Sticky Hatch Interrupts Spacewalk Stroll Outside Put On Hold When Muscle Power Fails To Open Door

Two astronauts about to go out on a spacewalk Thursday night encountered a new problem - a stuck hatch.

The astronauts pushed with all their might - upside down and right-side up - but could not open the hatch on space shuttle Columbia.

“It just doesn’t seem to want to move,” Tamara Jernigan said.

The hatch was still stuck 1-1/2 hours after the spacewalk was to begin.

Jernigan and Thomas Jones were supposed to float out into the open cargo bay for a 6-1/2-hour spacewalk to test a 17-1/2-foot crane and other tools that will be used to build the future international space station.

NASA wanted to see how easy it would be for an orbital construction worker to move unwieldy equipment like a space station battery.

Jernigan and Jones could not fully rotate the handle on the hatch, which separated the indoor chamber in which they floated from the open payload bay.

With their bulky gloves and spacesuits, the astronauts found it difficult if not impossible to apply much force in the cramped chamber, or airlock.

“I’m pushing as hard as I can,” Jones said.

At one point, Jones stood on Jernigan so she could apply more force to the handle. Then she put her feet on the ceiling and tried that way.

They removed the handle several times and put it back on, but that didn’t work either.

“We apologize for recommending the obvious, but please confirm that you are going in a clockwise direction,” Mission Control asked.

Replied Jones, sounding frustrated: “Confirmed.”

“It far exceeds anything we’ve ever seen in training,” Jones added. “It doesn’t seem to be budging.”

Neither Jernigan nor Jones has ever performed a spacewalk. They were so eager to get started that they climbed into their spacesuits an hour early. The trouble with the hatch cropped up just minutes before they were supposed to float outside.