Shuttle Crew Finishes Project

Energy System Is Installed at Station

HOUSTON, Sept. 15 -- After a final six-hour spacewalk Friday, the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis finished building out the expanded solar energy system on the international space station.

The mission, completed by spacewalkers Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, was essential to any future construction at the station, which is half built and well behind schedule. NASA officials were delighted by the work done by the Atlantis team, the first construction at the space station since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

"We have to say what a wonderful job you both did today, especially you, Joe," Mission Control said as the astronauts returned to the station. "It was a legendary performance."

The extra credit went to Tanner because it was his seventh, and apparently last, spacewalk. He appeared reluctant to leave space at the end of the walk and spent some time looking out before entering the air lock.

The shuttle will leave the space station Sunday and prepare for a Wednesday landing. Before returning to Earth, however, the shuttle will circle the station and take the first full set of photos in several years. With the station's large new set of solar panels appearing as golden wings, NASA is expecting dramatic images.

Much of the work done Friday, and in the previous two Atlantis spacewalks, involved bolts and connectors that the astronauts had to open and close while wearing their bulky space gloves. Several bolts got stuck again, but none flew off into space, as two did in the other spacewalks. Fast-moving debris can harm spacecrafts, but NASA officials said they were certain that the missing bolts were far from the station.

NASA hopes to send 14 more shuttle missions to the station by 2010, at which point the agency hopes construction will be complete and the shuttles will be retired. Although Russian spacecraft travel regularly to the station, only the shuttles are large enough to carry some of the massive components needed to complete the station and its several research laboratories.