Astronauts Make 1st Foray Into New Space Station

HOUSTON — Six astronauts jubilantly swung open the doors to the new international space station and flipped on the lights Thursday, becoming the first people aboard the 250-mile-high outpost.

“It’s fantastic. I can’t say how much this means to all of us,” Robert Cabana, commander of the attached shuttle Endeavour, said by radio.

Cabana beckoned for Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev to join him in crossing the threshold of the U.S.-Russian complex, and they floated in side by side.

The astronauts installed air ducts and fans and planned to bring aboard clothes and other supplies for the first permanent crew, due to arrive in 2000. Also high on the crew’s to-do list was removing hundreds of bolts that were used to reinforce the station components for launch.

For the five Americans, one Russian and hundreds of flight controllers below, it was a moment for which they and their countries had been striving for years.

The space station consists of only two rooms so far and is still more than five years from completion. But if all goes as planned, the controversial facility will grow into a $63-billion complex of laboratories and dormitories over the next five years. It is to house crews of seven at a time on a perpetual basis, to conduct research in a variety of fields and prepare for human expeditions to the moon and Mars in the next century.

Its first permanent residents, Krikalev and two other men, won’t even move in for about another year.

A third and final spacewalk to wrap up work outside the station is scheduled for Saturday.