It had been more than five years since an American walked in space, but the crew of the shuttle Atlantis did not seem rusty. On a first, unscheduled 4 1/ 2-hour jaunt, astronauts Jerry Ross and Jay Apt freed a balky antenna on an observatory satellite, permitting the $617 million device to be placed in orbit. The astronauts later tested sleds that haul large objects through space on a rail.
The success of last week's mission, however, did not settle the ongoing debate about the value of manned spaced flights. NASA officials have long insisted that human crews are vital because...
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