U.S. part of space station in operation

Five U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut opened a new outpostin orbit Thursday.

Carrying video cameras, flashlights and a lantern, the crew ofthe space shuttle Endeavour opened a hatch into the darkened U.S.segment of the international space station, under construction.Endeavour Cmdr. Robert Cabana and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalevsimultaneously squeezed their way through the hatch.

Their first act was to turn on the lights."It's just so nice inside," Cabana said.The astronauts installed air ducts and fans and also planned tobring aboard clothes and other supplies for the first permanent crew.The space station consists of only two rooms so far and is stillmore than five years from completion. Its first permanent residents- Krikalev and two other men - won't even move in for another year orso. But for the first time, NASA has a space station of its own,with people on board.As Krikalev worked at replacing a faulty battery charger insideZarya, the Russian module, his shuttle crewmates installedelectronics for Unity's antennas.A third and final spacewalk to wrap up work outside the stationis scheduled for Saturday. The next component of the space stationis due to arrive late next summer.The heart of the outpost - a joint project of the United States,Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil and 11 European nations - will be sevenlaboratory modules where rotating crews of researchers will conduct awide variety of scientific experiments.Coupled with a U.S.-built crew quarters and a Russian commandand control module, the outpost will have as much pressurized spaceas two jumbo jets.