- The U.S. and Russian crew of the international space
station reported a brief unexpected metallic crunching noise outside the
outpost early today.
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- Astronaut Mike Foale told NASA's Mission Control the
noise sounded as if something had struck the aft end of the Russian module
that houses the crew's sleeping quarters, kitchen and lavoratory.
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- Both U.S. and Russian ground-based experts could find
no evidence of penetration of the station's airtight hull or the cooling
system for the electronic equipment that is responsible for many of the
operations.
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- "All systems are intact," said NASA's Rob Navias,
a space station program spokesman. "All of the data from the U.S.
and Russian sides shows nothing out of the ordinary."
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- Later, Foale used video cameras on the station's 57-foot-long
robot arm to scan the external areas of the outpost from which the noise
seemed to come in search of potential damage.
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- "Unfortunately, we're looking tangential at the
area we think we heard the noise come from," Foale reported after
30 minutes of scanning. "We don't see any blemish at all."
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- Both Foale, the station's commander, and Russian cosmonaut
Alexander Kaleri, the flight engineer, heard the noise at 1:59 a.m. CST,
as they were completing their breakfast and cleanup period.
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- "It sounded like a metal tin can kind of being expanded
and compressed," Foale informed Mission Control a moment later. "It
was a noise that lasted about a second. It sounded like an impact or something."
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- "For a couple of seconds there was a strange noise,
probably from outside," Kaleri told Russia's Mission Control. "I
don't think there was a jet firing. We heard the noise, both of us."
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- Several thrusters that can be used to streer the space
station as it circles the Earth are attached outside the area where the
two men were.
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- Ground control joined the astronauts in checking external
video camera views as well as internal air and coolant pressure levels.
None of the readings explained the noise, though more analysis was under
way.
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- The Department of Defense, which monitors ortibal space
with radar for surprise missile launches, tracks the movements of thousands
of pieces of debris from old satellites and rocket launches in orbit around
the Earth. If the military surveillance forecasts a close approach, NASA
is alerted so the space station can be maneuvered safely away.
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- Foale and Kaleri continued their normal maintenance and
research activities. They planned to observe the Thanksgiving holiday with
a light work schedule and a meal that included turkey and chicken and rice.
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- The two men began a 6 1/2-month tour of duty aboard the
240-mile-high orbital outpost in mid-October.
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- Earlier this month, the space station marked its third
year of continuous occupation, a milestone accomplished in spite of the
fatal Columbia shuttle accident. The Feb. 1 tragedy grounded NASA's shuttle
fleet and forced the suspension of assembly activities until at least next
fall.
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- http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/space/2252777
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