New Crew Enters Space Station

S P A C E  C E N T E R, Houston, March 10 -- The international space station'sreplacement crew entered its new home for the first time todayafter space shuttle Discovery docked with the orbitingoutpost.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev and American astronauts Jim Vossand Susan Helms will take over for a weary three-member crew thathas been aboard Alpha for 4 months. They will move into Alpha overthe next several days, conducting their first spacewalk today.

Usachev, who will become the station's new commander, was thefirst to enter the space station after hatches between thespacecraft were opened. He shook hands with current commander BillShepherd.

Jumping For Joy?

The crews hugged, shook hands and slapped each other on theback. Usachev did several flips in the station's roomy Destinyscience lab that was delivered last month.

Shepherd, a Naval officer, welcomed his visitors by followingthe etiquette of the high seas and ringing a ship's bell.

"Welcome to Yuri, Susan and Jim in their new home," MissionControl said.

The new crew was joined aboard Discovery by four otherastronauts and an Italian module filled with 5 tons of equipmentand supplies.

"It was really great to see 10 astronauts and cosmonauts allgathered in the U.S. lab on the station and happily greeting eachother. That was a lot of fun to watch," said lead flight directorJohn Shannon.

Mechanical Glitch

The 235-mile-high docking above the South Pacific southeast ofAustralia was delayed about an hour because of a minor problem —one of the station's two giant solar wings would not lock intoplace after being repositioned for the linkup.

A latch on the solar wing didn't deploy properly and anotherlatch on the wing was used instead to secure it in place. A faultylatch motor might have caused the problem.

Flight controllers repeatedly drove the latches back open andclosed until they finally locked in place.

During the delay, Discovery remained at least 400 feet away fromAlpha as the two spacecraft zoomed around Earth. The concern, atleast initially, was that the shuttle thrusters might damage thefragile wings if they were loose. The electricity-producing solarwings, installed by shuttle astronauts in December, stretch 240feet from tip to tip.