Global Fastener News

FEATURE

A view from astronaut Clayton Anderson’s helmet camera shows the troublesome bolt on the ammonia tank (courtesy NASA TV)

A second view of the stuck bolt

MEDIA SPOTLIGHT

Editor’s Note: Articles in Media Spotlight are excerpts from publications or broadcasts that show the industry what the public is reading or hearing about fasteners and fastener companies.

It took spacewalking astronauts two hours – and a hammer and pry bar – to overcome a stiff bolt while attaching a large tank full of ammonia coolant to the International Space Station, the Associated Press reports.

“Making their second spacewalk in three days, Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson banged and pulled and shoved, with no success, on the stuck bolt,” writes Marcia Dunn of AP. “They undid the good bolts and jostled the 1,700-pound, refrigerator-size tank in case it was misaligned. Finally, the troublesome bolt slid into its slot.”

As he turned the bolt during the 7 1/2 hour spacewalk, astronaut Clayton Anderson said, “Come on, baby. Get on there. Yeah, get ‘er done.”

From inside the shuttle, astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger reportedly complimented Anderson, a Nebraskan, with a baseball term.

“Clay makes turning bolts look like a can of corn,” she said, referring to an easily caught fly ball. “That was a long, long day, and you did a really good job.”

Trouble with the bolt, which came on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 launch, delayed the fluid line hookups for the tank, which holds ammonia circulated through radiators to cool space station electronics, until the third and final spacewalk on Tuesday.

NASA plans to refill the ammonia tank and return to the space station this summer as a spare.

Discovery is scheduled to land on April 19.

Two years ago astronauts struggled with a faulty bolt on another mission to the space station. That 3-inch bolt had explosive power greater than an M-80 firecracker. ©2010 GlobalFastenerNews.com