Word: thorntons
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...simple as building a Lego-block spaceship. The "Dr. Goodwrenches," as Mission Control dubbed them, not only breezed through every job on their work order and a few more on the "just in case" list, but they also made it look like fun. "Piece of cake!" shouted Kathryn Thornton, perched atop the shuttle's 50-ft. robot arm as she sent a mangled solar-energy panel off into space like a falconer letting her bird take wing. "Dum dum dum dum," hummed a relaxed Tom Akers, as he and Thornton eased corrective lenses, ensconced in their 700-lb., refrigerator-size...
...ballet. Unlike last year's rescue of Intelsat-6, in which astronauts literally grabbed the satellite when the shuttle's robot arm couldn't grasp it, the Hubble repairs require more agility than physical strength. Patience and caution are also crucial to the mission's success. Says astronaut Kathryn Thornton, who will install the planetary camera: "If you all on the ground think it's taking a long time to put it into position, well, it's got to be that...
...toughest job may be replacing the solar panels -- two 40-ft.-long "wings" that provide power to the telescope. During the full day needed for this task, Thornton and Akers will precisely follow hundreds of steps, using bolts, electrical connectors, Velcro and 84 sq. yds. of plastic. And somehow they must do it all while swathed in their thick space suits -- a condition astronauts jokingly compare with being mummified...
...four astronauts who will venture outside Endeavour to work on the Hubble -- Musgrave, Jeffrey Hoffman, Thomas Akers and Kathryn Thornton -- are all veteran spacewalkers. Thornton, a nuclear physicist and mother of five, went on the 1992 mission that repaired the Intelsat communications satellite. On that flight, the 5-ft. 4-in. K.T., as the other astronauts call her, wasn't involved in wrestling the three-ton satellite into the shuttle's payload bay. (It eventually took three men to do that job.) This time, though, she will play a key role: installing the Hubble's corrective lenses. They will...
...anecdote tells just how intertwined his family life and his passion for sports have become. The blood-lines are there--his father, Al, was a defensive back at Boston College; an uncle, Tommy Thornton, quarterbacked for Boston University and now is a high school coach in Maine...