk is scheduled for Wednesday.

During the planned five-hour excursion, Jones and Curbeam will attach a backup communications antenna and take pictures of the huge U.S. solar arrays installed earlier.

On Monday, the astronauts briefly paused from their work to hear some good news from Mission Control: the NEAR spacecraft had landed on the asteroid Eros and was sending back signals.

"I hope we'll have some astronauts following to the asteroids in just a few years," said Jones, a planetary scientist.

Big room in space

Astronauts work on the exterior of the space station Monday

With the addition of Destiny, the fourth habitable module, Alpha surpasses the Russian space station Mir as the roomiest spacecraft ever to fly.

Because of Destiny's weight, 16 tons, Atlantis could not bring any lab equipment in its cargo bay. The first experiments should arrive in a month on the next shuttle flight. However, the lab will not be fully operational for several years.

The $200 billion space-station project is a joint effort of the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada.

When finished in 2006, the station should be a fully functional laboratory in space, with rotating teams of astronauts conducting experiments in the life sciences, astronomy and Earth observations.

Atlantis is scheduled to return from its 11-day flight on February 18.

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