Crew Adds Segment to Space Station

Space shuttle Discovery’s astronauts attached a new segment to the international space station despite a short circuit that knocked out critical visual equipment. The shuttle’s robot arm operator, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, installed the girder-like truss after more than three hours of anxious delay. Flight controllers at Kennedy Space Center applauded when the pieces finally came together. The electrical short not only dragged out the first construction job of the mission, it made it more difficult. The short occurred as Wakata was preparing to latch on to the truss in the shuttle cargo bay and lift it onto the space station. It was the second equipment problem to strike the mission. The shuttle’s main antenna broke without warning and forced shuttle commander Brian Duffy to dock with the space station Friday without the benefit of radar, a shuttle first.