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British astronaut steps into space

Charles Arthur
Friday 11 October 2002 00:00 BST
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The Astronaut Piers Sellers yesterday became the second Briton to have walked in space when he helped to make the final connections for a 14-ton, 350ft (100m) truss to the International Space Station.

Mr Sellers, 47, began the six-hour space walk yesterday after two colleagues from the station had used a robot arm to move the girder in place from the payload bay of the space shuttle Atlantis on to the enormous floating structure, 100 miles (160km) in space.

The father of two is originally from Crowborough, East Sussex, but now has US citizenship and lives with his family in Houston, Texas. He is the third UK-born person in orbit, after Helen Sharman and Michael Foale, who had their first space experiences in 1991 and 1992 respectively.

With the astronaut Dave Wolf, Mr Sellers carried out the space walk in order to connect power, data and fluid cables to the truss. He floated freely around the structure while Mr Wolf rode on the robotic arm itself. More space walks are planned for tomorrow and Monday.

The spacewalk follows the successful docking with the station on Wednesday in what the US space agency Nasa called a "picture perfect" move. The six-strong shuttle crew joined those aboard the orbiting outpost for dinner to mark the occasion. "Everything has gone real smoothly," said a Nasa spokesman.

Ms Sharman stayed aboard Russia's Mir space station for a week in 1991, and Mr Foale, who went into orbit the following year, becoming the first British space walker in 1995.

To achieve his goal, Mr Sellers had to become a US citizen and underwent years of intensive training. But the launch was delayed from last Wednesday due to fears that Hurricane Lili could threaten mission control in Houston. After the mission finally got under way on Monday the Nasa spokesman said Sellers could expect some "incredible" views on his first trip.

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