Steve MacLean Becomes Second Canadian To Walk In Space
Posted September 13, 2006 12:00 pm.
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The York University-schooled MacLean started his spacewalk at about 5:05am after waking up to a Canadian rock classic, Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Taking Care of Business, which Mission Control played to get them pumped up for the day.
“We’ll be taking care of business getting the solar arrays prepared,” MacLean said in response.
The solar arrays MacLean referred to are a US$372 million addition to the space station – the focus of Atlantis’s 11-day mission. MacLean and fellow crew member Dan Burbank worked to release the two arrays from the shuttle.
They had to be securely bolted down and insulated for the launch and now must be released and attached to the space station. Once completed, the solar arrays will always face the sun as the station orbits the Earth and will eventually supply a quarter of its power. The apparatus weighs 17 tonnes.
The astronauts’ work, spread out over three spacewalks, was expected to be tedious and repetitive – involving unscrewing and removing locks and restraints with their bulky spacesuit gloves.
For the second time a bolt was lost in the process – but there was no indication it did any damage. Officials say it simply floated away.
The astronauts were treated to a beautiful sight over their six hours of work when they saw the sun rise from space – something a fortunate few will ever get to see.
MacLean, 51, was selected to be one of the first Canadian astronauts in 1983. He first flew on Columbia in 1992. The laser physicist, who hails from Ottawa, is now the second Canadian to have walked in space. Chris Hadfield was the first Canadian to do so in 2001.
MacLean was chief science adviser for the space station for two years before being made director of the Canadian astronaut program.
His wife Nadine and three children Jean Phillippe, 16, Catherine, 14, and Michele, 13, watched his spacewalk from Montreal.
The walks will continue on Friday, but MacLean will be getting a very different vantage point then. He’ll remain inside while his colleagues complete the work.
How do astronauts prepare for spacewalks?
Steve MacLean Background
Age: 51
Hometown: Ottawa
Family: Married, three children
Education: MacLean earned a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in physics from York University in Toronto. He was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, studying laser physics under the Nobel laureate A.L. Schawlow.
Space experience: He was picked as one of the first six Canadian astronauts in 1983 and flew on his first shuttle mission aboard Columbia in 1992. He was chief science adviser for the international space station and director general of the Canadian Astronaut Program in the mid-1990s.
Mission highlights: He’s the first Canadian to operate the space station’s Canadian-built robotic arm and only the second Canadian to go on a spacewalk. Chris Hadfield did it in 2001. “I feel privileged at operating the robotic arm,” he admits. “I was around all those guys who helped work on it.”
What you didn’t know about him: Thirty years ago MacLean was on the Canadian National Gymnastics team trying to make the Olympics, an experience that served him well as an astronaut about to perform his first spacewalk. “It’s similar in the sense of the discipline that’s required, the attention to details that’s required to be an athlete or a spacewalking astronaut,” he reveals.
