Spacewalking astronaut celebrates Thanksgiving by taking thrilling ride on station arm

<br>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) _ A spacewalking astronaut celebrated Thanksgiving by taking a thrilling ride on the international space station's robot arm from one side of the orbiting complex to the

Friday, November 29th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) _ A spacewalking astronaut celebrated Thanksgiving by taking a thrilling ride on the international space station's robot arm from one side of the orbiting complex to the other.

John Herrington clutched a 600-pound rail car as the robot arm swung him in a 180-degree arc Thursday evening so he could relocate the wagon. He hooted and shouted, ``Oh my goodness,'' as he gazed down at Earth below.

It was NASA's first Thanksgiving Day spacewalk and the second one this week for Herrington, the first American Indian in space, and Michael Lopez-Alegria.

The two astronauts, visiting from the docked space shuttle Endeavour, hooked up the plumbing on the space station's newest addition, a $390 million high-tech beam. They quickly connected the pair of lines, which eventually will contain ammonia for cooling the outpost.

The highlight of the six-hour spacewalk came at the very end, when Herrington took his memorable ride.

Herrington anchored his feet at the end of the space station's 58-foot robot arm and lifted the rail cart that was launched atop the beam. Astronauts inside slowly steered Herrington, with the wagon tight in his hands, to the girder on the opposite end some 50 feet away so he could fasten the cart to an identical one already there.

``I never thought I'd be doing this in my life _ wow,'' Herrington said.

He marveled at the moon rising over the Indian Ocean and said he'd love to take a picture, but that his hands were full.

Observed Lopez-Alegria: ``You look like a guy holding a 4-by-8 piece of plywood with a bunch of stuff strapped to it.''

The carts are intended for use by spacewalkers during space station construction. Lopez-Alegria and Herrington tried out the newest one before its relocation. Herrington used his arms to pull himself along the tracks as the cart, anchored to his feet, dragged along.

NASA wants the two carts attached to a bigger and more elaborate railcar that is used to transport the space station's robot arm, to keep the tracks clear for crane operations. For now, these tracks stretch 134 feet over three linked girders. By the time eight more girders and sets of track are connected end to end over the coming year, the framework will extend 356 feet and support giant solar wings.

Herrington and Lopez-Alegria, both 44-year-old Navy pilots, will conduct a third and final spacewalk Saturday to wrap up work on the new girder.

Lopez-Alegria sent holiday greetings to Mission Control first thing Thursday morning.

``We all miss our families and we're sorry that you all are having to work on Thanksgiving, but it's all for a good cause,'' he said.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, Mission Control replaced the shuttle icon on its large spaceship-tracking world map with a turkey.

Americans have been in orbit on 10 previous Thanksgivings, but remained inside their spacecraft. A Thanksgiving Day spacewalk was scheduled for a shuttle flight in 1996, but the hatch jammed and kept the astronauts stuck inside.