Alarms interrupts station ceremony

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., June 10 (UPI) -- A space station smoke alarm, probably set off by flying dust, interrupted an official change-of-command ceremony Monday, marking the handover of the outpost's operation from its longest-serving crew to their newly arrived replacements.

Outgoing station commander Yuri Onufrienko handled the calls from the station's Moscow operations center, as the alarm went off in the Russian-controlled Zarya module.

The ceremony was abandoned a few moments after it began as the station and visiting shuttle crewmembers scattered to investigate the alarm. The warning quickly proved to be a false alarm.

"Murphy's (law) is alive and well," commented lead flight director Rick LaBrode in a news conference later. "We don't' want to take it lightly, but they were right in the middle of the ceremony."

The six American, three Russian and one French astronauts regrouped later to conduct the ceremony and relayed a videotape of the event to NASA's Mission Control Center.

"I'm happy to say the ... lab is in excellent condition and is soon to be even better," said astronaut Dan Bursch, who will be returning to Earth next week along with Onufrienko and Carl Walz. "Good luck to Expedition 5 and I hope your journey is as rewarding and fulfilling as it was for me."

The crews spent most of the day loading supplies into the station, packing up trash and clutter for return aboard the shuttle and preparing for the second spacewalk of the mission.

Among the items transferred Monday were two key equipment racks, the European-built Microgravity Sciences Glovebox and an EXPRESS rack, designed to host a variety of interchangeable experiments in the Destiny science laboratory.

The equipment is among the 5,600 pounds of gear stashed in the Leonardo cargo canister that the shuttle hauled to the station. The Italian-built canister, one of three being used to transport cargo to and from the outpost, will not be flown again until next year, as the shuttle's payload bays already are fully booked carting new truss segments and solar arrays to expand the outpost.

Also Monday, astronauts Peggy Whitson and Carl Walz used the station's robot arm to position a new platform for the crane onto a mobile base. During a spacewalk slated to begin at 11:08 a.m. EDT Tuesday, shuttle astronauts Franklin Chang-Diaz and Philippe Perrin plan to bolt the platform into position and connect power and communications cables. The mobile base will allow the arm to be moved along a truss, that eventually will span 356 feet in length, so that it can assist with future construction and maintenance tasks.