Challenging repairs done to space station

HOUSTON (AP) -- In a routine but difficult spacewalk Monday, two astronauts fixed a crucial piece of the international space station, allowing it to be added on to later this year.
Space shuttle Discovery astronauts Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum replaced a cable reel to a rail car needed to move large pieces around the giant orbital outpost in a spacewalk dotted with glitches.
The reel, severed accidentally last year by a cable cutter, provides video, data and power to the rail car. The astronauts immobilized the cutter in their first spacewalk Saturday.
NASA managers said fixing the cable reel was vital to space station construction, which will take 15 more shuttle flights.
"Whew, man, do I feel better," space station flight director Rick LaBrode told journalists after the spacewalk. "I tell you, I've spent the better part of the last three years of my life putting together this mission, and this particular [spacewalk] was my main concern.
"If we didn't get this successfully changed and checked out, then we couldn't proceed with the next mission which was on our heels," LaBrode said.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.