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Last December, when astronauts on the space shuttle Columbia had to abort their space walk because the door to the hatch was jammed, gears were at the heart of the problem. It seems that a screw fell from its hole and became embedded in the gears of the hatch, probably during liftoff, according to NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham. The loose screws were discovered after the gearbox was removed from the hatch and taken apart.

In January the Atlantis was on its way to meet the Russian space station Mir and pick up astronaut John Blaha, who had been on the station since last September. To make sure the same thing didn't happen again, before launch, technicians took apart the hatch on Atlantis, checked the gearboxes and the screws and applied a coat of Loc-Tite to the screws, just in case. The ounce of prevention worked. The hatch opened without a hitch, John Blaha wasn't stranded with his Russian friends and a multi-million dollar screw-up (sorry about that) was avoided. Sometimes, the down-to-earth methods are the best after all.

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