HOUSTON -- The International Space
Station (ISS) grew a bit larger Tuesday after two spacewalking astronauts helped
install a new piece of the orbital laboratory's metallic backbone.
Discovery astronauts Robert
Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang, aided by
their robotic arm wielding crewmates, successfully attached the two-ton Port
5 (P5) spacer segment to the portside end of the outpost's main truss
during a six-hour, 36-minute spacewalk.
"That is beautiful," Curbeam said as the P5 spacer moved into place.
Tuesday's spacewalk began at 3:31
p.m. EST (2031 GMT) with Beamer and Fuglesang
stepping out of the space station's Quest
airlock as the outpost and their docked shuttle Discovery passed 220
miles (354 kilometers) over central Europe.
"It feels good, let me tell you," Curbeam said just after stepping into space to start the
fourth spacewalk of his astronaut career.
Fuglesang, a European Space Agency astronaut
and Sweden's
first spaceflyer, made his first spacewalk during
the extravehicular activity (EVA). To mark the event, flight controllers awoke
Discovery's crew Tuesday morning with the Swedish band Abba's song 'Waterloo' chosen for Fuglesang.
Inside the space station, Curbeam's fellow STS-116
mission specialists Joan
Higginbotham and Sunita Williams, now an ISS crewmember, wielded the ISS
robotic arm to maneuver the $11 million P5 truss into position.
Discovery pilot William
Oefelein choreographed the spacewalk from the
shuttle's flight deck.
About the only hitch was a lost
extension for Fuglesang's pistol grip tool, which
apparently slipped free of its mooring on his spacesuit work bench.
"I was looking around, I didn't see
it," Fuglesang told flight controllers. "But, of
course, it's dark here."
STS-116
commander Mark Polansky replayed video from Fuglesang's spacesuit helmet camera after the spacewalk to
help flight controllers try to track the lost tool.
During the spacewalk, mission
controllers told Polansky that a focused
inspection of Discovery's heat shield will not be required Wednesday to
help engineers determine the spacecraft's health.
"Well, that's outstanding," Polansky said.
Space station grows
The P5 truss adds another
4,110-pound (1,864-kilogram) to the more than 200-ton space station and sets
the stage for the future relocation of the Port 6 truss.
Maneuvering P5 into position at the
end of the Port 3/Port
4 (P3/P4) truss segment appeared to be tricky
but flawless, with Curbeam and Fugelsang giving verbal updates of where Higginbotham and
Williams should move the new space station piece. At times the truss segment
was within inches of a sensitive electronics box.
"You're eyes are calibrated like
nobody else's, Beamer," Higginbotham told Curbeam.
The P5 segment will serve as a
structural bridge between two massive trusses whose solar arrays make up part
of the space station's power plant. Without the new P5 element, the older
array-laden Port
6 truss atop the ISS would be unable to move to its permanent berth on the
station's port side near two newer
solar wings on the P3/P4 segment.
P5's successful installation
prompted some celebration aboard the ISS.
"We didn't want to scream on the
loop," Higginbotham said, referring to the communications channel used in
today's spacewalk. "But we're very happy."
Curbeam and Fuglesang
even managed to perform a series of extra P5-related jobs, included wiring up
several utility connections and releasing launch locks on the truss' empty end
to prepare for the future arrival of the P6 solar arrays.
Other tasks
Among the other chores on Curbeam and Fuglesang's orbital
to-do list were the relocation of a robotic arm
grapple fixture, as well as the repair of a video camera at the opposite end of
the space station's main truss.
The grapple fixture's move required
a bit of extra elbow grease so that Fuglesang could
remove some hard-to reach-bolts.
Curbeam also had some trouble removing the
faulty camera, which had to be pointing straight upward to unlatch its locks.
"Wiggling it is
not working," Curbeam told flight controllers.
"Ok, no go on the wiggle," they
replied.
After some troubleshooting, Curbeam and Fuglesang
successfully installed the camera, completing their primary spacewalk goals.
Tuesday's spacewalk marked the 46th
spacewalk based from the ISS and the 84th dedicated to station
assembly and maintenance, NASA officials said. It is the first of three planned
EVAs for the STS-116
mission.
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