This
story was updated at 2:15 a.m. EDT.
Two spacewalking astronauts primed the International Space Station Saturday for
future shuttle visits Saturday despite dealing with a wayward spacesuit camera
that almost came loose late in their work.
The
helmet-mounted video camera and lights on Swedish astronaut Christer
Fuglesang's spacesuit popped free from their mooring, but luckily never fully
came unplugged. The glitch occurred late in what was an otherwise smooth
seven-hour spacewalk, with Fuglesang and crewmate Danny Olivas accomplishing
nearly all of their station maintenance tasks.
Olivas
managed to attach a tether on helmet camera before it drifted away and handed it back to Fuglesang for safekeeping. Mission
Control noticed the loose camera when views from Fuglesang's spacesuit began to
shift wildly.
"We thought
you were doing tremendous
acrobatics," Mission Control radioed the spacewalkers.
It was the
third spacewalk in five days for Discovery shuttle astronauts, who launched
last week on a 13-day mission to deliver a new crewmember and supplies to
the space station. Mission Control packed the excursion with odd jobs to repair
station systems and prepare for future construction.
Fuglesang
was wrestling with a stubborn power cable connector that refused to plug in -
the spacewalk's only other hitch - when the camera glitch occurred. Crewmate
Patrick Forrester, who choreographed the work from inside Discovery, told him
to stand down for fear of shaking the camera completely loose.
Without the
aid of his helmet camera and attached lights, Fuglesang returned to the space
station's airlock before the sun set as the station passed over the Earth's
night side.
"Christer,
no need to rush but hurry every chance you get," Forrester said. "Sunset in
about six minutes." Fuglesang made it back inside safely and was ready to use
his dismounted helmet lights as a flashlight if needed.
Fuglesang said
he may have bumped the camera against part of the station to set it free. But Zeb
Scoville, lead spacewalk officer for Discovery's flight, said the system is
designed to prevent that and an unseated latch is more likely the culprit.
Spacewalk
finale
Olivas and
Christer Fuglesang began the seven-hour, one-minute spacewalk at 4:39 p.m. EDT
(2039 GMT) as the station flew 220 miles (354 km) over western Argentina.
Olivas, the
mission's lead spacewalker, and Fuglesang made quick work of deploying a
fold-out platform on the station's starboard side. The platform will serve as a
storage point for large spare parts due to be shipped to the station during a
November shuttle flight.
They also
installed a pair of new Global Positioning System antennas and replaced a
failed component in the station's attitude control system, as well as a broken
circuit breaker box. Mission Control tested the replaced devices while the
spacewalkers were still outside and declared the repairs a success.
"That's
awesome, that's great news," Olivas said.
The
spacewalkers also uncoiled and installed two 60-foot (18-meter) power and data
cables so they can support a new space station room, called Tranquility, which
is due to be delivered to the outpost next year. It was one of those power
connectors that refused to lock in place, so the astronauts secured it down and
moved on.
Space
station flight director Heather Rarick said astronauts on a future mission will
try to connect the power cable and, if necessary, draw up a backup plan to get power
to Tranquility. The new room is not slated to arrive at the station until
February 2010, so there's no rush, she added.
"We
definitely have some time," Rarick said.
Shuttle
mission's homestretch
Saturday's
orbital work marked the 133rd spacewalk dedicated to space
station construction and the fifth career excursion for both Olivas and
Fuglesang. Olivas ended the day with 34 hours and 28 minutes of total
spacewalking time under his belt while Fuglesang finished with 31 hours and 54
minutes.
With five
spacewalks to his name, Fuglesang - who represents the European Space Agency on
Discovery's crew - is now the most experienced spacewalker who is not American
or Russian. The world spacewalk record is held by Russian cosmonaut Anatoly
Solovyov, who performed 16 career spacewalks.
Discovery
astronauts spent a total of 20 hours and 15 minutes working outside the
station during their three spacewalks. They replaced a massive ammonia coolant
tank and retrieved old experiments on the other two excursions.
Inside the
space station Saturday, astronauts continued packing up the 21-foot (6.4-meter) long
cargo module that they brought to the space station with trash and other equipment
no longer needed on the orbiting lab. They also replaced a jammed bolt, one of
16 bolts securing the cargo module to the station, during a five-hour repair.
On Sunday,
the astronauts will finish packing up the cargo module and prepare to return it
to Discovery's payload bay. The shuttle is due to undock from the space station
Tuesday and land in Florida Thursday evening.
SPACE.com
is providing complete coverage of Discovery's STS-128 mission to the
International Space Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik and Staff Writer
Clara Moskowitz in New York. Click
here for shuttle mission updates and a link to NASA TV.
advertisement
