Fixing the shuttle

Astronauts on space walk to fix shuttle. :

"During about seven hours, the two men will attach a stowage platform and a material science experiment to the ISS and retrieve a faulty heat dissipater, before trying to remove the fibres."

7 hours to fix two possible lethal fibres! A twenty second job on earth. It is so scary. Going out there for 7 hours and with robot arms and forces and hacksaws. No, actually, they have platforms to retrieve and it is just astounding they CAN go out there and so these things. Things we will take for granted in the future because these people have done the ground breaking work today. TODAY they are out there going about things in a way we shall soon find very old fashioned. Like cranking a car engine. It seemed so important when men got out of the car with that big lump of iron to crank the engine to start the car. These people are so amazing . I hope their repairs keep them safe and then they can thank themselves. It's about being in control of their own destiny like when you effect your own repairs on things at home. They all seem so very down to earth and normal about all of this and their relationship with NASA seems to be very routine and equitable. Before it was always NASA was up there and the astronauts were just another bit of the equipment that went into space. Now the astonauts are part of a team and that's indicative of how the space programme has grown. I hope it's a big huge success. I shall be a nervous wreck on Monday waiting to hear if they are all okay.