Outfitted in bulky white spacesuits, Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria floated into Discovery's cargo bay about 10:15 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (14:15 GMT) as the shuttle was flying some 240 miles (384 kilometers) above Earth.

Crew mates inside the shuttle gave them a musical send-off, pumping up the volume on a song from one of the spacewalkers' favorite movies: Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery.

"That was awesome," Wisoff said.

"Absolutely," added Lopez-Alegria. "Shagadelic."

The two spacewalkers then began to make their way to a pallet-like carrier holding the so-called "Pressurized Mating Adapter" in the rear of the shuttle's payload bay.

With pistol-grip cordless screwdrivers in hand, the astronauts will unfasten 16 bolts securing the docking port to its cargo bay carrier.

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More construction

Relying on the eyes of the spacewalkers and camera views from a sophisticated computerized television system, Wakata then will hoist the docking port up out of the bay and swing it around the backside of the station.

Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria will make their way to the intended berthing spot to help Wakata put the new docking port in place.

The arrow points to the Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 that is to be installed on the Space Station today.

Once that's done, the spacewalkers will route electrical and data transmission cables between the port and the $300 million Unity module, which is a pressurized passageway that leads to the station's crew quarters.

The installation job is key to clearing the way for an outpost construction mission now scheduled for launch aboard shuttle Endeavour November 30.

Endeavour won't be able to park at the current port because the tail of the spaceship then would block the planned installation of a giant pair of power-producing solar arrays.

The solar panels are to be temporarily mounted atop a 9-ton metal truss that was attached to the Unity module by Discovery's crew on Saturday.

Once unfurled in space, the massive American-made arrays will have a wingspan of 240 feet (73 meters).

The new docking port also will provide a parking place for shuttle Atlantis on a mission now scheduled for launch in mid January. The cargo for that flight - a U.S. lab that will serve as the scientific heart of the station - is to be attached to the port where Discovery is now docked.

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Two of Four

Monday's spacewalk is the second of four planned for Discovery's mission - and the eighth of 165 that will be required to raise the growing outpost between now and 2001.

Mission Discovery

Look here for the latest news from NASA's STS-92.

Chatty astronauts Leroy Chiao and Bill McArthur whistled their way through the first walk Sunday, wiring up the new station truss segment and stowing tools for future construction crews.

Two fragile communications antennas also were put in place during an operation considered one of the toughest station assembly challenges to date.

Said NASA lead spacewalk engineer Daryl Schuck: "That was one of the scariest, I think, we've been presented with in a long time."

The time-critical job had to be carried out before extreme-cold orbital temperatures could damage the antennas' delicate electronic circuitry.

Chiao and McArthur will perform the third spacewalk Tuesday, installing a pair of bulky electrical voltage converters on the new station truss.

The final spacewalk - to be carried out by Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria Wednesday - will include test-flights of jet backpacks that outpost construction workers would use to fly back to the station if inadvertently cast adrift in orbit.

The crew also will spend a day inside the station, delivering supplies for the outpost's first full-time tenants, who are due to take up residence at the station in early November.

The astronauts are to depart the station Friday and then land back at Kennedy Space Center at 2:10 p.m. EDT (18:10 GMT) next Sunday.