CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The first railroad in space hit a snag during its inaugural run on Monday and NASA (">( news - ">news - web sites) suspended its test of the International Space Station (">( news - ">news - web sites) rail system.
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The railroad takes a chapter from the Industrial Age but it was a Space Age problem that halted the test, a software glitch that put the nine-foot trolley into safe mode after it had moved about 17-ft along its 32-ft of track.

"As you can imagine. We're having a big discussion," Mission Control told the astronauts.

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Later it said ground controllers could not produce a quick answer and told the astronauts to move on to other work.

The Mobile Transporter, as it is known, may not be as grand as the Orient Express but it costs a lot more -- $190 million.
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Ultimately, the trolley will have a run of more than 300 ft along a truss under construction atop the space station.

Its purpose is to move the station's giant robot arm, a kind of construction crane with a computer brain, from one work site to another as construction continues on the orbiting outpost.
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The problem that cropped up during Monday's test came after the railcar had latched itself down at one of the work sites.

The space trolley has a top speed of about 1-inch per second but NASA did not want to open it up on this test run, so astronaut Carl Walz, a member of the station's resident crew, operating the trolley from inside, kept the speed to a modest 1/10-inch per second.
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When finished, the truss will be the longest fixed structure in space and sport about an acre of solar panels sending electrical power throughout the station.

Soon, a handcart for astronauts will be added to the rail system, helping spacewalkers move tools and equipment from the station airlock to the various worksites.
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The centerpiece of the truss, known as the S-Zero segment, rode to space last week aboard the space shuttle Atlantis (news - web sites) and was installed by teams of spacewalking astronauts.

The truss will grow to 130 ft by the end of the year as two new segments are added by shuttle crews.