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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuter) - The crew of the space shuttle Columbia prepared to take a Thanksgiving night spacewalk in which they will practice construction of NASA's planned international space station.
The astronauts were to spend most of their ninth day in space checking out the spacewalking gear that Tammy Jernigan and Tom Jones will use during a 6 1/2-hour excursion into the shuttle's 60-foot-long cargo bay on Thursday evening.
During the spacewalk, the first of two planned for this mission, the astronauts will evaluate equipment that will be used to build the sprawling space station, including a 17-foot-long manually operated crane. They will also test power tools and foot restraints.
NASA estimates that about 80 spacewalks will be needed to complete assembly of the sprawling outpost. By comparison, during the 15-year shuttle program, astronauts have made just 33 spacewalks.
The space agency says it needs to gain more spacewalking experience before construction of the station gets under way in November 1997.
"We certainly have a big task ahead of us," Daryl Schuck, a spacewalk specialist at mission control in Houston, said. "We are aware of that. That's probably the reason we are doing these series of flights, to identify the shortcomings and where we need to improve."
Columbia's crew of five, led by Ken Cockrell, who goes by the nickname "Taco," was awakened at about 4 p.m. EST by a recording of "Alice's Restaurant," piped into the shuttle's cabin by mission control.
"Columbia, Taco's Restaurant is one day away from preparing your Thanksgiving Day meal," spacecraft communicator Dominic Gorie called. "Good morning from Houston and Alice's Restaurant."
"Good morning, Houston. And we have our turkey thawing out right now," astronaut Tom Jones replied.
The astronauts plan to dine on irradiated turkey steaks after they complete their spacewalk early on Friday morning.