Array

HOUSTON, Sep 16 (Reuters) Shuttle Atlantis astronauts said today that, despite a few glitches, they had gotten NASA off to a good start in its push to complete construction of the half-finished International Space Station by 2010.

They lost a couple of bolts, struggled to remove another, overcame a software problem and had a brief spacesuit issue during three spacewalks, but still accomplished their main task of installing a massive new solar power unit, the first major addition to the station in almost four years.

Atlantis is flying the first space station assembly mission since NASA grounded the shuttles after the 2003 Columbia disaster.

It arrived at the station on Monday carrying a 17 1/2 tonne truss segment that contained the folded up solar panels.

By Thursday, the task of attaching the truss and unfurling the solar array to its full 240-foot length was completed. It will double the amount of electricity available on the space outpost when activated in December.

''I think it's certainly a good start,'' said flight commander Brent Jett in a news interview from space. ''We had a few small problems, but the team on the ground did a wonderful job resolving them. I think it bodes well for the future.'' He said lessons learned during the flight can be useful on future missions to deliver more solar panels, large truss segments and bulky modules.

NASA plans to fly at least 14 more shuttle missions to finish the $100 billion space station by 2010, when the agency will retire the aging shuttles.

They were grounded following Columbia while NASA spent more than $1 billion on modifications to make the spacecraft safer.

Atlantis' launch on Sept. 9 followed two test flights that gave NASA confidence it had succeeded.

Columbia, after suffering heat shield damage at launch that went undetected, disintegrated while returning to Earth on Feb.

1, 2003, killing the seven astronauts on board.

The astronauts on Atlantis and the space station transferred cargo between the two space vessels today but mostly took it easy as they got ready for Atlantis' departure Sunday.

The shuttle has to leave to make room for a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that will launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan late Sunday night.

It will carry Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, US astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and space tourist Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-born American.

The Soyuz is due to dock with the space station on Wednesday, a few hours before Atlantis is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Reuters SAM RS2259